Private Lesson Student Retention/Irritants/Gaiety

[Jess Haney]

I had a student I taught on the weekends that I would drive 30 mins to his house for a lesson to find out his mother had not even got him out of bed yet. Or he would have just woken up 20 mins before. I politely told the parent I dont think this is going to work. Another I still currently have goes through a "funk" every now and then and is like just a warm body in a chair. Then other days he is chompin at the bit to do his lesson.

[Alex C]

My wife used to charge the students for a month of lessons collected at the beginning of the month. Any lessons they missed without notice was already paid. Any lesson she missed was credited to the next month.

I think it's a great approach but hard to implement when there are a lot of young, otherwise unemployed musicians who'll work without pay in the hopes of getting something.