I’m Lohnay Bishoff
Piano Lessons Coaching Consultant
I Help Piano Teachers Increase Their Income
Sign up for this Free Training
If you want to learn how I tripled my income, please sign up for this free training here.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam varius purus nec
Helping You Achieve Success
Unlock Your Full Income Potential as a Piano Teacher
After reading the Tony Robbins book, “The Giant Within,” which challenged me to question the way I was doing things, I asked myself, “How could I increase my income teaching piano lessons?” Acting on that answer doubled and eventually quadrupled my income!
Why do most piano teachers only teach one student at a time?
Children learn most things in groups, they dance, sing, play sports and go to school in group settings. Why then not with the piano?
Unfortunately private piano lessons has been the standard way of teaching lessons for centuries because of the size and expense of the teacher buying a piano and how loud they are. That is no longer the case.
You can now purchase high quality digital keyboards with weighted keys fairly inexpensively.
Will students learn as much in a group class?
In my experience, most students learn more in a group piano class than my private students do. The students love learning with others and want to do well in front of their peers.
We are social beings and there is an excitement in learning together. Especially after Covid-19, parents and students are looking for ways for their children to interact with eachother. I’ve noticed a higher retention rate in my group piano classes.
Will it cost me a lot of money and space to set up a group piano studio?
I set up my group studio in the same space I teach private lessons in, my front living room. I purchased a new Roland digital piano and then used my acoustic piano and a couple of electronic keyboards. I easily paid off my new piano with my group earnings. Digital pianos have come down in price since I started and the quality has gone up! I still play on my Roland Digital which I purchased back in 2002. So it really depends upon what you purchase, but you can get by with some very inexpensive equipment to start out. Most students these days are starting out on keyboards as their parents want to see if they are going to stay with lessons.
What piano method do I use to teach group lessons?
In my quest to start group lessons, I found the Mayron Cole Piano Method to be the best group method out there. It is now called the Free Piano Method as the creator of the method retired and being a very generous person that wanted to give back, she donated her method to the world!!
The funny thing is, when I was first researching this back in 2003, I was overjoyed when I discovered how she taught beginning students. I had really dreaded starting a new students in that all the methods I tried, they seemed to be lost as they moved too quickly. I really liked this method in that it didn’t introduce finger numbers until the students had learned to read 5 notes off the staff.
I was so tired of having students play by finger number. It was like the methods I was using had trained my student’s brains to read the finger number first, not the note. With the Mayron Cole Method, this is not the problem–students are trained to read notes after counting and keyboard geography are introduced, then the finger numbers.
Seriously this is the easiest method out their to introduce to students. There are no learning gaps! I quickly changed all my private students to this method and have been using it for the last 15 plus years. Everyonce in a while, I will get curious about a new method on the market and will research it to see if I maybe want to switch things up a bit. After researching the method, I usually just use pieces of it as a supplement because it just doesn’t stand up to the Mayron Cole Method. , The Mayron Cole Method sets students up for success with it’s strong foundational approach in theory, note reading and counting skills.
But don’t take my word for it, you can research all the material right here on their website for free!
What I Created that Can Make Teaching Group Lessons a Delight?
One of the hard things that can happen when you teach group lessons, is that students miss lessons for various reasons. Sometimes when this happens, the students would be behind at the next lesson unless I scheduled an extra private lesson to catch them up. This almost defeats the purpose of teaching group lessons, if you are constantly trying to catch students up on missed lessons! So what I created are the video tutorials that each of your students can have their own personal login to be able to catch up on lessons missed. This will save you time and allow you to earn more money with open slots of time being able to teach multiple students at the same time.
The Challenge of Teaching Group Lessons and How I Can Help You
Although group lessons have so many benefits for the student and teacher, one of the most challenging aspects of it is that as you already know, we don’t live in a perfect world, and students miss lessons. I have always dreaded this, because it really instructionally puts a students behind with the rest of the group. In beginning piano lessons we are always introducing new concepts and skills, so when a student misses a class, this puts them in a position of needing to catch up with the group. I would sometimes do makeup lessons and I never charged the parent for the extra time. If you have several groups going, and with students missing in each group, you feel bad for the students but don’t really have time to schedule all these makeup lessons to help the student get caught up. So what I have created is NotablePianoLessons where I teach the group lessons in the Mayron Cole Method. This will help you immensely in that, you don’t have to sweat it out if someone misses a lesson, just have them log into their own profile and refer them to a specific module where they can easily view the instructions and get caught up.
Group Lessons and Running Out of Time
One thing I love about teaching group lessons is the extra time to cover the material. I would teach a 45 minute group lesson versus a 30 minute private lesson. The 45 minute lesson seemed like a breath of fresh air after teaching a 30 minute private-lesson and trying to cover all the essential elements of a well thought out prepared lesson. Playing a game in a 30-minute lesson is tough with the time constraints.
