Music Teacher's Helper Blog

I hardly consider myself a devotee of Stephen Covey, but I thought it might be fun to apply his habits to my piano teaching. While I take self-improvement books with a grain of salt, I’ll admit that I have had some good ideas for my studio as a result.

The first habit is “Be Proactive,” or, stating it differently, “Don’t be reactive.” It’s a habit that hits at the core of how we perceive our teaching world. Are we the ones in control of our thoughts and actions or do we allow circumstances to make or break us? Do we waste our time complaining about circumstances, or have we learned to spend most of our energy on things we can influence and control?

So what does being proactive look like?

Do you have a student that makes you dread your teaching day?

Being reactive means you dread the student coming, you endure the half hour she sits on the bench, and you complain about her to your spouse that night.

Being proactive means accepting that you do have some control over the situation. Decide why the student makes your day hard. If the problem is that Isabelle practices 20 minutes between lessons and forgets to look at her notebook to figure out what to practice during that brief 20 minute period, you have a few choices. You can accept the status quo and be grateful for a student to fill the timeslot, thereby changing your attitude from negative to positive. You can have a conference with Isabelle’s parents and ask them what they can do to help her succeed by practicing consistently. You can email Isabelle’s parents a note from MTH during the lesson with the required practice assignments. You can make Isabelle’s lesson a partner lesson and hope that having another student with her will increase her desire to be prepared. You can drop Isabelle and find another student (YES! You really really can.)

Has the hard economic climate affected your studio negatively? Have you lost students or had to drop your prices?

Being reactive means you hunker down and wait for the economy to improve. You complain about your loss of income to those around you. You decide that parents now-a-days just don’t value a good music education.

Being proactive means you take a good long look at your studio and at your skills. Are you offering things in your studio that others around you are not (i.e. composition lessons, technology, fun performance opportunities)? Are you offering financial incentives to students who refer new students to your studio? Have you considered finding ways to justify raising your rates so you can make the same income with fewer students (like adding a theory lab or moving to a yearly tuition rate)? Are you learning new skills and putting your name into the marketplace by performing?

We all know teachers whose studios flourish despite economic downturns, who speak positively about their teaching load, who manage to do more with their time than others around them. We can all take a page from their book and learn to be proactive in our studios. When we actively look for solutions to the problems we face, teaching is more pleasant, our minds are more engaged, and our students get more out of their lessons as a result.