Hi,

I was just hoping for a bit of advice? Many of my students are exam focussed, and so I often have a good few entries each term. This term, I will be entering 20 for practical exams!

I have never charged any of my students an extra exam fee, they just pay the ABRSM fee and the accompaniment. However, I arrange the accompanist for them, arrange a rehearsal with the pianist and attend it myself, as well as obviously being there on the exam day at the centre, so each term, exams take a huge amount of my time.

Do any of you charge a little extra for exams to cover this time, or do you just take all this extra time as part of the job? If you do charge extra, can I be really cheeky and ask how much?

Thank you!

I accompany my own pupils, and don't charge for it. I regard it as one of the extra things they're paying for beyond the contact time each week, along with planning, preparation, professional development (in all its forms), practicing piano parts. (Alliteration not intended! ) If I were in your position, I'd regard the bureaucracy and time involved in exams as another element of this.

I know of at least one local teacher who adds a bit extra on for the exam admin. I don't know how much though, sorry.

I make a small charge for those I accompany myself - this arose because of occasionally having to cancel other work in order to be at the exam centre. I think I would find it hard to charge anything beyond that - I think I would consider the exam admin as part of the lesson fees.

I play sometimes for exam pupils of a local recorder teacher. She gives my name, phone number and my email address to the pupil (she emails me first to make sure I'm willing to do it) and then they must contact me to arrange a rehearsal. She doesn't attend the rehearsal(s), and she doesn't go to the exam either, as she is teaching. She accompanies her own pupils if they are Grade 1-5 so obviously is at the exam centre for those; I do the Grade 6-8 pupils for her.

I'm a bit ambivalent as to whether the teacher should attend the rehearsal with the accompanist. I'm not there to provide the accompaniment while the teacher teaches the pupil, and I need to work with the pupil on different things to that which the teacher does. Depends on the teacher, but sometimes if they do come to the rehearsal they just get in the way.

With 20 exam pupils I think I'd just give them the accompanist's details and tell them to arrange the rehearsal at a mutually convenient time. As to always being there for the exam, is it always necessary? Yes, probably with little ones and those doing their first exams, but maybe not with older pupils and those familiar with the way the exams are conducted. And yes, I think it is part of the job, but I don't think you need to do as much as you obviously do.

As a piano teacher I don't worry about accompanists. But I regard the admin as part of the job, and try to attend the exam session if I'm not teaching and if I have young or particularly nervous parents or pupils. I have found that some teenagers don't want me around and that's fine - when they're that age, I give them the choice if I'm free. I don't make any extra charge.

When my children needed accompanists, for the most part, we went to an accompanist who was recommended by the instrumental teacher. I sat in (as mum) and read a book while keeping an ear on what was going on and the accompanist and the son/daughter had their own conversation about what was needed. We did have one occasion where the accompanist went to my daughter's singing lesson - the singing teacher had booked her and had a morning of work with accompanist present at lessons of everyone who was doing an exam. But we were not impressed with this particular accompanist who, just before my daughter's exam, at the centre, was busy packing up her books to leave, although she hadn't yet played for my daughter. We had to remind her that there was one more - us!

If you have 20 pupils doing exams, I don't think it would be expected of you to attend their rehearsals with the accompanist - that must be quite a nightmare logistically.

I do some accompanying for a teacher in a neighbouring town. They arrange a morning/afternoon/day when all the candidates who are doing exams come one after the other and we do all the accompanying in one go. I have a sneaky suspicion that they probably make a small charge (disguised as a high fee for me!). In many ways, it's like having a lesson but with the accompanist. I'm not convinced it's the best way to rehearse - having your teacher tap the pulse all the way through is OK, but it's not going to happen on the day...

There don't seem to be anything you do that I didn't sort out myself for my exams (my teacher just passed on phone number of potential accompanist), and I've never had a teacher come to an exam centre so no "obviously" about it. So personally I think it is a bit cheeky to charge for it unless you give parents/ candidates the option of doing it themselves if they want to. No reason not to offer your admin services as an optional extra if they don't want the hassle though.

I accompany the majority of my pupes and make a small charge for this to help compensate for lost earnings as attending a 2-day exam session invariably means ditching some teaching along the way.

I've never charged for admin - what a tempting thought though lol.

Slighty-Sozzled-Bag x

I think this links to the Excellent Advice thread. Frankly I really don't see why teachers should "obviously" be at the exam centre giving up their time for free and perhaps having to cancel lessons - and therefore losing income and inconveniencing other students. I think it's debatable whether their presence will be beneficial to the pupils (I rather think it depends on the individual pupil and whether or not they have anyone else there to support them), although I know some teachers seem to regard it as essential. Neither do I see why exam accompanying should necessarily be done completely for free, again especially if it means cancelling clashing tuition which would otherwise be generating income.

On the other hand, I do think that the small amount of admin required when entering candidates (especially if using the ABRSM on-line form which is so quick and easy) should be considered as part of the service offered as an instrumental teacher. Arranging rehearsals with an accompanist is probably best done directly by the pupil (or their parents). But that's just my opinion...

