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5 Changes To My Piano Lesson Planning That Have Saved My Sanity

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I used to feel as though my piano teaching job consumed my life. When I wasn’t teaching piano… I was thinking about teaching piano. When I wasn’t thinking about teaching piano, I was… still thinking about teaching piano.

When you work for yourself it’s already difficult to “flick the off switch”,  but when you work for yourself doing something you absolutely love, it can be downright impossible.

This past year I’ve made 5 changes to the way I plan my piano lessons. These changes have saved my sanity… literally. And I can now think about other things… like blogging about teaching piano 😉

If you feel like your piano lesson planning is taking over your life… give these 5 changes a try. Hopefully adopting these changes will free up some brain space and some physical time to pursue other loves in your life.

5 Ways To Make Piano Lesson Planning More Efficient

1.  Choose a Lesson Planning Day… and Plan It All.  For me, lesson planning used to happen in little bits every day. I’d race to the computer whenever I had a scrap of time. It was stressful and haphazard and not conducive to good teaching.

Now, Saturday mornings are my lesson planning time, allowing me steal back personal time during the rest of the week. It was a bit hard to get used to at first, but I’ve found that I’m now forced to do two things: 1) be very efficient while I am planning,  and 2) avoid any last-minute scrambling during the week. I can literally close my studio door after my two hour planning sessions on Saturday morning knowing that the week ahead is well under control.

2. Choose a “Grand Scheme Day” and plan out your entire month – Because I can’t fit in all of the extra fun things I like to do with my students during my Saturday Morning Planning Sessions, I also allow myself one block of time at some point during the last three days of every month. It’s during this time that I plan out and prepare any studio-wide events, incentives, special projects, monthly themes, new piano games for the month, and student awards. It’s a larger block of time than my weekly planning sessions but well worth the effort.

3. Find a Materials System That Actually Works – I struggled for years with ways to keep everything organized for each student. Folders, baskets, shelves, cabinets… I have tried it all. I’ve finally settled on daily teaching binders, and it’s kept me super organized. Here’s how it works:

  1. Each teaching day has it’s own binder. This way, on Wednesday I can pull out my Wednesday binder, and avoid flipping through page after page of weekly activities.
  2. Each binder has a divider for each student, arranged in the order in which they are scheduled. As each student leaves, I simply flip to the next divider and I’m ready for the next piano lesson.
  3. On my “lesson planning day” I grab all of my daily binders and fill the dividers for each student by printing supplementary music and activities, studio notices, and lesson assignment sheets.
  4. Each student has a cover page where I make note of anything I need to remember (the current piece they are working on, the piano games we’ve played etc.) This makes communication with parents a snap – simply flip to their divider, scan their cover page and I’m up-to-date on everything I need to know about every student.

4. Let Concepts Be Your Guide – It’s tempting to cram as much awesomeness into a piano lesson as is physically possible but doing so can result in chaotic lessons that don’t have an overall plan. I plan everything I do in a lesson based on the concepts my students are currently learning. These concepts are based on the yearly plans I create for my students.

To learn more about coordinating your lessons click here.

Concept-based learning looks a little like this… if my student is learning to identify intervals at sight in his method book, I choose a piano game, an off-the-bench activity, a composing activity, and a supplementary piece that includes the intervals he is learning. All of these activities or “extras” go behind his divider in my teaching binder.

Whatever we don’t use in each lesson then stays behind his divider for next time (lesson planning is easier the following week!) This makes my lesson preparation much more organized and streamlined.

5.  Make use of Your Friendly Local Print Shop – We tossed our color printer out last year and I have never looked back. I now do all of my printing for lessons at my local Staples store. It’s more cost-effective and the quality is better than what I can print at home.

I also do it because it is SO MUCH FASTER!  As I’m flipping through my daily teaching binders I’m also online uploading the pages I need printed.  By the time I’ve planned my week, I’ve also uploaded everything I need printed. An hour later, it’s done and ready for me to pick up!  By avoiding “printing from home” I’ve saved myself about 1.5 hours every week.  I’ll take it! 🙂

A Final Tip?

Make use of a method book that’s done all of the planning for you! WunderKeys Preschool, Primer and Level 1method books contain everything you need to give well-rounded, engaging lessons including technical work, ear training, sight-reading, duets, and even cut-and-play piano games! We’ve taken all of the hours you would normally spend planning and searching for materials and are giving those hours back to you! Find out more at www.wunderkeys.com.

