I recently sold my house where I taught piano and have moved areas. I don't want to teach at home anymore and am weighing up the benefits of hiring premises versus visiting students. Obviously it's much cheaper to visit people than hire a room but my concern is how committed parents are in terms of encouraging practise if their teacher visits them. I wonder if they value the service less and if I'll get frustrated with lack of practise. What are other peope's experiences of visiting? Obviously I have experienced that when students come to me at my home their parents are fairly committed in terms of practise and attendance.

For most music teachers, visiting student's homes to teach is a nightmare. Not only is it inefficient to spend time travelling when you could be teaching more students, but also it is more stressful, more tiring, you don't have access to all your teaching resources, if you are a piano teacher the instrument is likely to be inferior to your own, and most students, or their parents are unwilling to pay your normal hourly rate and additional costs (car mileage or public transport fares) for the time you spend travelling to and from their home.

I have tried it, and will never do it again except in exceptional circumstances (such as a student with a disability, or recovering from illness)

I have the complete opposite opinion. I feel that they value the service much more, not less, because I'm taking the time to go to their house. Yes, of course I charge for transport but as they are in their own home and in their own atmosphere they seem to progress much faster. Also all of my pupils are local and a bus will take me to their houses within 10-15 minutes. I don't do long distances!

I'm with VH2 on this one. You have little or no control over the environment in someone else's house.

Some parents who insist on a visit simply want the arrangement which is most convenient for them, rather than what is best for their child's musical education. In the case of piano or keyboard, it can of course be useful to see what the child is having to practise on!

Where there are two or three children all wanting lessons, and if the instrument and room are suitable, it can work. Otherwise you may have screaming toddlers, or a tv on in an adjacent room, and all sorts of unwelcome intrusion.

Thanks for your responses. Please keep them coming. I am formulating how I will make clear my expectations for when I visit - e.g. pre lesson visit to check room / piano is suitable, insisting on a piano (in tune) or digital piano, etc. etc. If I make my expectations clear & include them in my usual contract then this should ensure things run smoothly. I will make my requirements for quiet room & in tune piano clear and make it a condition of continuing lessons that they are met. I am intending to only work in a very small area so shouldn't have transport / travel problems. Thanks. Look forward to any additional thoughts.

The only problem that immediately springs to mind for me, is that there will be families who struggle to provide a quiet room with an in tune piano or decent keyboard. I have a pupil from a family with 5 children who practises on a keyboard squashed into a corner of their rather small house.

If the family isn't able to provide a quiet environment for a lesson, then they are even less likely to provide conditions conducive to practice, so I don't think it is unreasonable to insist on this from the outset. If you are very firm and do not tolerate interruptions, noise etc, then the families will get the message that you are serious about this and they can either comply, or find another teacher.

I don't think the fact that you are visiting will make any difference in the long run re commitment and practice. This is much more down to the individuals involved, and the teacher-pupil relationship. I'm pretty sure you will end up with roughly similar numbers of diligent and lazy students, wherever you work. Perhaps the fact that you have to make an effort to visit them will focus your mind more and you will tolerate any time-wasters for a shorter time?

I've moved from teaching entirely at home to doing a majority of my work in a school, so I have to take all my resources with me. Now that I've got used to it, I don't find this a problem, and for me, the fact that I am not in my own home and working is a bonus - it feels more efficient, and I have fewer distractions. I manage to carry everything in one large wheelie briefcase and a handbag, and although I drive, this would be manageable on a bus. Good luck with your new venture!

Edit: I think this is an occasion to have a printed sheet with a few clear rules on it setting out your expectations - something that you and the family can refer to whenever necessary

eg

Please ensure that the following are provided:

Piano - state your requirements here

Adjustable stool

Chair for teacher

Quiet

Access to power point?

and so on - couch it in positive terms eg asking for quiet, freedom from interruptions, etc rather than negatives "no this, no that"

There seems to be some cross-posting going on here. (That's meant to be a "cross" posting emoticon. ) I've just contributed to the other thread on the same topic.


Quelle surprise.

I don't see why doing lessons at the home should affect the amount of practice or the parents attitude towards practice.

However, I don't like doing it. Aside from the travel etc. my experience recently was this :

I have two excellent students (brother and sister), not brilliant players but excellent in terms of effort,, concentration, attitude etc. They've been with me for about 5 years now.

For three weeks (transport problems their end), I went to their house to give the lessons.

