This time of year is extremely busy for everyone. Louisiana schools just finished taking the LEAP and iLEAP tests, there are piano festivals every weekend until May, and between other games, practices, and recitals, teachers, students, and parents alike are ready for the school year to end! This is the time of year that I have to gently remind parents summer lessons are required in Piano Pathways’ studio policy. Since new parents sometimes think that summer lessons will be impossible to make happen with traveling and camps and no practice routines, I want to offer a brief explanation to parents about the benefit of summer lessons.
Summer lessons at Piano Pathways are two-fold: enrolling in summer lessons will hold your lesson spot in the schedule as a returning student for the fall, and it is a financial security for the business, as well as my livelihood. For the past several summer, many new parents want to sign their child up for lessons. If I know that “X” number of students are not returning in the fall by their absence in summer lessons, I will gladly open my waiting list and begin taking new clients. However, if current students take the summer off and then change their mind about fall lessons, then my declining new students is lost income for those summer months from current students, new students, and potentially beyond that time. Summer lessons also provide income that is necessary for the business to operate, as well provide the teacher’s salary for the months of June and July. Imagine if your work decided there would not be work or pay for two months and you cannot take on new work to make-up for your lost income, but you can gladly return in two months with your regular position and salary!
Students who take summer lessons are also at a huge advantage to progress. Parents and students often find that without their regular commitments to school and other activities, even without a regular practice schedule, they gain so much ground in summer. Students who do not have instruction from May-August will forget skills and concepts that we have worked all year to attain, and what you don’t use, you lose! It will take months to get back to where we left off in May without summer piano lessons.
This year, in lieu accepting new clients for private lessons, Piano Pathways is offering summer piano camps for beginners. These camps will be in our state-of-the-art Yamaha piano lab. They are a great value for summer piano lessons and the perfect way to “try out” piano instruction while having fun with other children! For my current students in lieu of private summer lessons, I am also offering intermediate and advanced classes to explore other skills we do not practice as much during the school year: improvisation, duets and ensembles, movie tunes, even a “rock star” class for the older kids to learn some classic rock songs! These classes will meet for 6 weeks between June and July at a reduced cost than what students normally pay for two months of instruction at the studio.
Some parents question about what to do if they will be out-of-town and will be missing several classes. There is always something creative that we can come up with to make the summer piano lessons work. Blending the classes with a few private lessons, or mixing up enrollment between classes when you are in town are possibilities. I encourage parents to always talk to me about any questions or concerns they have, and I know we can come to a solution that everyone is happy with!
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