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60 Responses to 5 Changes To My Piano Lesson Planning That Have Saved My Sanity

  1. I do the same thing you do: plan my entire week in a single block of time once a week. Instead of daily binders, I have folders for each student arranged in schedule order and I place whatever I need for that week’s lesson in the folder the same day I do my lesson planning. Instead of planning each lesson around a concept, I plan them around each individual student’s current weakness (note reading, rhythm, intervals, etc.).

    Reply

  2. My biggest struggle is organization in planning–keeping track of where we are and where we’re going. I have just switched from a “folder” system to a “binder for each day” system. Could we see a copy of your “cover page”?

    Reply

    • Hi Alice – It’s not “pretty” otherwise I would have shared a printable! Making it pretty didn’t fit into my monthly planning I suppose (if it’s just for me I don’t put in too much effort!)

      My cover page simply has the month the top and 2 weeks per page with the following blank boxes:
      Concept Focus
      Repertoire List
      Composing/Improv Activity
      Game/Theory Activity
      Technical Work/Exercises
      Sight Reading

      I just jot down notes at the end of each day that are for me (so not really readable at all LOL) so I when I go to do my planning I know what each child has been doing in the previous week.

      Reply

    • Alice, my “cover page” is an individual note in Evernote for each student. The content is a little different from Andrea’s but much of it is similar. I keep all the notes in a Notebook named “Students”; each note is tagged with the day of the week the student is scheduled to make locating individual notes quicker. I keep my laptop on a small desk next to the piano and update the notes during the lesson, then email them to the parents directly from Evernote. My favorite feature of Evernote is that changes sync across all my devices so I can do my lesson planning on the go if necessary.

      Reply

  4. Fabulous article! I have binders for each day. I copy their lesson as they get ready to leave. Thanks for helping with the specific planning! I take time to do it but I haven’t streamlined the timing of planning. Awesome!

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    • Hello Fellow Binder User 😉 Hopefully the streamlining the timing of planning will help. It is so freeing to know that your entire week is planned well in advance. Here’s to relaxing Sunday evenings!

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  5. Love number 5. I was all depressed about color copies for awhile, because all the print shops around me (including Staples) charged 75 cents per copy. That adds up! I finally found someone who charges half that price, so now I’m happy 🙂

    My favorite time saver is my lists of all the units in all the method books I use. Under each unit, I’ve written what games to play to go with that new concept, what theory pages to do, what supplementary repertoire students can choose from, and anything else I might need. This has cut my planning time in half, and I think it will continue to cut it more as I get used to the lists I wrote. Of course, I have to continually add to it because I get four new games every month! 😉

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  6. This is fantastic!!This is year I feel overwhelmed,I teach at my house and I have 35 student and I needed this advise.And about printing It was very helpfull your idea because I had the same situation.What I need help is to create a contract with the parents would you help me with that?I have one but because I never reached up to this number of students it’s not usefull anymore.I love reading all your experiences,thank you so much for passing that along!!

    Reply

    • Hi Rachel! If you use our search bar to the right and type in “studio policies” you’ll find everything we’ve written on this topic. 🙂 Congrats on the full studio!

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    • I use piano adventures, If you leave your email, I’ll gladly send you my excel sheet for some of the books (I don’t use all of them)

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    • …just reading this post and comments now. I love working the ‘big picture’ with spreadsheets and long range planning. I would appreciate if I could have a copy of the Piano Adventures spreadsheet!

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  8. In doing lesson planning for Monday last night at 10:30, I was thinking there has to be a better way. Thanks for the encouragement to use a block of time to plan for the week. Just finishing Wednesday students now, then onto the rest of the week. Looking forward to more practice time and some free time in the evenings.

    Reply

    • Hi Susan – it really does help and I think it’s mostly because it forces you to be very efficient. I’m really strict with myself… if 2 hours have passed I have to be done no matter what. It stops me from adding in things that are “cute” but not necessarily 100% helpful to what my teaching goals are. The “cute” can happen if and when I have the time, but not at the expense of the important teaching stuff (or my own time!) This was a tough lesson to learn… but it’s helped!

      Reply

  9. THANKS!! With all your super games and teaching materials, I was flitting around like a chicken with its head cut off! I especially like numbers 3 and 4! Ahhhh. I feel better already.

