We’re heading into the thick of cold and flu season and this means you will have a piano student that misses a lesson.
Missed lessons are a real pain. When a student is absent, it’s so much more than just losing out on 30 minutes of contact time; it’s a lost opportunity to assist with the previous week’s material and a lost chance to maintain progress with new material for the coming week. This 14-day spread of “no contact” is a long time in the life of a young child.
Discussions of make-up lessons aside, it’s a great idea to connect with absent piano students to keep their motivation high so that practice does not get ignored. If you don’t teach online lessons, this can be a tricky thing to do… until today!
In the post below, we’re sharing a simple email you can copy, paste and send to students who were recently absent from lessons.
It’s an impressively-organized way of keeping your students on track in those times when absences happen.
Send This Email When A Piano Student Misses A Lesson
The next time you have absent piano students, use their lesson slots to send this email. Parents will appreciate the gesture, and students will appreciate the guidance it provides until they are able to return to lessons and get back on track.
Hi Amy,
I’m so sorry to hear you weren’t well during our lesson time! I hope you’re on the mend and feeling a bit better.
As we didn’t get the chance to connect at your lesson, I thought I’d put together some home practice ideas. Once you’re feeling up to it, these simple tasks will keep you moving forward in the coming days.
This week at home, try the following:
- Choose a review piece that we haven’t visited for a while and spend some time perfecting it again. Pay special attention to phrasing, dynamics, and articulation. Pretend you’re getting it “recital ready”. I look forward to hearing it next week!
- In lreation to your current piece, write down three things that are “going well” and three things that “need help”. You can write these little notes on a piece of paper, or, on your sheet music, you can highlight tthings that are “going well” in green and things that “need help” in yellow. These notes will help us regroup when you return to lessons.
- Find a simple piano piece from your first piano book and teach it to your brother, sister, or friend. If your “student” finds it difficult, turn the tune into a duet, where you play the challenging parts and your duet partner plays the easy bits. After a few practice sessions, put on a mini-recital for your family.
- Find a pair of drumsticks (pencils or pens) and tap the rhythm of your piano piece directly on the sheet music. Each tap should happen directly on each note head in your music. Use one “drumstick” for the bass line and one for the treble line. You can check out a Tap Practice demo here.
I hope you have fun with these tasks! I can’t wait to see you at our next lesson.
Feel better soon!
Andrea
More Emails To Help With Piano Parent Communication
Over the years we have created quite the collection of email templates that you can use in your studio. Click each of the images below to check out some of our favorites:
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