Hi,

My friend is thinking of taking up the piano, and has asked whether I'll teach her the basics. Bearing in mind that I'm not a piano teacher, so wouldn't have problems with people saying 'but you only charge so and so this much', and that I don't have any teaching qualifications, should I charge to teach her, and if so, how much. Or should I tell her to get a proper teacher?

Thanks in advance,
Sarah

If you do teach or want to get into teaching you have to charge her what you usually charge or nothing at all and get some service in exchange (I'll do anything for babysitting tokens). If you give a discount then everyone will want one.

Personally, I charge £10 for an hour of teaching (half the going rate) as I'm not a proper teacher, but do know enough about the instrument (flute) to teach it effectively. I teach a friend for £5 an hour, purely because she's a friend.

I think I'm probably in the same position as you, apart from the fact that i've never taught anyone before (but i guess everyone has to start somewhere). £5 an hour for a friend seems fair.

I think it's entirely reasonable for an inexperienced teacher to charge less than an experienced one. It's the level of demand for one's services that determines how much one can charge.

Teaching for free didn't really give me any idea of what it would be like to teach "for real"

It was taken as a bit of a laugh despite my efforts to really help the person, as the set up was that I was just a friend. It was actually quite infuriating!

Even if you charge a token amount, that might help the relationship and the person learning would probably feel more inclined to take the lesson seriously.