And it didn't work. And partly because it was TOO quiet, not too noisy !

The house is dead quiet with the result that the girl spent her time with one ear upstairs, trying to hear what her mother was up to, her mind 100% elsewhere and zero concentration on the lesson. And the boy 'went into himself' because he obviously didn't like the fact that his mother and sister could hear all his mistakes.

I also disliked the 'deathly' silence - I like to be quite demonstrative (both for the good and the bad) and felt quite inhibited being in someone else's pristine, morgue-like room.

That said, both my sons had 'masterclass' lessons for a couple of months before their higher exams from a bloke who came to our house - and that worked really well.

I know a teacher who, on the face of it has a very successful practice travelling to students. There has certainly been no shortage of potential pupils but I'm not sure from an outside perspective it's entirely thought through. The two most common problems have been turning up to teach people who aren't there and teaching people where there is no suitable space to give the lesson (i.e. parents shouting, siblings running riot...or other way round depending which way you look at it...). Another issue is not having all your teaching materials to hand, but the plus side being they can't forget their stuff.

The other thing was that we worked out that even with pupils living quite close and being timetabled close together, for each hour of teaching, there was about 30 minutes travelling time attached either side and between. This wasn't factored into the cost of the lessons (which is not necessarily wrong in itself) but meant that they were losing out on income because of the travelling time.

I have no experience of travelling to pupils myself; I don't drive, so it wouldn't work for me anyway. That said, I've personally never found any demand for this. In the 11 years I've been teaching, no one has asked whether or assumed I travel to them. Again, I think this depends on the kinds of pupils you attract and the area you're in.

I did teach for a term hiring a room at a local dance studio. It generated quite a lot of new pupils, but despite the agreements we had, the dance studio felt it their place to dictate what I should be teaching. That coupled with the fact that most pupils said they preferred the 'homely' environment, I didn't carry on with that. I found the biggest problem was the wasted teaching time walking there and back, having to carry all the stuff I needed, and even then, not having stuff to hand. I do however think there is mileage in hiring somewhere. Certainly dance schools often have branches in villages where they might hire the village hall for an evening a week. With something like this it's going to depend a lot on the prices being charged to hire the venue plus the demand for lessons as to whether this would work for an instrumental teacher.

An option which might offer the most possibilities and perhaps quite a bit of security might actually be a combination of all these.

Surely the OP is just asking for opinions from different perspectives, teachers and parents, not exactly the same thread in 2 different forums (my understanding of cross-posting)? I've stuck my two-happorth in on both threads. Pardon me if I had some more thoughts with my parent hat on.

Probably not, but there is the crowd that aren't really committed, won't make an effort e.g. to get somewhere, so they are more likely to look for a teacher who will travel. (I do both)

I would add a CD player within reach and adequate heat and light to my requirements.

One of the advantages of travelling to homes is you get to see the practice environment and if it's not suitable, you get to do something about it, e.g adjust height of stool. Major disadvantage is time spent travelling. Advantage: clear head space between students, and more likely to remember who you covered what with, as you teach in different rooms.

At risk of being devil's advocate, I would query the need to peace and quiet. I've taught in corridors where a parent is roundly telling off a sibling for slacking on homework. Student and I are very good at ignoring it. This particular student will play through an earthquake without missing a beat, and I'm sure this is why. There was something I read once in Suzuki materials about the value of siblings providing a bit of background noise.

It was just a passing observation. Didn't mean to provoke any cross posting.

In my final year at University (several years ago!) i did a few home visits where i tutored in the person's house. It didn't last for long though as i didn't have a car, went everywhere on bus and actually spent more time traveling than i did teaching. I sometimes walked too, which wasn't the best idea on dark winter nights. My reply to your question probably won't help, but i just thought i'd share with everyone what happened once to me - something i'll never forget...... First lesson at a new student's house. I pressed the doorbell and was met by a cacophony of barking dogs, people shouting and kids screaming. The door was finally answered and i was led into a very messy room with stuff lying everywhere. The mother was very nice but completely unorganized. The child who i was to teach then appeared in his pyjamas eating something (his evening meal i presumed). The mother told me she would have to "find" the keyboard for us to use. I lost count of how many dogs/cats ran into the room chasing each other during the time i waited for the instrument to be located. Anyway, keyboard was set up (to a fashion) but some of the keys didn't work and the speakers crackled. I struggled to get the child's attention from the start, and five minutes into the lesson Granny came in and sat down on the sofa and spoke non-stop. She ended up trying to teach me. To put it bluntly, the woman was barking mad. After that, an argument started up in another room in the house. Different members of the family would constantly poke their heads round the door during the lesson and i could hear a baby crying non-stop too with all the shouting going on. The cats were play-fighting in the room too. I just gave up after 20 mins as we were getting nowhere. The student was happy to "play" rubbish on the keyboard, just banging away at the keys (no wonder so many of them were broken) and granny clapped and told him how clever he was. The mother invited me to stay for dinner which i politely declined. She paid for a trial lesson, but needless to say i never went back! I often think about them and still pass the house quite regularly (in my car now, quickly!) and wonder if any other teacher was brave enough to teach them!

