I currently take flute lessons casually from a fellow student at my university and pay her on a weekly basis. However I am thinking of starting singing lessons too. I'm a university student with a part time job and parental allowance and can definitely commit financially to lessons. I've read on here that generally teachers charge pupils termly - I don't have that kind of money all in one go. Do people make exceptions in cases like mine or would I need to pay termly? How is it done for students and adult learners?

Thanks

It probably depends on the individual teacher.
I pay mine every lesson and then book the next lesson (so far I have been having an hour every fortnight).
The advantage - I get to rearrange lessons round work if I need to.
Disadvantage - the hourly rate is higher and the teacher cannot guarantee my time slot, although so far she has not needed it for anyone else.

I think it´s fair enough to pay a higher rate for this as the teacher does not have the security of having the fees for a full term paid in advance. She only has this option for adults, children get a contract with weekly lessons, paid in advance.

That's a good system I'm glad there's flexibility although I do understand a teacher's need for financial commitment, especially from children!

It does vary from teacher to teacher. Most of my pupils pay half-termly, which I find works pretty well. A few others pay monthly.

Hi. I have often dreamt of the luxury of this - If i charged termly I think I would have maybe one pupil!

Down our way we all charge per lesson - I dont know of aynbody that charges termly - Also we don't charge fo rmissed leesons - after all it cuts both ways - I had a show last week so had to cancel some pupils and re-arrange others.

I think you are best of just picking up the phone and finding out. It seems everybody does it slightly differently.

Good luck

I charge monthly.
That way I don't have trouble so much with getting the money for missed lessons as it's paid in advance but it's not too much to pay at once and most people are paid monthly anyway.
I'd find it a bit much having to pay for more than a month at a time as the money in our house comes in monthly.

My teacher seems to prefer weekly, though when I was having weekly lessons I usually paid a month in advance because it suits me to budget for the month.

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Termly, simply because that's the way things happen here - I have to pay for my childrens' activities termly too. At my son's school, bills for music lessons are payable about a month before the end of term BEFORE the lessons take place and the rule is simple - no payment, no lessons!

I must admit that I would love to feel able (AND organised enough) to run such a system but, having billed termly at the beginning of term for many years I find that it works well in the majority of cases.

I would, however, be prepared to be flexible if there was a genuine reason and would look favourably at the sort of circumstances you describe. I think it's great that, as a student and with with all your other commitments you also want to continue with your music to the point of dipping into student living costs! I wish all my students were so dedicated and I hope you will be able to persuade a good teacher to take you on on a flexible arrangement. If your preferred teacher has a fairly rigid payment policy perhaps you could offer to pay one lesson in advance, as you book them, and so give the teacher some security that you are serious about turning up?

There are a lot of us out here with homes and families to support but also who love what we do and wouldn't want to deny anyone the chance of developing their music just for cash flow reasons. Good luck, I hope you find a great teacher!

I have the exact same arrangement with my piano teacher, but she does not charge me more then others for this system. It suits her and me both (as she has different committments at college etc and I work shifts). It does mean though that although I aim for an hour a fortnight occasionally I have to wait 3 or 4 weeks to see her if her engagements and my shifts clash.
Anyway, I like it this way

Mine also has slightly lower rates for university students than for adults who are working. She explained all of this to me when I had my trial lesson (which was free, seems to be normal here).

Wow... free trial lessons!!!

Thanks for all the replies, really helpful

As for the free trial lessons: It is of course up to every teacher to offer this, maybe some feel the need to do this for promotional purposes, which is completely okay ...

I never do it, because for me, a consultation is professional work, too, not just chit-chat.
And hopefully the quality of the work (and the student-teacher chemistry, which is very important and not to underestimate) makes the student decide to come back, not the fact whether they have to pay for a consultation or not

My private pupils pay weekly but the ones at school pay termly.

Reason being that the parents always bring the private students so they just bring the money with them. And if they are adult students the same applies, they have the money on them.

But the logistics of trying to collect weekly fees from 15 students at school when I never even see the parents would be a nightmare. They would be constantly forgetting. It's hard enough collecting the money termly as it is - I'm always having to send reminders and ringing up. Two days from half term holiday and I still have 7 who haven't paid for this term. Quite simply, I don't trust the parents to remember to send the money weekly.

