Hi

I am running my first summer singing workshops this year for children/teenagers.

My plan is 5 days of workshop (2 to 3 hours each) with a concert at the end to showcase what the students have learnt.
I'm not sure of what to charge per student for the week, has anyone run anything similar?

Alternatively, can anyone tell me what you would consider reasonable to pay for the week?

Thank you!

I do this occasionally for piano students - it's fun but takes a lot of prep! Are you doing this alone or do you have a friend who can help out - it's quite tiring on your own....

Is it for students you have already? Or is it for new arrivals who may only come for these sessions, or are you hoping to attract new clients in this way? This will have a bearing on how much of a return you want to make on your time.

Other things to consider - are you hiring a venue, or incurring other costs (catering, music, stationery etc etc). Work all this out so you know what the exercise is going to cost you to do.

Personally I would make an estimate of planning and prep time too, and add that to my estimate of the 10-15 hours face to face teaching involved. Then decide how much you would have to charge overall, to make at least what you would if you were teaching an individual privately for those x hours of teaching.

Also look around at the going rate for things like sports courses, drama workshops running in school holidays to give you an idea of what parents are willing to pay out to get a day's peace in the holidays! Then - by asking existing students - and their parents! - try to get an idea of how full the sessions are likely to be. May well be you cannot muster more that 2 or 3 per session, so how much each? Probably rather more than people would want to pay, so that helps you to get an idea of minimum numbers that make it a reaonable cost to the students and still deliver a good return for yourself.

That said it's a bit like pupil concerts - it took me quite a few goes at it to break even on those, and likewise to make anything worth having on the workshops, but it is such great experience for the students to make music together either learning or performing, it adds to your offering as a teacher and builds relationships so even if you don't make much it is a good investment in your teaching practice as a whole.

Go for it - but do the planning and the number crunching first.

I'd come at this differently if I were you - how many places will you offer? What are you costs (room hire, materials, accompanists etc) and how much is your hourly rate times the number of hours prep and actual teaching you will do.

Once you have this calculation then you'll know how much you have to charge and whether or not it's feasible - if it seems too high, then you can see how you can cut costs.

I recently ran a workshop of one day on safe belting technique and, because of the style of workshop (performance for each student) I couldn't take more than ten people. Once I'd factored in the costs of hotel room hire, food for the day, accompanist, materials and my own time - I couldn't do it for less than 175 euros per person, which was almost double what I'd originally planned on charging - I'd have made a loss though!

Good luck with your workshop!