Music Teacher's Helper Blog

Here’s a fifteen minute exercise guaranteed to make your teaching practice more successful.  Take out a sheet of paper (or open a new word document) and describe your ideal student.  Be as detailed as you possibly can.  How old are they?  Are they male or female?  What’s their skill level?  How much do they practice?  How early or late do they show up to their lesson?  How often are their lessons?  Why style of music do they enjoy learning?  What’s their learning style?  What are their musical goals?  How’s their personal hygiene?  How do they pay for lessons?  Leave nothing to chance.  Don’t worry about being realistic either.  Describe your absolutely ideal student, not the best student you currently have or think you’ll ever have.  Pretend you’ve died and gone to music teacher heaven.

Finished?  Great.  Here’s what happens next.

You’ll Begin Attracting Ideal Students

Warning: this section smells a little “new agey.”  If that’s not your thing, feel free to take this section with a grain of salt or skip on to the next section entirely.

There is a particular worldview (which coincidentally happens to be my worldview) that stresses the power of intent.  The things you spend time thinking about are the things you will physically attract into your life.  If, for example, when I say “student” you think of 6-year old Steve standing on your doorstep without his book, without having practiced, and with his finger up his nose, I’m willing to bet a large portion of the students you attract fit that description.  If, on the other hand, when I say “student” you think of Anna, who has practiced, has her book, and is holding a check for you, I’m willing to bet most of your students fit that description.   By writing a description of your ideal student, you will be spending more time thinking about (and thus attracting) those ideal students.

The great thing about the power of intent is that you don’t have to take my word for it.  Try it for yourself.  If you don’t like your current student roster or the potential students you seem to be attracting, try spending just five minutes a day thinking about your ideal student (that’s roughly 0.3% of your day).  Think about what you would teach that student, how the lessons would go, and how happy you’d be at the end of the lesson.  Then, after a certain length of time (maybe a month or two), see if your student roster hasn’t improved somewhat.

You’ll Focus Your Marketing

Maybe your picture is on the cover of your local phone book, in every music classroom within 50 miles of your studio, and/or plastered on ten billboards across town.  But maybe not.  We all have to make decisions about how and where to spend our marketing resources (both time and money).  Once you have your ideal student in mind, you can stop wasting your market resources in places your ideal student won’t notice you.

Is your ideal student an adult?  Stop emailing the middle school band directors.  Is your ideal student male?  Ignore that offer for cross-promotion with the dance studio.  In fact, stop all marketing that’s not directed at students you actually want to teach.  You’ll be amazed at what this does for your studio (and your mental health!).

You’ll Begin Saying “No”

Figuring out what you want in a student also means figuring out what you DON’T want in a student.  If you dream of teaching experienced adult students with whom you can get a drink after the lesson, you can begin saying “no” to the families wanting lessons for their preschoolers.  Likewise, if you love teaching beginning music lessons to preschoolers, you can begin saying “no” to the 45 year old semi-pro looking for more inspiration.

I always keep two ideas in mind which help me say “no” to potential students.  First, you never have to say “no,” you can simply refer them to a teacher more suited to their needs (you are networking with other teachers and have their contact info, aren’t you?).  Second, every time slot you fill with a less than ideal student is one less time slot you’ll have available when an ideal student comes along.  There are only so many students you can teach in a week.  Make sure they’re the ones you want to be teaching.

Your Turn

Has anyone else already had success doing this?  Share your story in the comments below.