I know you've made your choice but I wanted to also add, that I am on the fence about bi-weekly lessons.

I have some students (parents) who have chosen this due to finances or custodial arrangements, so this is the best option for them.

It has worked well for some of my students, if they are disciplined to practise. However I feel that is the key.

It can be tough to schedule them, especially if there are 5 Mondays (example) in the month, and you are trying to slot in students biweekly at the same lesson time. This was a small issue with the one girl who was at Mom's one week and Dad's the next. When needed I was able to switch with the other student thankfully, but this could have been hard to do.

I'm happy to hear they committed to weekly lessons! Good job on standing for that. I'm glad they decided to register anyhow!

P.S. For some teachers the bi-monthly lessons may work just fine. I have just found out what my preference is... in the future I won't be giving that as an option for any new students (I teach beginning-intermediate).

Joyful, I feel you are correct that a key factor in bi-weekly lessons is in disciplined practice. I think this may be very difficult for a beginner to develop from the start, because, as it has been put, they don't know what they don't know. An adult beginning student of mien told me that he never would have realized that such things as intervals and intervallic reading were so important had he not taken lessons. That particular student is taking a break right now, but I think has learned enough to go on his own and understand the importance of methodically learning such things. Just a thought...

Swoop1, I'm glad they decided to do weekly. I wanted to add that some bi-weekly students that I had used to forget they had a lesson on a certain week. Their excuse? "I thought it was the no lesson week". So I had to make it up the next week.
Glad it worked out for you!

Anya, for my bi-weekly students they are set on either 1st/3rd or 2nd/4th weeks, and if there's a 5th week no one is on (unless they want to pay for an extra lesson).

I need to stress practise more for at least one biweekly student. She is progressing but it was slow at first. I don't know how personally interested she is in piano so that's probably a factor too!

I did biweekly lessons for ONE student for a short period of time, when his family was having financial issues. The parents are both musicians (one of them a chorus/guitar/keyboard/theory teacher at a local HS), so I knew the student would have a resource if he had any trouble, AND I knew he would practice!!! They eventually returned to weekly lessons. When we were bi-weekly, I scheduled him at the end of the day so I wouldn't have a consistent hole in my day.

I have not allowed biweekly lessons for new students.

By the way, if you decide to teach biweekly for whatever reason, you do not have to charge half-tuition just because they're coming for half as many lessons. You can still define your own tuition rates, especially since the planning issues are still significant. For some families, the "added value" of weekly lessons might encourage them to make the commitment to come every week, but for students in the situation Joyful described with the alternating custody, I see why biweekly might be the only workable option for them.

Please excuse the perfectionist in me as I share this last paragraph. "Biweekly" means every other week. "Bimonthly" means every other month. "Semimonthly" means twice during the month. I had to know the difference when I worked in payroll/accounting and had to read IRS withholding tables.

Amanda

You're right, Amanda, we certainly don't have to make less off of a biweekly student. Thanks for pointing that out. Boy, I have learned A LOT in the last year! This year, my biweekly students will be paying the same amount as the 30 minute weekly students, and they will be required to take 1 hour lessons, except for one which will be a 30 minute lesson. That's how it worked out so they could receive the same amount of time during the year as the weekly students.

Just revisiting an old thread, because I got a call today someone asking for piano lessons. Sounds like the family is over-scheduled, as many are these days, and the grandmother wants two lessons a month for her 9 yr old granddaughter who would be a beginner. Ugh! I had to proceed to tell her that I found the best thing that works for students are weekly lessons. She said that it would be impossible right now for them to do that right now with soccer and all these other activities. It doesn't sound like the girl would even have much time to practice. I hate turning away a possibility of a new student, but I don't think it's ultimately fair to the student to only get 1 or 2 lessons a month. Progress is slow- mistakes and bad habits develop and stay longer. So I had to say "no" to the biweekly lessons. The grandmother did say they would look at their schedules and she would get back with me on it. I doubt they'll want to study with me since I won't do the biweekly lessons.

Anyways, just venting. Wish people weren't so over-scheduled.

Good for you in staying strong, April. I can't make this work, either, with children, although I've tried.

So she's basically telling you "it would be impossible right now for them to take piano lessons right now", since weekly lessons are the ONLY option in music study for children.

Boy, I may be fighting this battle with a parent soon.....Kudos to you for standing UP for quality music education!