Tag: music lessons

Studio Business

How I Onboard New Piano Students

Joy Morin

Welcoming a new student into your piano studio always feels special. A new inquiry lands in your inbox, you meet a bright-eyed beginner or an eager returning student, and suddenly you’re about to embark on a musical journey together. Exciting, right?

But between that initial spark of interest and the first official lesson, there’s an administrative process to navigate. And if you’re anything like me, you want every family to feel welcomed, informed, and excited about the journey ahead.

That’s where having an onboarding system makes all the difference. With clear steps to follow, things are less likely to fall through the cracks. You can focus less on remembering administrative details and more on what matters most — connecting with your new students and planning how you’ll help them grow as a musicians.

In this article, I’ll walk you through my simple six-step process for onboarding new piano students. Whether you’re looking to refine your current system or build one from scratch, I hope you’ll find some ideas you can adapt for your own studio.

PS: In this article, I will touch on how Notion — a free “everything app” I think everyone should know about — has become a one-stop organizational system for piano studio operations and most other aspects of my life, both personal and professional. It’s been a game-changer for managing all the moving parts of running a music studio! Intrigued? Learn more here about the next offering of Organize Your Life With Notion, a 3-part online workshop for music professionals offered by Amy Chaplin and myself.

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Practicing

NEW: Musician’s Practice Planner

Joy Morin

Hi there! Here is a quick blog post to tell you about a project I’ve been creating and testing for over three years: an assignment notebook I call the Musician’s Practice Planner. I’m pleased to announce it is now available for order in hardcopy!

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Studio Business

5 Steps for Successful Interview Lessons with Music Students

Joy Morin

Interview lesson, meet-and-greet, intro lesson, trial lesson, consultation—whatever you choose to call them, introductory sessions are a great way to jumpstart your potentials students’ success in music lessons. This article presents five steps to help you make the most of your interview lessons with new music students.

Step 1: Define Your Goals for the Interview Lesson

Before conducting an interview lesson, it is important to determine your goals for an interview lesson. For many music teachers, these sessions are useful for setting expectations for their music studio and determining if a student-teacher fit is possible. They allow you to build rapport, communicate your expectations for practice, behavior, payments and other studio policies and procedures, and assess the student’s goals, needs and level of interest.

Additionally, an interview lesson can also be an opportunity to:

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Questions, Technology

Forum Q&A | Piano Lessons via Skype

Joy Morin

Last week’s Forum Q&A post was about saying “no” to potential students, and we received some great responses!  Click here to check them out.  Here’s today’s discussion topic:

Advances in technology over the past few years have changed the way we live in many ways.  Online video conferencing services, for example, allow us to chat face-to-face with friends and family across the globe….and conduct piano lessons?!  With internet services becoming faster and audio compression quality also improving, offering lessons via video conferencing services such as Skype is becoming a more and more viable option.  It certainly is something for piano teachers to consider.

So, I’ve been doing some research to see what I could unearth about the set-up, feasibility, and success of Skype lessons.  Here’s what I found:

So, what are your thoughts?

Do you think Skype is a viable option as a way for independent music teachers to offer lessons?  What are the biggest adjustments or changes that the teacher and student would have to make in order for Skype lessons to be successful?  What pros and cons can you identify?  Would you ever offer lessons via Skype? 

Leave your comments below.

Update from Joy: I’ve decided to take the plunge and start offering live online piano lessons!  Check out the link to read more about me as a teacher and about how online piano lessons work.