Teaching music lessons is a fun way to share a skill and encourage budding musicians, and staying organized will help you save time to spend doing what you love — teaching! Let's look at tips and ideas to schedule music lessons so you can build your teaching business.
Preparing to Teach
- Establish a Location - The first thing you'll want to do before starting to schedule lessons is to establish a safe, clean, somewhat soundproof location that is easy to find. You can rent a room at a local music store, which comes with the added bonus of free advertising and foot traffic. Or you can rent your own space in an easy-to-find location. Lastly, you could teach out of your students' homes and charge a premium for mileage or travel time.
- Prep Contracts - You won't want to start taking students without having a good contract in place that states your policies, pricing, expectations and cancellation policy. The most common issue you will have is how to handle missed lessons, so prepare for how you'd like to handle this. Write your contract in plain English using friendly language and ask all new clients to sign and date a copy for their file.
- Choose a Scheduling Tool - You'll need to be punctual and consistent with your lessons. Use SignUpGenius to track lesson time slots and payments.
- Have Extras on Hand - Kids will forget books, so keeping a copy of one book per level or have copied sheet music pages for each level. Keep an expandable file folder full of copied music for different holidays, popular songs and more to use as extras and to cover lessons when books are forgotten.
- Consider Rewards - What will you use to mark completion and celebrate achievements? A simple sticker on passed songs will lift morale. A certificate for finished levels with a small prize will be so exciting. These small extras add up to big wins in motivation and excitement, particularly for small children.