Apologies for being slightly off topic...

I am in a different system where the music school provides an accompanist and I have had "lessons" with the accompanist present (ie the accompanist has come into my normal lesson with my teacher present throughout) and also sessions where I have been alone with the accompanist.

I have found the sessions where my teacher is present to be very useful not least because he can demonstrate if necessary. When I first started it was also a helpful way to learn about how to perform (how to take breath and make eye contact so that the pianist knows when you are starting and at what speed, for example, or how to achieve a "clean" ending when both instruments stop together).

It naturally depends on the pupil, too - a confident and well-prepared Grade 8-er doesn't need the teacher there, but a nervous Grade 1-er may well find it reassuring!

I don't think anybody will argue that the teacher has a secondary role in any such situation, either, but I certainly have encountered situations where pupils have had to use other accompanists, and have been somewhat confused by something said. Small things, the accompanist having a different way of reminding the pupils about leading in, for example, but the kind of thing that would be easily clarified if the teacher was present.

Absolutely, but the ones I'm talking about double as the rehearsals for the exams, which I'm not sure work as well. They don't feel like rehearsals, but ruther like ordinary lessons.

I don't accompany all my violin pupils, but the lower grade ones need to have their violins tuned and many (non-string playing) accompanists don't feel happy doing that, so I always aim to be there at the exam venue.

Regarding the original post, I don't charge for exam time/accompaniments either.

I can tell Bag was slightLy sozzled when she wrote this...

I only have one, or two maximum, exam session per year as I like to arrange a Special Visit, so can sometimes have quite a few candidates. I cancel my teaching for an afternoon and evening to accomodate the rehearsals with the accompanist. I also cancel my teaching for my house to be used for the exams - a whole afternoon and possibly part of the morning. I attend both (as both are in my teaching room) and I make no charge for this, even though I am teaching in the rehearsal - even if someone is well-prepared, there is always something to say! I just see it as an essential part of the job and allow for in in my lesson fees.

I never charge pupils admin etc for exams and am always at exams (they are at my house). I sometimes have to cancel pupils too.... I can usually rearrange my evening pupils but not my schools- I just consider it an occupational hazard! I have other people's pupils do exams at my house so I can loose a fair amount of time but consider the advantage for my pupils of having exams at my house is great.... they are relaxed and happy and have all seen the room before the exam.

My daughter has used the same accompanist for cello and recorder exams from age 8 (now 15). We found her through cello teacher who just gave us the phone number and had no further involvement. The teacher didn't turn up on exam day and, indeed, got us to make the exam entry. She just prepared my daughter for the exam.

The recorder teacher, by contrast, once introduced to this accompanist, has to some extent involved herself in making arrangements, and attends some rehearsals. Sometimes I have been at rehearsals too (recorder and cello). The presence of the recorder teacher has always seemed rather useful to me in terms of highlighting particular recorderish issues which a young pupil might be too reticent to point out themself. For instance, some pianists - not you, I'm sure - are not aware that recorders can only play rather quietly when they get to their lowest notes, and that a G above middle C is already rather low for a treble recorder. So teacher can tell the accompanist to pipe down (in the nicest possible way).

My impression has been not that my daughter gets an extra lesson in the presence of the accompanist, but that the teacher's presence ensures that the accompanist is made fully aware of any performance points that teacher and pupil might have previously decided upon - dynamics, variations in tempo appropriate to the piece/period etc. When my daughter was much younger and rehearsing for cello exams the accompanist would often ask daughter how her teacher wanted certain passages handled and daughter either didn't know or was too shy to say..

When the rehearsal has happened during daughter's normal lesson time I have of course paid everyone. However, teacher has not asked for payment, nor have I paid her when I have organised rehearsals and she has chosen to come.

Just a thought - the ISM guidelines about teaching fees is that they should reflect circumstances like these, i.e. if you attend rehearsals, exams, etc. I don't think everyone takes this into account when they decide their pricing structure - fees are not just for face-to-face tuition!!

My situation as far as exams are concerned is not typical and most of my pupils are pianists. Only my recorder and flute players need an an accompanist and I do it but don't charge since I have to be present anyway for everyone. There is no one else to act as hostess, open up the school, meet the examiner off the train etc. For me it is a full day's work which simply counts as part of the job.

As far as the admin is concerned, I don't charge for that. The overseas fees are already extremely expensive - particularly in relation to the price paid for lessons. An exam can cost as much as a whole term's lessons. I wouldn't get people to participate if I charged on top. I have already had two refusals this year on account of the fees. But I don't think it would ever have occured to me to charge for the admin side. Teaching doesn't just consist of the pupil contact time. I spend at least the equivalent of a week's work sorting the timetable during every every summer holiday and there are other administrative things which crop up during the year. It isn't very different from the outside of classroom hours expected of school teachers. Salaries should take this into account and I don't think private music teachers can really do more than just try to get a fee which will take these extras into account as much as is feasible without pricing themselves out of the market.