Re: [Harp-L] Advice About Being a Harmonica Teacher

[Chris Talbot <ctalbot@xxxxxxxxx>]

Not sure if this is helpful, but from the student's side, I'm an adult
(almost 40) and I do take regular (every other week) lessons. I cancel
infrequently, but it does happen. I think that's just a fact of life once
you're settled into a career. I suspect the average student is learning for
fun rather than focusing on harmonica as a career, so sometimes the hobby
of playing has to be placed further down the priority list.

I've been taking regular lessons almost all year. Before that, lessons were
a little more sporadic because I placed a lesser priority on them. But what
initially got me into taking lessons was meeting a teacher that fit my
style of learning. I take lessons through Skype video chat with him. Even
if I lived anywhere near him (we're actually two time zones away from each
other), I don't know if I could commit to in-person lessons with the same
frequency. For instance, I tried taking some in-person music theory lessons
locally, and I found I was frequently cancelling lessons. So for me, it's a
flexibility thing in addition to the teacher's style (which is very
methodical; I need that approach).

I'd say commitment is really what drives people to put time and money into
any hobby. If they don't have it, well ... there's probably little you can
do about that.

Hope that helps a little bit.

Chris

On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 11:39 AM, Ari Erlbaum <ari.erlbaum@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'm looking for some advice about how to get business as a harmonica
> teacher. I've been teaching for a few years on the side of my day job, but
> am now trying to work less on other things and more on harmonica. But what
> I've noticed is that it tends to attract more adults than kids (parents
> usually send their kids to piano lessons or something). Adults tend to be
> much less reliable for consistent lessons, since they are more connected to
> their pocketbooks and busier. They always go away from the first lesson
> super excited about playing harp, but tend to email later on saying that
> another bill came up so they can't afford lessons for a while, or the trip
> is too long for them to get here, etc. So for you all who have been doing
> this longer than I have, do you have any suggestions for either making
> adult students more reliable, attracting more kids, or finding some other
> scheme for being profitable-ish doing harp related things? And for any
> non-teachers, what might entice you to drop money consistently on harmonica
> lessons?
>
> For reference, my website is www.pocketmusic.musicteachershelper.com. Any
> feedback on that would be great as well. Thanks so much everybody!
>
> Best,
> Ari
>