I'd teach in someone's house if they have a grand piano, drive me there and back and cook me dinner

If not, then I'd be mad to teach in their house, because in the time it takes me to get somewhere on public transport and back, I could have stayed at home and taught about 3 students on my lovely piano. And eaten my dinner!

I think you need to build in sufficient travelling time. I had a friend who did the rounds on Saturday because she was unable to teach in her own home, and the comments that I heard from some of the parents whose children were her pupils were that her time-keeping was not very good - by the end of the day, I suppose her timekeeping had drifted due to talking to parents at end of lessons, traffic etc.

I often think I'd like to give a lesson in pupils' homes - just the one - to see what their piano is like. The one occasion I did this for an adult pupil was a real eye opener and explained how she had been playing my piano for several years. But I prefer to have all my various books etc around me - even at school I find I carry so much in and then I don't have the very book that would be useful.

Yes, I certainly agree with that. At the moment I just have a few pupils whom I visit and I always tell them for example that 5pm does not necessarily mean 5pm on the dot. I am reliant on public transport and if the bus or train is delayed there is little that I can do about it. Thankfully they are all very understanding. Sometimes I can get there a little earlier, sometimes a little later. Only once did a parent tell me off for being late, and I was only around 10 minutes late. I stopped her in her tracks, took out a piece of paper, wrote down the phone number of the bus company and told her to call them and complain because it was not my fault that the bus was late. She quickly shut up!

I often think this. I was taken aback recently when I asked a young pupil working towards his Grade 1 exam if he was finding the time to put in enough practise - his reply was that it was difficult to concentrate when his dad was watching TV in the same room! After contacting his mum, I was assured that they would move his keyboard into his bedroom. I wonder why they hadn't thought of that before?
Sorry, going off topic here!

I've learnt to always ask about this now.
I've had families with the piano in the main living room with young kids getting priority for watching videos before dinner and Dad getting priority for watching the news after dinner.
Also, a family who kept the piano in the guest house - completely unheated in winter and across the other side of the garden.
And one family with a keyboard who kept it on top of the wardrobe (only Mum was allowed to get it down but she worked late shifts most evenings . . .).
And the family with the piano under dust sheets for two months (!) because the room was being re-done . .
The latest one this week was the lad who said he couldn't practice because the piano (a nice digital one) was at his mother's friend's house because two weeks ago they'd gone there for a long weekend, thought it would be good to take the piano (!?!) and couldn't bring it back because they'd got other stuff suddenly and it wouldn't fit in the car . . ..
I also went to my 'best' pupil's house for a quick 15 minutes 'crisis-fix' during the school holidays and found the volume set really low on her digital piano. When asked, she said, yes, she always played it like that (not that it disturbed anyone, she just felt a bit self-conscious with it any louder). I showed her mother her notebook with an 'order' to turn up the volume.

Yes, sorry off topic, but it's worth noting . . . .

I travel to my students, which works well for both parties. It's 50/50 in that they have acoustic pianos or Clavinova's. I encourage the acoustics to be tuned every six months or so as part of the commitment to lessons. There hasn't been any problem with this..except now our tuner has had to retire (as explained in the tuners thread!). I think if I suggested now that I wanted to teach from home, the chances are I would lose most of my students as my travelling to them was one of the main reasons for starting lessons in the first place. Most students have their piano/Clavinova in a quiet room, and parents are asked to keep distractions to a minimum if I have to use their main lounge/dining rooms.

