03 The Way to Do Away With Makeup Lessons (w/ Tiffani Smith)
09/05/23 • 42 min
In this episode, I talk with Tiffani Smith about makeup lessons and how to not have to do them! With 36 years of teaching experience and running a music school with multiple teachers and staff, Tiffani shares her insights and strategies to help piano teachers who struggle with trying to accommodate rescheduling requests. I get it. We are kind, compassionate people and want our students and clients to be satisfied! However, it can be a stressful nightmare to try to deal with rescheduling lessons, keeping track of a 24-hour notice, counting up how many lessons a student has had, and many other issues. Tiffani shares her successful tips and has a wonderfully encouraging tone. If you’ve ever considered making life easier by not having to do makeup lessons, Tiffani will surely give you the confidence to take the plunge!
Top quotes from the episode:
- “I don’t need to be everything to everybody”
- “Don’t make decisions out of fear of losing students”
- “When I changed my policy and simply stated ‘I’m no longer able to offer makeup lessons,’ amazingly, there was no pushback, and they stopped cancelling as often!”
For new teachers creating their policies, Tiffani suggests setting the policies as if you had 200 students already. In addition, her top three recommendations for must-have policies are:
- No makeup policy
- Flat rate year round tuition
- Automated billing
Clinton's online tuition calculator for flat rate, group classes, reverse calculator, and tuition increase/student loss calculator:
Tiffani's Facebook Groups:
(teaching products, curricula, sheet music, and favorite "gotta have it" tools for piano teachers)
(Policies, calendars, schedules, recitals, billing, marketing, etc., etc. There's so much to do...Let's help each other out!)
In this episode, I talk with Tiffani Smith about makeup lessons and how to not have to do them! With 36 years of teaching experience and running a music school with multiple teachers and staff, Tiffani shares her insights and strategies to help piano teachers who struggle with trying to accommodate rescheduling requests. I get it. We are kind, compassionate people and want our students and clients to be satisfied! However, it can be a stressful nightmare to try to deal with rescheduling lessons, keeping track of a 24-hour notice, counting up how many lessons a student has had, and many other issues. Tiffani shares her successful tips and has a wonderfully encouraging tone. If you’ve ever considered making life easier by not having to do makeup lessons, Tiffani will surely give you the confidence to take the plunge!
Top quotes from the episode:
- “I don’t need to be everything to everybody”
- “Don’t make decisions out of fear of losing students”
- “When I changed my policy and simply stated ‘I’m no longer able to offer makeup lessons,’ amazingly, there was no pushback, and they stopped cancelling as often!”
For new teachers creating their policies, Tiffani suggests setting the policies as if you had 200 students already. In addition, her top three recommendations for must-have policies are:
- No makeup policy
- Flat rate year round tuition
- Automated billing
Clinton's online tuition calculator for flat rate, group classes, reverse calculator, and tuition increase/student loss calculator:
Tiffani's Facebook Groups:
(teaching products, curricula, sheet music, and favorite "gotta have it" tools for piano teachers)
(Policies, calendars, schedules, recitals, billing, marketing, etc., etc. There's so much to do...Let's help each other out!)
Previous Episode
02 The Way to Teach Beginning Improv - 5 Tips
In this episode we talk about the benefits of improvisation and why every musician should improvise, even from the very beginning! Even if you're a teacher who doesn't really improvise, you can still teach it!
We go over the 5 tips:
- start now
- start easy
- just use black keys
- go back & forth, "my turn/your turn"
- use accompaniments
I play examples so you can hear what it's like, and if you want the accompaniment patterns I use, just click the link below!
Next Episode
04 The Way Movement Unlocks Musicality (w/ David Frego)
In this episode, I talk with David Frego about the Dalcroze Eurhythmics philosophy. David has many years experience teaching piano and music, incorporating Eurhythmics. He is a Master Teaching Artist with the American Eurhythmics Society and leads teacher training sessions all over the world. We discuss the history of Dalcroze, the philosophy, the concepts of Time, Space, and Energy, and the four pillars of the philosophy:
- Eurhythmics
- Rhythmic Solfége
- Improvisation
- Plastique Animée
Top quotes from the episode:
- “It's an approach to experience all the elements of music kinesthetically”
- “Everybody has their own steady beat”
- “Students begin to feel the rhythmic patterns internally, before we're ready to label it"
Meaning Movement: A Music Teacher's Guide to Dalcroze Eurhythmics
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