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    • Hi Judy – Glad it helped 🙂 I think the important thing to remember is that you can use all of those extra teaching materials, but you just have to make them fit in in an efficient way. I’ve (slowly!) figured out that I don’t have to do everything all at once for every student. This was liberating and it’s made for more streamlined teaching. Plus my younger students have things they can look forward to as they progress through the studio. Win-win!

      Reply

  10. Really good advice here, especially #2, choosing a grand scheme day. This is something I often forget about or scramble to do, but obviously setting aside several hours a month is the solution! 🙂

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  11. I love all your articles, books, and games that you share with us. I especially am grateful for one that applies to us as teachers. I’ve been a daily planner and feel like I have no time left. Looking forward to the new approach to planning. Much needed for me!

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  12. You all are so organized and disciplined! I keep folders for all my students, I make copies of their homework assignments and plan the next lesson based on it. I have a notebook in each folder where I write my lesson plan, and make notes if something does not go the way I planned. What happens, that when I’m leafing through supplemental stuff for one student, I see something that I could use for other students, so I start making copies, and goes on and on.

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  13. At 73 years, having taught 53 of them, I count on simplicity for my sanity. My lesson plan begins the minute my student sits on the piano bench and I ask him what his week was like. If he didn’t practice much, we do a gentle review. If he practiced, I hear the pieces and try to praise as much as possible and offer a few suggestions if they are needed. I do have folders on each student for one purpose only — to slip in a book or two he might like. No off the bench activities, no color printouts, etc. Just music, music, music.

    Reply

    • Thanks Eleanor,
      I REALLY needed to hear that. I do my main planning in Aug., and Jan. I have a yearly chart that I weekly fill in about each student.
      But life is full for me so planning is minimal.
      I run another small business from home; I try have kids out for horseback riding,, and I visit my grandbabies.,,
      My main planing priority is that I always, ALWAYS ask God for guidance in teaching; therfore ideas and solutions come to me during the lesson, none of which I researched or planned. I am so thankful for that.
      My students seem to have good attitudes to lessons and love playing.
      I’m thankful for all your teaching help on this website, which I found only this summer.

      Reply

  14. Totally agree pretty close to 50 years also and taylor my lesson to what the kid has done this week with one exception-technique. They wash their hands and do what has been assigned and almost never vary from scales first might be sight reading first. And then the rest of the lesson. Would love to plan and follow it but find their lives get in the way.

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  15. I have too many resources. I can’t keep track of it all and what to put where. I have all of your games and books and more besides. I need to find a way to spreadsheet materials by level or goal or something! Help! So many resources go unused and yet I continue to collect more. Music Hoarders not anonymous!

    Reply

    • Hi Ruth – Colleen Branson just shared a page on PianoTeacher Central Facebook group tonight that is a breakdown of where most of the PianoGameClub games fit in in terms of concept (and she also included what materials were needed/set up etc for each). We’re working on one that includes PBC and PianoGameClub resources so you can have a spreadsheet to cross-reference. A good idea to do (and I do this) is each month that you receive new games and books, add them to a folder on your computer that is separated by concept. Have folders for Rhythm, Note Reading, Dynamics, Intervals, Aural Learning etc. and then separate those folders into level. It makes it really easy when you go to plan your lessons/print as you eliminate the searching aspect. Does this help?

      Reply

      • Can’t wait for the spread sheet. I was getting ready to put something like that together today, but really don’t have much extra time. This will be a huge time saver. I’m not sure how long PBC has been going on, but is there a way of purchasing older material? I joined in July.

        Reply

          • Hooray! I’ve been hoping this was in the pipeline. I’ve got mine organized in folders, but it’d be handy to have a spreadsheet to cross-reference them. I’d also LOVE it if we could have a sneak peek at upcoming concepts, 3 months in advance–with just the concept (ie. rhythm, articulations, etc) would be AWESOME. I plan my year out, but this would help me get started anyways as I would know what I’m sourcing for games/repertoire for the upcoming semester. Thanks for yet another great post!