In regards to practice, I find that my adults (who are all retired) commit more than the youngsters, but they are the ones who cancel lessons more as they have time on their hands to go travelling, visiting family, childminding grandchildren etc. Some of the youngsters have less time to practice (debatable!!) due to school homework, extra curricular activities and whatever other reasons they can come up with such as 'forgetting'! This is my biggest bug-bear in that I feel I'm wasting my time and efforts to get to them. One student was asked to record her playing for a school competition, but always 'forgot' when I asked her to record her playing her exam pieces. Very frustrating!

I have toyed with the idea of hiring a room above a local music shop for lessons, but their fees would mean that I would have to raise the charges for my lessons to help cover costs. I only take on students within a ten mile radius from my home due to the cost effectiveness of travelling. If I get calls from further afield, they would have to agree to a longer lesson to make it worth my while (I teach for half half, three-quarters of an hour or hour). I give myself travelling time between lessons so have rarely been late unless caught in traffic. A short 'phone call means the next student knows I'm going to be late.

I carry a small CD player with me for students to listen to music and keep a stack of books in the boot of the car. I plan my lessons so that I have everything to hand to take with me.

It looks like there are pros and cons for both methods of teaching. In balance, I think I would still prefer to go to my students rather than have them coming to me.

I'd agree with Rosfrog...

At the moment all my teaching is at pupils' homes as I am in the process of moving home. I do find I like the variety of being able to go to their homes and it's also good to see where they practice and whether it is condusive to a good learning environment. However, I think once my numbers get to a certain point, I will make the transition from teaching away to via my home.

I think this can be phased in. My likely approach is to put up my rate and to say to those that wish to have a reduced rate, they need to now come to me. Some will change, some will leave, and some will pay the extra.

I think we do ourselves a disservice if we don't price accordingly. Remember the convenience of having you come to their home, should also follow an additional cost, otherwise as others have said it isn't cost effective.

Also depends on how much teaching you want to do... If I teach away I can do approx 25 lessons a week, If i teach at home, I could do as much as 40! Which is why most teach from home.

I think I will end up having about 80% at home, some peripatetic work and teaching the odd few at theirs.

As regards overall suitability, I'm not worried as long as my pupils are learning and for those who play on an inferior instrument, I plan to host occasional classes at mine to add variety and offer something different.

I've struggled with this for a long time myself...when I first came to the UK 6 years ago and lived in a one bedroom flat I did home visits everywhere as long as it was reasonably local. One advantage of home visits in my opinion is that you can build up students quicker. Almost all inquiries I get are from students wanting home visits.

However I started to become very tired from using buses, walking from home to home, and when you visit homes parents sort of treat you like a house guest and start chatting to you for longer. While this was nice, it meant I was often late for my next appointment. Also as mentioned before, in households with lots of children, there's the problem of feeding time, other siblings, cooking noises, cleaning noises, grandparents and friends going in and out of lessons! Like you I considered hiring somewhere but when I pitched it to my existing students they didn't seem too keen.

So to cut a long story short, I let go of students who I knew to be too much of a hassle for me to teach in their home. I still do home visits but only 1 1/2 days a week and they all live in the same neighbourhood so I can walk from one house to another. To get there I have to be on a bus for 40 minutes though! Even with these students I sent a letter to all of them stating what ideal lesson conditions should be, such as pen and pencil always ready, chair for me, no domestic noises in proximity, also the need to keep the chatting to a minimum as I've got other places to go!

So far it seems to work. Although I do think students I teach at home progress better as I'm calmer and have my materials at hand not to mention the behaviour improves when a child is in your home rather than theirs. It's worth mentioning to other home visit parents that you'd prefer to teach students in the same area, that seems to bring me all their neighbours so there's no need for me to catch the bus yet again

Good luck!

Thanks all for your thoughts. The discussion has helped clarify mine! I want to spend time teaching children, not travelling. So I think I may go for the hire option. Viewing somewhere Friday, they seem to be charging a very reasonable rate. Thanks again.

I would definitely recommend hiring premises, I did it 3 yrs ago after working from home for 12 yrs and have never looked back - my other half is much happier too! I also do a few home visits 2 nights a week: all are in the same area and have at least 2 kids at each house so it works well, I get to know the families better and they're really friendly, they've all been having lessons for years! It is tiring thought as I'm not a driver and get around by bicycle, and carting books/equipment can be a problem, so no way would I do exclusively home visits.

I wonder for those who hire premises how you square this with the lesson fees? Do you accept that you'll make less of a profit because of the premises hire fee, or do you adjust your fees upwards to take this into account?

