Nine months ago our oldest daughter (Lexi) started kindergarten. I find it hard to believe that her first year of school is already coming to an end! And yet, all of the typical end-of-year field trips are happening, and they serve as repeated reminders that her first year is indeed coming to a close.
And it got me thinking… why don’t piano teachers head off on field trips with their students? After all, off-the-bench activities can be very motivating!
Why It’s Time To Hit the Town
To the private piano teacher, field trips are much more than a fun activity. Check out the three major benefits of piano teaching field trips:
1. Community Builder
Nothing builds a studio’s reputation faster than a strong community of students and parents who want to sing your praises. By heading out on experiences as a group, your piano students will develop a connection with one another. This connection leads to a feeling of community and a sense of belonging.
Consider the popularity of high school sports: everyone rallies around the local team because they feel a sense of connection and belonging. Building this same sense of belonging in an individual activity like piano lessons can be challenging, unless you go out of your way to bring you community together.
2. Retention Re-enforcer
In my opinion, keeping current students is much more important that finding brand new students. One way to keep students coming back year after year is to provide a well-rounded curriculum that involves much more than a single weekly music lesson. So, along with group lessons, duet classes, rock bands, piano parties and composing concerts… consider taking your students on a field trip.
3. Learning Experience
This is probably obvious, but the learning experiences from field trips are invaluable. Sometimes the best teacher is not a teacher at all; sometimes the best way to learn about dynamics, harmonies, and phrasing is to see it happening live!
Where To Go, What To Do?
The opportunities for field trips are endless. The obvious ones are local symphonies, orchestras, and musical theater productions. But don’t rule out pop/indie concerts, marimba classes, street musicians, or a visit to the shop of a local piano technician. And hey, in my modern music class in university, I had to analyze the recordings of barnacles being washed by the waves… so maybe you could somehow work out a way to get to the beach! 🙂
Do you have a great idea for a piano studio field trip? If so, share your ideas by entering a comment below.
Natalia says
Yup! I totally agree. We have gone on piano factory tours, made trips to actual recording studios to record pieces, and the adults get together for concerts at Carnegie Hall!
Stephenie Hovland says
I love this idea! Thanks for posting it. I just sent an email out to my piano families telling them that I am setting up some field trips.
Jennifer Foxx says
It’s been a while since I’ve done a field trip, but my favorite one is when we went to a piano factory. The students loved seeing how piano’s were made.
Elaine says
Apple Store!
Denae Love says
We live a few blocks away from a University, so we do a field trip every semester to a faculty recital, piano major recital, composers recital, senior recital etc. These ones are nice because they are free to the public. The Piano Guys and other performers come here a lot too, so we’re thinking next time they come, we should make it a studio outing. 🙂
Eleanor Baldwin says
One year I met my kids and their parents at the local music store. I arranged for the manager to greet them and show them where their level of music was located. I played on the store piano any music that they thought they wanted to learn. It was a giant success!
Donna Lee Wright says
I use to end the school by taking a van load of my teenage piano students to a larger city nearby to visit four different music stores. We were able to see instruments both new and old. The students were able to play on the keyboards and pianos. Two places were strictly books & sheet music. Together we were browsing through many pieces and purchasing some new music. In the downtown area there was a two-story McDonalds for us to get an ice cream cone, a nearby bank with a revolving door(new to some & of course they tried it out) and a great pizza place for lunch. Took lots of pictures. It was a fun day!
Mary says
I have taken teen piano/voice students to musicals at High schools, gone to see Wicked at the Fox downtown Atlanta, piano recitals and nursing homes to perform. They love all these interactive music adventures and it does help create friendships among all my students. I believe this has contributed to them sticking with piano lessons 10-12 years. Keep the ideas coming. It reinforces thinking outside the usual box we might have been in for years!
Denise says
What a wonderful post…something I would not have thought of doing. Thanks so much for your ideas.
Christine says
I have been thinking about field trips the past two weeks so this post was very timely for me. Thank you!