Hi, I'm about to start advertising to teach piano privately and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions. I work full time at the moment so I was wondering what time you generally teach piano? As I won't be able to until after 7 on a week day or at the weekend but I've been told most children don't want piano lessons at the weekend. What do you think?
Also, could you give me some good ideas for good starting out teaching books?

Thanks

My Saturday morning slots went first...to children!!
They've so many after school activities these days.

I teach from 6.30 or 7 until 8.30, 9 on one night. Not every night though...I used to teach weekends but don't any more for my own sanity!

Yeah..have to behave myself Friday nights now...become a bit boring! Mind you I don't start 'till 10 and only do 2 hours!
I do find Sat mornings a bit tieing but they know they are lucky to have these slots, so don't mind shifting if I'm off for a weekend.

My prime time slots are between 3:15 and 6 on weekdays. I don't teach on Saturdays, but so far, no one has expected me to!

David

I teach tuesday- thursday evenings from 8pm-10pm. These slots attract adult learners and teenagers.

I teach daytime on Mondays ( mornings). I have a student out of school at that time and an adult who regularly takes that as her day off. I teach early tuesday afternoons to an adult, and friday morning to a pre-schooler. My other pupils are between 4-5.30 pm on a friday, and are unsurprisingly all children.

You can teach relatively late, but think about the type of pupils who you will attract. Do you want to teach children or adults, and what effect will your teaching have on any family or partner?

Good luck.

My pattern is quite similar to David's, except that I also teach on Saturdays.

Prime-time slots are between 3.30 and 6.30 (sometimes 7) on weekdays. Saturdays are quite popular.

I teach adults (they either work part-time, work flexible hours, or are mums with children at school) on Monday and Friday mornings. I choose not to work late into the evening, and this does sometimes mean that adults who work full-time have limited choice (you will score here though if you can offer later times) - but I do have three who come in after work at around 5.30 or 6 and that seems to work ok. For people who work locally lunch-hour lessons have sometimes been requested - although I've not got anyone at that time right now.

Books - I'd recommend a visit to your local music shop with an hour to spare. Buy half a dozen beginner books that you like the look of and then compare. Oxford Piano Time is good; I still like Tunes for ten Fingers for the 6-7 age group, Carol Barratt's Classic Piano course is good for older beginners and adults, and MicroJazz (Christopher Norton) for any age group except perhaps very young.
Alan Haughton's Play Piano has just come out and is worth looking at I think - the pieces are fun.

Hope it goes well.

I do 2 days in a school, so I'm quite lucky there, but my private teaching is usually between 3.45 and 6.45 with a cuppa and feed the dog break......I'll sometimes teach on a Saturday morning, but only if extra lessons are required prior to an exam or if the pupil has missed an 'important' lesson leading up to an exam/audition etc. I also have an adult who comes on a Friday morning....and I fit one or two in when I arrive home from my school teaching days...

As for tutors, I use Tunes for 10 Fingers and Me and My Piano (I'm experimenting here, as they were recommended by other forum members) plus I also use John Thompson Easiest Course for the Piano, plus Faber and Faber Accelerated Piano Adventures (for slightly older ones) and Piano Time 1 (the new revised version is much better than the old one, I think) but I constantly supplement these with pieces from a vast 'library' of books I'be built up over the years - I have a lot of tutor books that I won't use as the main tutor book, but there can sometimes be useful pieces in them so I'll lend out the book if a pupil needs further practice on something, or if a piece from that is more suitable than the tutor I'm using with the pupil. No one method is perfect though, which is why I mix and match so much.

As for older pupils I've used Barratt's Adult Piano Course, but I tend to abandon it part-way through and then just have my own curriculum of pieces from 'library' books.......

Hope this helps a bit!

I do schools for five days a week, then weekdays at home: 16.00 - 20.30 and Saturdays 08.30 - 17.30. I don't take many breaks, but the odd pupil is away every week, so I get a natural break due to that. Usuaully one goes out and the next person is waiting outside to come in. I don't work later than 20.30 as I don't want any neighbours to complain; I take Sundays off as I'm tired and that is family and Church day. I always look forward to holidays from schools otherwise I'm working about 11-12 hours most days! It's taken quite a few years to build this up. Probably I'll try to keep working at this pace for another 10 years (then late 40s) and then I'll start to give myself and family more time and work less.

I'm thinking of producing my own book. I might ask some of you for ideas perhaps!

Thanks to all of you that have replied. It's been very helpful. I'm now going to go out and spend a couple of hours in a music shop and select some books I like the look of.

Thanks again

cd...what sort of peices do you have in your Library? This is where I come unstuck with adults. I'm using Complete Piano Player 3 with an adult, and she loves the book ...but really feel she would benefit from a wider repertoire. I've heard Clementi seems to go down well.
Thanks.

I have a lot of easy-ish jazzy books such as Wedgwood's easier books (Upgrade 0-1, Really Easy Jazzin' About, Easy Jazzin' About) plus Martha Mier's Jazz, Rags and Blues books 1-4, although book 1 is preparatory to grade 1. Plus most of the standard tutor books. Also ABRSM easier series - Dunhill and Swinstead is probably one of the easiest there. And Piano Party (?) and Piano Party on Holiday?? (AB Bullard??? Not sure as I've lent them both out!!) And Piano Time Jazz 1 (and 2 - although book 2 is nearer grade 2), Sppoky Piano Time and Prehistoric Piano Time, plus the 2 Piano Time Classics books, plus various duet books of varying degrees of difficulty. Not forgetting of course, all the tutor books that I had when I was learning, which although more dated, and I don't tend to use them as series with my pupils, I still lend out when there's a particularly good or useful tune in them. Hope that's some help! I've been teaching for going on 20 years so it's taken me a while to build all that up, but I've also got a fair few books sitting on my shelf that I rarely use....... Maybe I should sell them off to free up some shelf space!!

Having said all that, my only beginner adult pupil is not quite at the stage of using the above books yet, but will be very soon. And in fact I didn't use Barratt with her, she's on the Piano Adventures Adult book, as an experiment as I wanted to try it on someone!!!! And it's good - I would probably recommend it more for an adult who has practically no prior knowledge of music whatsoever, whereas the Barratt book moves quite fast...

Thanks!

I teach from 3:15 to 9:00 Mon to Thursday
3:15 - 8:30 Friday
With 1/2 hr break for dinner

Saturday it's 9:30 to 12:30 with a 15 mins break

Most people around here want 3:30 - 5:00 Mon-Thurs

I don't particularly like doing so much on Friday even or Saturdays and there tends to be more cancelations on those days for weekend breaks and Friday night discos

I use Hal Leonard for the tinies, Piano Adventures for 7-10's, Piano Adventures Accelerated for 11-16's and Piano Adventures Adults for adults. Guess I like Piano Adventures

Plus loads of supplementary books