I am intending to put up the lesson fee to cover hire costs. Easy because I'm moving to a new area. I'm currently hiring in the area I used to live and transferred from teaching at my house to premises - have not put up fees there to cover costs as felt I couldn't.

I put up my fees by ?1 per lesson when I moved into my premises 3 yrs ago. It doesn't quite cover the cost but it's near enough, and the other benefits have far outweighed the cost so it's worth it for a teacher who's already fairly successful and busy as I am.

This is interesting for me becuase I'm disabled. I have to make it really clear to people that the chances that I can come to them are slim unless they have an accessible house. In this city where most people live in flats that rarely happens. I wondered whether I would be missing out on potential pupils through not travelling.

I don't think you can generalise about people who want lessons at home any more than you can generalise about pupils in general. It seems the most likely people to want lessons in their home up here (may well be a local thing!) is homes with nannies. The nanny is employed to look after 3 children and supervise their homework, cook dinner and supervise music practice. A piano teacher friend of mine (who is winding down her practice now) has a large number of these types of pupil where the parent is not prepared to pay the nanny to trek children across town for lessons, and the nanny is meant to be busy cooking and housekeeping too and would be sitting idle during lessons out of the home. Fortunately, on most occasions the nanny has charge of several children. Nanny-share is increasingly popular so the nanny will often have 5 children from 2 or 3 families and she can get 5 sets of back to back lessons in one visit. It's a world away from the family with inappropriate premises and poor commitment, so I think if you are open to the possibility of travelling then it's more about being firm on what you will and will not accept. I say that I will travel if the house is accessible and the premises appropriate and I will be the absolute final arbiter of appropriate. If the cause of not wanting to visit cannot (or will not) be quickly remedied then I will not go again, so I think at least one trial visit is essential. So far nobody has asked for me to visit (I'm only teaching very few pupils because of my health restrictions, one is receiving lessons via Skype, which is not ideal but he's happy with the limitations of the method - oh, and he lives in Berlin, which is not so local!)

I suppose it could be tricky if you went out for a trial visit and heat, light and instrument were perfectly acceptable but it smelled bad or a parent hovered or there was junk literally everywhere (those houses where they say do sit down and you think "where?!") and how to explain why you won't be taking them on. Perhaps think up some stock explanations that you can let someone down nicely on those points, or nicely explain that you will come for one more trial visit if x amount of junk is removed. And really, really don't start something you think you can "get used to" or tolerate. You will always be looking for a way out again.

Not music but the only occasion that I have had a teacher in my house regulary was to teach my child extra French, I have to confess I found it irritating, as the only place they could work was at the dinning table in the dinning room where I did my own home teaching. Therefore I was denied access to that room for the duration. I couldnt offer my study (a tiny box room) as it only has a computer desk and is my sanctuary but I did think about it. I had to make sure the table was clear of my own teaching materials and that there was a CD player installed so they could listen to French. As a courtesy I always provided a sandwich and a cup of tea, but that was my choice.

Generally the room is tidy and I have a sideboard that doubles as a filing cabinet so I can sling my own teaching materials into. There was no question of going to the tutors house as she only did home visits. Whereas I have students come to my house. Somehow I was restless at not being able to get into the room in my house, all a bit awkward, but as it was less than a year we muddled through. Have to say I frequently felt trapped in my kitchen, tiptoeing around whilst they listened to the French CDs. None of the other children would enter the room as they knew it was "out of bounds" during that time.

I had to provide the tutor with a parking voucher at my expense if she couldnt park on our drive, (London!) so I guess that added to the cost of the lesson. We only spoke on the phone as she was usually dashing off to the next pupil. But that was not a major issue.

When reasessing finances for the following school year and needed to input more time to her music, we abandoned the French teacher for a dozen or so French DVDs! but you cant do that with music

When coming up to a music exam I have had the music teachers come to my house maybe the day before the exam to "run through things one more time". As daughter had viola and sax, the teachers would use my piano in the living room, but this happened for the Grade 8 exams and was not an issue. In fact it was always suggested by the teachers themselves. I would try and get the piano tuner in just before this visit and run around like crazy with a hoover and duster

Gosh, what a nightmare! I get rather too many pet interruptions (much though I love animals!) It's harder establishing rules in someone else's house and in a couple of households I go to, I know that the parents are listening to the lesson in the next room. I like to get out and about though - it's great to meet the families and there are many social benefits which I value and enjoy.