One thing I found out in teaching group lessons, is that I still wanted like another 15 minutes of time because I didn’t always have time to finish the method material. Well I’ve got you covered because if you teach a new concept and there are 3 songs to go with that concept but you don’t have time to go over all three songs, you could easily assign the students to log in to their account at home and finish the material. That way you are covering the essential concepts but if there is a change in hand position or fingering, the videos will help them with that. This leaves you more time to really dive in deep with things that may need extra work such as counting, theory work, etc.
Another thing I always wanted to do was play more teacher accompaniments with the students but we always ran out of time, plus the students didn’t have a lot of time in class to master playing with the teacher. Well in my video lessons, the teacher accompaniments are all there for them to practice with. That way when they come back, they can be prepared to play with the group and the teacher. Or they can have fun trying to play with the accompaniments at home.
I used to sell students the CD accompaniments but that just never really worked as you have to put the CD in the player, and get it on the right track. So much fidgeting around. This is all ready to go in the student membership area.
Career Advice
Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed sit
Why You'll Love Teaching This Method
When I first started teaching piano lessons, I dreaded it when I had to start a new student. The reason for this is that there was just way too much information introduced at once. When I studied the Mayron Cole Level 1A book before I started teaching group piano lessons, It was like 20 lbs had been lifted off my shoulders. I could see that this was going to work. It was so simply laid out. The first lesson is just tapping rhythms and Mayron Cole even introduces how to count eighth notes in the very first lesson. The students also have fun learning together and playing games to reinforce concepts.
Teacher Accompaniments to Free Up Your Time
I’ve also included all the teacher orchestrated accompaniments for your students to practice along with at home. No need for CD’s. In my lessons, we often didn’t get time to play a lot of the accompaniments or the students were not prepared to play with the teacher as they hadn’t had a chance to listen to the accompaniments at home. This gives your students the opportunity to listen to the accompaniment and be ready to play with the group the teacher accompaniments.
Metronome Recordings
I’ve also included the metronome recordings to practice with at different speeds. It’s nice for the students to be able to hear the song so they know how it should sound and then play along with a metronome. Of course this is all optional and I’ve offered some different ways to help your students learn so that when they come to group piano class, they can feel more confident if they have gotten behind in a lesson or want to challenge themselves a little more. This frees up more of the teacher’s time to focus on theory, games, other fun supplementary music.
What Is Life Coaching?
Who is Coaching For?
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam varius purus nec lobortis vulputate. Suspendisse sit amet feugiat purus. Integer gravida, ex vel hendrerit sagittis. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam varius purus nec lobortis vulputate. Suspendisse sit amet feugia
Donec rutrum congue leo eget malesuada.
Vestibulum ac diam sit amet quam vehicula elementum sed
Donec sollicitudin molestie malesuada.
Curabitur aliquet quam id dui posuere blandit.
Curabitur arcu erat, accumsan id imperdiet et.
About Me
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Phasellus malesuada nibh quam. A congue ante ultricies sit amet. Maecenas ante mauris, placerat in pretium non, sagittis a leo. Nulla feugiat ipsum facilisis finibus ornare. Donec placerat bibendum purus ac volutpat.
Maecenas ligula nisi, mollis ac nulla et, sagittis lobortis erat. Vestibulum rutrum at quam vitae consectetur. Suspendisse ullamcorper hendrerit turpis, ac cursus eros lacinia at. Donec vitae fermentum ligula. Sed porta ac ante ut maximus. Donec aliquet leo porta, viverra diam ut, accumsan metus.
Testimonials
“Mauris aliquam lobortis eros tincidunt sodales. Vestibulum non quam vitae sapien eleifend varius. Phasellus id metus mauris.”
“Mauris aliquam lobortis eros tincidunt sodales. Vestibulum non quam vitae sapien eleifend varius. Phasellus id metus mauris.”
“Mauris aliquam lobortis eros tincidunt sodales. Vestibulum non quam vitae sapien eleifend varius. Phasellus id metus mauris.”
Online Coaching Resources
Wellness eBook
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam varius purus nec lobortis vulputate.
The Essentials of Goal Setting
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam varius purus nec lobortis vulputate.
3 Week Career Workshop
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Etiam varius purus nec lobortis vulputate.
What I Created That Can Make Group Teaching a Delight and Your Income Skyrocket!
One of the hard things that can happen when you teach group lessons, is that students miss lessons for various reasons. Sometimes when this happens, the students would be behind at the next lesson unless I scheduled an extra private lesson to catch them up. This almost defeats the purpose of teaching group lessons, if you are constantly trying to catch students up that miss lessons! So what I created are the video lessons that each of your students can have their own personal login to be able to catch up on lessons missed.
I taught my group piano lessons as a group–very seldom did I teach mini individal private lessons when they had their headphones on. They enjoyed playing together and keeping time together. However with the video lessons I created, teachers and studios would have the option to have a drop in type format if they chose to do it that way. Your studio could purchase tablets or the students could provide their own to log in and then get the help they need from you. This allows you to teach large groups of students at the same time which increases your income substantially.