Everything you need to cover in your First Piano Lesson

So, you’re a piano teacher now.

Maybe you just got out of school and are looking to make some money, maybe you have been studying privately for a while and a friend wants you to teach them what you know, maybe you want to impart a little bit of long-ago knowledge from your childhood to your child. Whatever the case, the first piano lesson is coming up, and you’re not sure what to do.

How long do you make the lesson? What information should you cover? How much time should be spent learning, how much time should be spent getting to know your student?

These are all perfectly normal questions to be asking yourself before your first piano lesson. These are questions I asked myself before teaching my first piano lesson (and more) – and I didn’t even settle on many answers until I got through a couple of first lessons and was able to tell what worked and what didn’t.

Through some trial and error, lots of thinking and worrying, and a little bit of asking around, I settled on a tried and true system for first piano lessons that hasn’t let me down yet – and I want to share it with you! So let’s answer those questions!

How long should I make my first piano lesson?

This answer can look different for a lot of different teachers, depending on where they are teaching and the kinds of students they will have. When I was living in Los Angeles, more people are willing to dive in headfirst and pay for a full lesson upfront. When we moved to Ramona, a small cow town in the mountains north of San Diego with a pace of life about a quarter of that in LA, people tended to be slower on the uptake.

So while many people were OK with hiring me right off the bat, I needed to come up with a different approach in Ramona – so I started offering free trial lessons.

A 15-minute slice of my time, unpaid, to see if we would be a good fit (and that’s exactly how I advertise it).

And let me tell you – that works in my small town.

Aside from demographic, you also want to take into consideration how much preparation you are going to put in beforehand. I like to pick a lesson book series based on the abilities of the student, so I use that first lesson to evaluate their needs and abilities. If you are going to pick a book series before hand, and the student is able to bring it to their lesson, it wouldn’t be a problem to do a longer lesson.

To sum up: take into consideration what would best set you and your student up for success in the subsequent lessons.

How much time should I spend on material, and how much time should I spend getting to know my student?

In my opinion, a successful teacher-student relationship relies heavily on just that – the relationship. That first piano lesson is your groundwork for that relationship, and your opportunity build a firm foundation.

Getting to know your student is so important, not just for your relationship with them, but also for you to get to know how best to help them learn. Since you are working one on one, you have the awesome gift of being able to tailor your lesson plan and teaching style specifically to them, and you need to get to know them in order to do that.

Just as important, obviously, is that they do learn – that’s why you’re there, right?

So how do we balance these two very important things?

My first piano lessons are often right around 50% getting to know them (and their parents) and 50% teaching – split straight down the middle. That shows them that I am dedicated not only to helping them learn, but doing it in a way that will work specifically for them.

Speaking of getting to know them… what kinds of conversations do I need to have?

This can be a tricky one. I have to fit all of my essential conversation into about 7 minutes, so I had to come up with a “must ask” list of questions and “must say” list of business details:

What are your goals?

Do they want to learn pop songs? Classical songs? Do they want to learn to write music? Do they want to play in a band?

If your student is a child, ask them and their parent this question separately. Get to know what the child is looking to accomplish and what the parent is looking for their child to accomplish, and see if the two line up. If not, see how you can best serve both of them

What is your previous musical experience?

This can help you pick out an appropriate lesson book for them. If you can, ask their parents too, and that can tell you what kind of help the child will be getting on their homework and practice times.

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Lesson Supplies

Give the student (or parent) a list of supplies to be brought to every lesson, and let them know which books you would like them to purchase.

I almost always use Alfred’s Piano Lesson Book and Alfred’s Piano Theory Book, as they are excellent books and available on amazon for relatively cheap, but you can make your own assessments for your own students.

My list:

Lesson Books – see my list of favorite beginner piano lesson books here

Notebook or Planner – for writing assignments

Pencil – not a pen.

This can also be done via email or text after the lesson – it’s the easiest way to include links to the books you need them to purchase.

Student Expectations

Practice

If you grew up doing music of any kind, you know the general rule for practicing. But as you start teaching and doing business with more and more people you’ll realize… it’s not really common knowledge even that you have to practice. So laying down some expectations is a necessary (and time-saving, down the road) discussion in your first piano lesson.

If you encounter a “problem” student who doesn’t practice as much as they should, there is a little trick I like to use: Draw 3-5 boxes next to where you write their assignments, and have them check off a box every time they practice – it’s basically a rudimentary practice log. And it works!

Your contract

First of all, if you don’t have a private music lesson contract, you absolutely need one (click here to read about how my contract came about, and some helpful tips on creating one.) Let me be clear: write your contract before you sign any more students. It’s that important.

Once you have your contract ready, make sure to cover it in all of your first lessons. I don’t have my students (or their parents) sign it until they are signing up for paid lessons, but I do cover all the things they will be agreeing to if they sign with me – timeliness, attendance, communication, cancellation policy, etc.

Their Budget, your lesson costs, payment plans, etc.

You have a set rate per hour or per half hour, and they have a budget. If your rate fits in their budget, great! If not, do some creative problem solving.

For example, I have a family who wanted to give their 4 girls the opportunity to learn music. At their first piano lesson, I learned that they couldn’t afford my fee for full lessons for all the girls each week. So I teach their theory as a group, and then teach each of the girls separately at the piano for 20 minutes instead of 30, shaving off half an hour – and we have lessons every other week.

With a little bit of finagling, we were able to come to an agreement we were both happy with, and the girls still get their music education! A fee issue doesn’t have to mean the end of lessons.

Finally, you want to discuss if they will be paying weekly, every two weeks, or once a month – that can have some impact on affordability as well.

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If you’re like me, you like concise lists – so here’s what you need to cover in your first piano lesson with a new student:

1. About the student
   • Their Goals
   • Their previous musical experience
2. Your expectations
   • Lesson Supplies (books, pencil, notebooks, etc)
   • Practice Expectations
   • Lesson expectations (timeliness, missed lessons, everything you include in your contract.)
   • Budget/pricing
     

There you have it – everything you need to cover in your first piano lesson with a new student.

Have any questions? Comments? Concerns? Musings? Suggestions? shoot us an email or leave a comment!