The Teach Piano Today Podcast is back with Episode 14! Today we’re chatting with Nicole Bowers – a piano teacher with a very successful studio in Ottawa, Canada. Are you looking for ways to change up your teaching hours? Do you need to fill some holes in your studio schedule? Are you wanting to make a change and flex those teaching muscles in a different way? Then you need to listen to this podcast.
Teach Adult Piano Students; Build Your Studio Fast!
Nicole’s studio of 80 students is thriving and much of her success is due to her approach when it comes to teaching adult piano students. Listen in as she talks about how she has changed up her studio hours and built a successful business with a growing adult student base. Nicole chats about the challenges piano teachers often face with adult students and her experiences in dealing with these challenges, shares her favorite adult piano method book, and gives some great advice on marketing to this demographic. You’ll gain some fabulous ideas from Nicole’s approach to “wine and cheese” adult recitals and her very clever way of drawing from her current student base.
This Demographic is Growing… Jump in!
The baby boomers are retiring and they’re looking for leisure activities. With growing research suggesting that music lessons are good for body, brain and soul, adult piano student numbers are on the rise! Teaching adults is a wonderful way to change up your schedule if you are wanting to avoid late evening teaching hours (Nicole teaches many of her adult students during their lunch breaks) and it’s also a really great way to find even more job satisfaction – it’s nice to have adult company once in awhile!
Listen in Below
You can listen to Episode 14 by clicking the player below, or you can hop over to iTunes to download it onto your ipod or phone to take us with you wherever you go! For those of you who had troubles finding Episode 13 where we chatted with Jon Schmidt of the Piano Guys, you can now find this Episode in the iTunes store as well.
Val Letenyei says
Enjoyed the podcast – I’ve been wanting a magnetic board for teaching note names and composing…you mentioned one but I didn’t catch the name. Could you send me info on that?
Andrea says
Hi Val – Nicole teaches Music for Young Children and they offer a magnetic staff with note manipulatives. You can see them here http://shop.myc.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=104&cat=Student+Materials
Mary Gray says
The basket game sounds fun, but I’m unclear about how it works. There are cue cards with musical terms and 6 baskets. Then, something about a caterpillar….can you fill in the details? Do they throw the caterpillar in a basket? Then what? Is there just one musical term in each basket that they perform or identify?
Natalie Gibson Grimes says
Love the idea about offering a complimentary parent lesson!
Andrea says
We did too (for SO many reasons!)
Leah Coutts says
I love that Nicole mentioned lessons being productive regardless of the amount of practice managed through the week. I used to have a lot of adults want to cancel their lesson due to lack of preparation. I always mention that a lesson is also an opportunity for guided practice, and is therefore never a waste. They are always relieved when they get to the lesson and the pressure to demonstrate lots of improvement is off.
Nancy says
I just listened to this. I appreciated her remarks about being flexible and understanding that adults are so busy that they seldom have good practice time.
My biggest concern with my adults is getting them to transition from playing notes, to playing with some feeling or expression. I adjusted the songs to an easier level in hopes that they won’t have to concentrate so much on notes and fingering, but it’s the same. I feel like I’m starting to become a nag to point out the expression marks. Anyone else had this challenge?
jerry says
where do i go to listen to podcast no. 14?
Andrea says
Hi Jerry – all of our podcasts are available on iTunes to download 🙂 If you can’t see the “on page” player, try refreshing your browser to see if that works for you.