As summer approaches, private music teachers all across the world are setting up their plans for summer music lessons. If you are a private music teacher and don’t have an intentional plan of what to do with your students over the summer, it’s time to get to planning!

It’s a conundrum that every private music teacher has to face once every few years as their studio grows, fluctuates, and develops, so I get this question often: what should I do with my students over the summer? Or, my students and their parents ask me: what do you do about summer music lessons? In other words, what’s your plan?

The best way to approach summer music lessons in your music studio really depends on a few things.

Each year when I come to this point and re-evaluate my summer lesson plans, I ask myself a few questions:

1. What is best for my family?
   I had a baby (my first!) at the end of March 2023. As we were planning, John and I knew that our daughter and our family had to take the highest priority, so we had to decide what that would look like.
2. What do I need in terms of income?
   If I am considering pausing lessons, do I have enough in savings or does my partner make enough to cover expenses for the summer? If not, what amount do we need?
3. What will work best for my students?
   Of course, my students have to be a deciding factor here – both their summer schedules and their learning styles are important considerations.

In light of your answers, you have a couple of different options in terms of your summer music lesson schedule:

Continue summer music lessons as usual

If the bulk of your students are able and wanting to continue their private music lessons through the summer as usual, and you are free to continue, then this is a no-brainer: keep them going with summer music lessons!

Keeping their music lessons going through the summer can really help with retention (we all know that long breaks tend to result in a higher likelihood of students not returning), and I have found that some parents (and kids) really love having some sort of constant even when school is stopped. Plus, the consistent income from the summer music lessons is a huge peace of mind for us teachers.

I’ve shifted my schedule around, allowed more makeup lessons, and even offered lessons every other week (I don’t recommend this one), all in an effort to keep students going through the summer. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it was more trouble than it was worth. In those cases, there are other things you can do instead of keeping your private music students going through the summer:

Take a break from lessons for the summer

Most of my students either continue as normal through the summer or take a break from lessons completely.

Especially with school-aged kids, lining lesson breaks up with the school year breaks is really convenient for most families, and with travel plans (for either you or your students) can make it impractical to hold summer music lessons. The additional freedom during the summer can make it difficult to keep with a consistent schedule not only with lessons but with practicing. Sometimes – depending on the student – a mental break for the summer is worth its weight in gold in preventing burnout and increasing drive the following year.

As a bonus, you can take your time off from lessons to bolster other areas of your business: you can work on your website (check out our guide to a great private music teacher website here), take some business courses on marketing, or just hone your craft!

Of course, there is the issue of getting back into the swing of things once the music lessons start back up, but I’ve found that the transition is often easier than fighting through the summer with a student who won’t practice.

Run a music summer camp (or several!)

Summer music intensives, summer music camps, summer music workshops – whatever you want to call them, they can be a wonderful way to spend your summer! There is good potential for increased income and expanding your client base to people who might not try weekly lessons.

(Side note – google searches for “summer music camp near me” go up around 900% at the end of the school year. If you have a website and optimizing for keywords, this is a GREAT opportunity!)

A potential downside to running a music summer camp is the amount of work you need to put in up front. You’ll need to decide your schedule and focus for the camp (or camps), find or write a curriculum (this one is a good option if you’re looking to buy), and then do the legwork to enroll enough students to make it worth your while.

Another side note: yearly events like workshops or music camps tend to snowball each time you do them. So the first year, you may not have as many enrollments as you would like, but you can expect some growth year after year if you are intentional with your planning.

Assign independent study instead of traditional summer music lessons

A few caveats for this option: The student needs to have one of the following:

1. an established independent work ethic (more common in older students)
2. an involved parent who enforces practice and homework

Without at least one of the two, the studying won’t happen. If they do have one of those, this is a wonderful option to keep the learning going over the summer without having to adjust scheduling.

I personally like to assign theory work over the summer – this is my favorite music theory workbook to assign – because the black-and-white nature of the subject makes it less prone to misunderstandings or wrong learning.

The best way to figure out what to do about summer music lessons in your studio is to ask: what works best for me and my students?

And really, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. In my own studio, the answer differs from year to year and even from student to student.

if you need help weighing the pros and cons and figuring out what kind of summer music lesson plan will work best for you and your studio, we are here to help! Shoot us an email and we would love to chat with you about it.