I have all my pupils pay one week in advance - that way I am covered for at least the one week if they don't turn up. I am considering asking any new pupils to pay on a monthly basis, but am a little unsure if this might put some people off...I know the local music shop works in this way, and clearly it works for them but I don't want to lose the "personal" touch either.

Quite agree - I simply don't have the time to give free consulations. I can always fill the slot with a paying student. If you charge for these it sets the whole relationship on a professional basis. You are valued more.

I always charge one month in advance and I know lots of others do too. I'm sure it's the best way, as most people can afford to pay for 4 lessons, and you are covered when people miss. I can't imagine many of mine agreeing to pay termly though.

I charge half termly retrospectively for private children pupils, giving out the account the week before the last lesson so that hopefully cheque or cash materialises in the last lesson. I have so far only had one family who had to be chased (and they were the ones who appeared to have the most money). I can totally appreciate those who ask for payment before lessons, but my method seems to suit my particular pupils and in fact helps one family to budget.

Adult pupils pay on the day for the lesson.

If I had more pupils, then maybe I would change my method, but I only teach 2 evenings at home (and school sorts out the money for the pupils I teach there, thank goodness).

I wish my school would! But they say it is a private contract between me and the parents. What they do say is if there is a problem with payment, they will pay me and add it to the parent's school fees bill. Fortunately that has not yet been necessary, but it's a pain in the ar$e trying to get payment sometimes.

I charge in blocks of five lessons which seems to suit the parents and keeps my bank happy. I have one of those accounts which you have to fund with £500 a month. I think parents understand that we have to have some kind of monthly income.

I use the EPTA stationary which is quite handy and can be photocopied over and over. Unfortunately I had one incidence where the parent sent the cheque to EPTA Admin!!
Perhaps it was an attempt to delay payment

My piano teacher generally charges in blocks of 5 or 10 (no discount) but on the odd occasion when I simply don't have 5 lessons' worth of money upfront, he's happy to let me pay for a lesson one-off and pay for the next block whenever I can. I think that with most teachers, it depends on their own circumstances, their perception of the trustworthiness and financial liquidity of the student, and their relationship. (ie - my piano teacher has many students who can always pay in blocks, so it's not a huge problem to have one who can't always, he knows I'm trustworthy but poor, and he's my friend. He may or may not be so lenient with another student!)

I think once you have established your credibility most teachers might be prepared for a little flexibility - they know you and realise you're a bona fide student and not going to pull a fast one ? !

Yes - I can well imagine teachers being more flexible once they know someone is trustworthy, which is something I guess can only come through you being trustworthy over time That's what I mean by saying it's a combination of those things, I guess. A teacher who isn't short of a bob or two (if such teachers exist!! ) may be more lenient even to a newish pupil, whereas a teacher who was in financial difficulty may have to be tough even on established students, and a teacher who was tough on most students might be more lenient with a friend (unfair I guess, but true!)... and so on.

Just a good example off the top of my head, though a very different set-up, the Saturday music school I worked for a few years back was generally quite tough on late-paying students, and had even used the small claims court to retrieve fees, BUT on the other hand there were two families I remember especially with genuine financial difficulties, one of which would give us a set of post-dated cheques adding up to the total fee, and one of whom would get very very in arrears and then have a show (the mum was an artist) and pay off a massive chunk in one fell swoop. We were lenient with them because they had genuine financial need (especially in the case of the first family who also received a means-tested grant) and they had proved themselves trustworthy in the longer term (especially in the case of the second family who always paid up eventually).

A teacher who isn't short of a bob or two (if such teachers exist!! ) may be more lenient even to a newish pupil, whereas a teacher who was in financial difficulty may have to be tough even on established students, and a teacher who was tough on most students might be more lenient with a friend (unfair I guess, but true!)... and so on.

Or on the other hand, a teacher who isn't short of a bob or two isn't going to worry perhaps about offending a pupil, whereas a teacher who is in financial difficulties (and therefore anxious not to lose a new or potential students) may be more inclined to stretch a point ??

DON'T try being lenient with friends - I can tell you it doesn't work.

Yep, possibly!

I can sympathise with this one. I couldn't charge pupils by term either, or they would freak out, and because I'm in a country area I can't afford to put people off or I'd have no-one. On the whole I try and be flexible as I find that in doing so the pupils offer you a certain amount of flexibility in other areas. Most of mine pay weekly, one pays fortnightly and another pays monthly, but if someone has no change they tend to give me two weeks to avoid the hassle.