  16. Hi Andrea,

    Oh, I was totally feeling it these past few weeks as I got everything ready for the studio, in addition to completely rearranging all the furnitures in my studio room. I sensed that I really needed to set some boundaries or else, like you, I’m thinking about teaching, planning and prepping ALL the time! I think I need to have a cut-off time each day at night too or else my brain is running with teaching ideas even as I go to sleep. =)

    1) & 2) Planning and Grand Scheme
    Funny thing was I had just been thinking about taking some time on one day to plan for the coming week and also month. =) That is encouraging to know that it will work, from your experience! I had been planning each day before I teach but now that I also have some professional development sometimes in the mornings, I felt that I need to have some time set aside or else I will be rushing like mad! Hmm…the grand scheme

    3) Each of my student has a file folder where I put all the notes/planning I write. Then I use a storage pocket chart and group the students under the days of their lessons so that when I need to play, I just grab all the files from there.

    5) Yes, Staples is always my go-to for most of my printing, unless it’s black and white! In fact, I just came back from Staples an hour ago, picking up your piano games and some other materials I printed.

    Thanks Andrea & Trevor~ All the best to you and everyone else as the piano year begins!

    Reply

    • Hope the start of lessons went smoothly for you Drema! Glad you’ve found some systems that are working well for you. It is hard to “turn it off” but I think it’s something we have to actively teach ourselves to do 🙂 I do think it’s a good thing in some ways, however, it means we’re doing something that we love and that we are passionate about!

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  17. Just a question for you, Andrea. What length are your lessons? When I look at all the activities you have for each student in your binders I wonder how you can fit it all in!

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  18. instead of a binder for each student I use just one note per student on Evernote and the daily lesson plan on the Additio app, that way I can search weeks behind what have we done and so on. Sunday’s for me the planning day for the rest of the week 🙂

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    • Hi Zoe – you’re one step ahead of me. I haven’t moved all of my lesson notes etc. online. I’m so used to having hard copies! Something for me to venture into in the future. Glad to hear it works for you!

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  19. Gosh, this is so timely! Thanks Andrea, and I must admit it heartening to hear have had frustration and overwhelm, just like the rest of us. I’ve been thinking you were some kind of superwoman/Canadian teaching goddess…….. well, yeah, I guess that would be true too. 😉 But thank you for putting these suggestions so succinctly. I have been spinning in place, overwhelmed and unproductive this fall, after moving house, and going from a 450 sq ft studio separate from my house, to a 90 sq ft spare bedroom in our new small house. From 2 grands to one upright. I am still trying to figure out where to put all my music, files, etc including the posts you did last year, as mentioned above. Now I can use the link to read them again, without having to go through 10 boxes of studio papers and files. Hallelujah.

    For the record, I have been using both a binder and a file folder system, but am dissatisfied with it. I’m going to try something like you suggest here. My Inner Clerk (my name for the secret part of me that loves office supplies, notebooks, filing systems) is excited to be called upon to create a new system. Hopefully I can get it rolling before I have to start lessons next week. I stalled one extra week after school started here a week later than usual, but I can stall no more. It’s desperation time in the new studio. Thanks again!

    Reply

  20. Hi Andrea,
    I admire your zeal! I hope your students realize how lucky they are to have you instruct them.
    I do set aside time at the end of each day to make notes and lesson plans for each student (on a spreadsheet in my laptop) and planning time for each week on Saturdays.

    Reply

  21. Hello Andrea,

    I ‘m starting to have to get more organised with all my lesson prep, as I am hoping to expand my studio over the next year or two. Thanks for this post. It helps

    Reply

  22. So happy to have stumbled upon this article! As my studio is growing it’s harder and harder to find the appropriate time to plan. I will definitely try the binder method and setting up one day a week for intentional weekly and “Grand Scheme” planning. And copies!! Good idea to go to Staples/OfficeMax and save the money on ink! Thank you!

    Reply

    • So glad you found it helpful, Karyne! Yes… staples has “changed my life”. The employees there greet me enthusiastically by name LOL 😉

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  23. Hi! I really needed this article. I teach the lever harp (similar to teaching piano). But I don’t have a studio, and I have only been teaching for a couple of years. I currently have two students. Do you think the steps mentioned here would be worthwhile for me?

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    • Hi Karissa – yes, absolutely! Setting up “systems” early in your teaching career just means that you’ll find it easier and easier as your studio grows. Begin with the end in mind 🙂

      Reply

  24. These ideas are so helpful! I wish I could come see your studio and how you have all your extra materials set up and organized. It would be a thrill to see you in action teaching as well!

    Reply

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