I've got an interview tomorrow for the local music service as a peripatetic piano teacher.
The letter I received said I needed to be prepared to teach a 10 minute introductory lesson to students who will have instruments. This is all it said, I know it's a bit vague.
Does anyone have any ideas about what I should include in the lesson.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Anna x

I don't think that's particularly vague. Just teach what you would normally teach your pupils at the beginning of their first lesson.

I would cover (not necessarily in this order): where to sit / posture / hand position / where the high and low notes are / what the notes are called / get them playing an easy tune of a few notes quite soon so they go away having 'played some music', perhaps chose a piece with an accompaniment to make it more interesting / do some listening 'games' (not actual tests) / perhaps ask them why they want to learn the piano.

That should easily use up ten minutes!

You say they 'will have instruments' - does that mean they will have keyboards? If so, they need to know how to turn them on and select the right tone (which they probably know anyway) and told not to fiddle with all the buttons, particularly the demo!

Imagine preparing that 10 minutes for one of your recent beginners of a similar age. What worked? Have you had any better ideas since you did it last time?

10 minutes doesn't seem like a long time - be prepared to say how you would develop what you do in the first 10 minutes to build up to a more normal first lesson of, say 20 or 30 minutes.

Work the group dynamic, rather than concentrating on individuals.

Ten minutes will fly by so you need to be organised and not go off at a tangent.

Hope it goes well!

Thanks for all your help!!

I'll let you know how I get on...

What happened then?

Were you offered a position, or wouldn't you even take it now that you know a little more about working conditions, the amount of forms you have to fill in and boring meetings you have to attend and pay schemes?

It seems very promising. They are phoning me tonight to let me know.

I have got better news though. I applied to university to study music as a mature student with no A-Levels and no access courses and I've been given interview dates for Liverpool, Bangor and Liverppol Hope. When I got home from the peripatetic interview, I found out that Manchester have offered me an unconditional place on the BMus course so I've taken that up!!

I'd like to fit the teaching around it if I can though...

Very happy today!!!

Congratulations.

That's great news, Anna! I hope you can buckle down to studying again and really get the most from the course.