In all of my years of teaching one thing has stayed constant… the absolute need for parents to be “on board” with the entire piano lesson process. Without parental support our jobs are a whole lot more difficult. We are, after all, dealing with 7 year old clients who still sleep with teddy bears; so some sort of parent involvement is certainly needed!
This year, inspired by the podcast I did with Dr. Christopher Fisher, I’m going to be hosting a Piano Parent Meet and Greet before my fall term begins. I’m hoping to accomplish the following:
- Holy wowza… this place is awesome! I use a lot of unique resources and teaching methods in my lessons. But without actually showing the parents, I risk having my students get into the car and say “I dunno” when asked what took place in their piano lesson that ended 5 seconds ago (it happens!). Parents need to see what it is that makes my lessons unique and they need to see it first-hand. Most piano resources really need to be demonstrated to truly grasp how they work. And if I want my students to be using their materials properly at home, parents need to see what their role will look like.
- Hey… I know you! Building a sense of community within my studio is really important to me. Not only does it create a feeling of belonging, but it also helps with student retention. If parents see their child’s peers involved in music lessons they are more likely to stick with it when their child shows signs of falling into a “valley” when it comes to practice motivation. Talking with other like-minded parents who also value music education can do nothing but good. We live in a culture, like it or not, where “keeping up the Joneses” directs a lot of people’s behavior. If you introduce everyone to the “Joneses” then you’re one step ahead of the game.
- This is what effective home practice looks like. We’ve blogged before about the importance of those 167.5 hours your piano students are not in lessons each week. What happens at home is the key factor in many things including the obvious like progress and skill, but also the not-so-obvious such as retention. But I want my piano students’ parents to know that home practice doesn’t just mean 30 minutes of “butts on the bench”. Most of my piano parents have no musical background themselves and therefore just assume they’re better off NOT helping. Demos and some handouts like this one will be going home to give them the tools they need to know how to use cues in method books to assist when needed, and how to provide effective encouragement and support for home practice.
- Peaks and Valleys are normal. Piano teachers can find themselves fighting an uphill battle against parents who are reluctant to push their child to do something that the child isn’t absolutely ecstatic to do. They believe they are doing the right thing in discontinuing piano lessons at the first sign of discontent. Now, my lessons are pretty darn enjoyable, but piano also requires work at home (something most other extracurricular activities do not). Even the most motivated kid will turn up their nose at extra work sometimes… and so it’s up to me to let parents know a) this is normal and b) the benefits of stick-with-it-ness are SO worth it. This is best done in person I believe.
- This is how we work together. Most of my “headaches” in running a piano studio have been abolished through years of experience and just knowing what to do and what to say. Experience has also taught me that having both a strong relationship and clearly laid out expectations are imperative. This is also best done in person. Almost every potential problem can be preemptively squashed with a great face to face chat.
I’m anticipating that my parent welcome evening will take about 2 hours of my time (1 hour to prep the materials I’ll be handing out and one hour for the actual meeting). I’m also anticipating that it will then save me reams of time during the year when it comes to answering emails, attempting to explain things over email and keeping kids motivated and happy. Worth it!
One of the many resources I’ll be highlighting in my Piano Parent Meet and Greet is our resource, Shhhh. Your Piano Teacher Thinks This Is Practice. Our piano students spend most of their piano time at home, not in our studios, so it is important parents are armed with practice resources and strategies that inspire students to practice.
Diana says
Sounds like a great idea. How do you determine a good day of week/time of day for parents to meet?
Barbara says
Yes, I’d like to hear more about timing, too. Everyone is so busy how do you go about setting up the time that gets the most response. Thanks!
Andrea says
Hi Diana – I’m hoping with enough notice that most people will be able to take just 60 minutes of their time to come. I’m hopeful, but realistic. The ones I DO get are the committed ones and the ones more likely to follow through anyhow 🙂 Everyone else I’m considering a bonus!
Barbara says
You’re so good at this sort of thing so I’d love to see you holding this Meet & Greet. Maybe you could video and share with us as one of your blogs… Thanks for all you do for piano teachers. Your blog and resources have been invaluable to me:)
Andrea says
Hi Barbara! I’ll try 🙂 So glad you’re enjoying the blog.
Carolyn Nelson says
I love this idea of a Parent Night (kinda like a back to school night in a manner of thinking…) and the “wheels of planning” are already turning in my mind! I would like to tactfully request that parents come without their children – 1) do you do this and 2) how do you convey this?
Thanks for the ideas and tools you give all of us to be better teachers/coaches/musicians. :o)
Andrea says
Hi Carolyn! You could either say “Parents only please” or you could provide a separate room with an intermediate student who could “babysit” any kids who happen to come along. I’m going to say Parents only 🙂
Anna Fagan says
For many years now, I schedule Group Lessons the week that public schools resume, and have the kids bring an ice cream topping to share, and a goal sheet that I e-mail to their parents about week in advance of the lessons. I provide the ice cream, and while the kids are chowing down in my dining room, I spend some time in the family room with the parents, discussing plans for the year and going over some materials (including their kid’s goal sheets!) It’s a great time to review basic studio policies, hand out the swap list, answer questions and share “how to get gets to practice at home” tactics. I call it “Ice Cream and Goals”.
Andrea says
Love it!
Amy Klingsten says
Great idea to provide a Piano Parent Meet and Greet! Thank you for all the wonderful ideas! I can’t wait to get this year started!
Kathy G says
This is a perfectly timed (and as usual, inspiring) post, as we all head into the new year of teaching. I have held ‘Parent Meetings’ in the past, though not recently. Previously I was introducing a new system of teaching and new materials, and that spurred the original idea. But how much more welcoming to call it something like ‘Meet and Greet’. I loved the suggestion that you make a video of at least some of your own M&G to share with us on your blog. And I see there is still time to get something like this on my calendar before school starts. Thanks a bunch.
Andrea says
Would love to know how it goes Kathy!
Christine says
Andrea, thank you for this post! I have been wanting to do a parent Meet and Greet for years and this is just the motivation I needed! I’m curious, are you planning to do a meet and greet for your entire school and all your teachers, or just your personal studio?
Andrea says
Hi Christine – I’m going to do just my students first. With multi-instruments it gets trickier and more complicated 🙂
Drema says
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve started a Parents Meet & Greet last year because I was introducing some new things to the studio and haven’t planned this year’s yet. I made it into smaller groups so parents can also feel comfortable to ask questions after. As I read your blog, I’m also thinking of a Gathering for my adult students — maybe less formal, lay out events for the entire year and allow them to meet each other so they know that other adults are learning as well! Also, some kind of snack is always good. For sure for the informal adult gathering — last year for my parents’ meet & greet, everyone were so busy looking over handouts I gave them and making sure they understood everything that nobody touched the snack! Sharing what you do with the students is such a good idea too. I even got one or two adult to come improvise with me to give them an idea of one thing we did in the lessons!
Hope you have a great Meet N’ Greet this year!
Andrea says
Some fabulous ideas Drema! Thanks so much for sharing.
Jennifer Foxx says
Hmmmm…. I wish I had this thought a month ago, but this would work perfectly in correlation when I do my fall kickoff week. The first week back to lessons my students come at one time on their regular lesson day for fall kickoff. This is where I introduce what is new, play games, etc… Then the week after the regular schedule begins. It would be perfect the last 30 min. or so to have parents join us and I go through what I would like them to hear as well. My fall kickoff begins today. But next year, I will have to remember to do this!