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20/20/20 Lessons

3/30/2017

6 Comments

 

Note from Shane

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Today's guest blog comes from Amber Danielson of The Imaginative Music Studio. 

As the name implies, Amber has some really creative strategies for piano lessons. She would be the first to tell you that she didn't invent 20/20/20 lessons but she is a great example of how they can impact and transform your studio. 

These have been really popular in our Facebook group and I thought we should get a clear explanation of how they work!
​-shane

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20/20/20. What is it? This is the question I keep seeing over and over. It’s what I call my rotating piano lessons. While the name itself has caused much confusion the actual lessons have been fabulous!

Last year I decided that I needed to make some changes to my studio that addressed 3 things; student retention, income, and teaching hours. Let me address each of these individually.

  • Student retention: For the last few years of teaching, I felt that I was only able to hold onto a certain number of students. A couple of students would leave, then I’d get a couple new students, but I was always hovering around the same number of students. I kept reading about the benefits of group lessons and camps. The fact that it builds camaraderie to an otherwise somewhat isolating hobby was a huge plus for me! I was hoping that this might be the answer to retaining more students. So, during the Summer of 2016 I had my first Summer camp. I loved getting to see the dynamic of group lessons! This was something that was totally new to my studio!
  • Income: I honestly was not charging enough for lessons. I decided to raise my rates substantially for incoming students and keep my current students at a grandfathered rate. I only had 9 students at the time, so this is something that I knew would work for me. The easiest way for me to increase my income was to teach more students in an hour’s time, and open up more hours for incoming students.
  • Teaching hours: All of my students take lessons after school. This leaves me with a limited amount of time to teach and still have time with my family. Group lessons, of some sort, seemed like the best way to free up more time to teach and have more time with my family.​
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While researching group lessons, I heard Jennifer Fox on Tim Topham’s podcast, talking about her rotating lessons. I instantly loved this idea! Jennifer also has a fabulous webinar about rotating lessons on her blog so be sure to check it out. In short, a rotating lesson would have 3 students, come for 1 hour, and rotate individually through 3 different stations. This idea addressed all 3 of my concerns!
  • Student retention: Even though students are working individually, there is still a sense of camaraderie because they are all in the same room together. We can also work together on certain tasks.
  • Income: Even with grandfathered rates for current students, I was able to bump up my hourly rate, by having 3 students in 1 hour. I also was able to charge more for a service that I knew would appeal to incoming families.
  • Teaching hours: By having 3 students an hour, I was able to open up more teaching hours without those hours creeping too late into the night.

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In the Fall of 2016, I switched all of my current students to this format. No one complained! It has been a huge success! I love it and so do my students! Here’s a breakdown on how I structure the lessons:
  • 20 minutes with me at my acoustic piano: Here we work on technique, repertoire and some theory.
  • 20 minutes at a keyboard connected to an iPad: Most students will use Piano Maestro at this station. My students use Piano Pronto, so all of their books are in Piano Maestro which is a huge plus!
  • 20 minutes at a second keyboard and iPad: This station can vary from week to week, but basically they will work on rhythm, or note reading using various iPad apps. Some students will also choose to play on the keyboard without the iPad, to work on their songs. This is great, because I can answer any questions about their music before they leave! I have also just started using the Simply Piano app, hooked to the keyboard. I have some students currently working through the chord course. Simply piano has a ton of wonderful courses, so be sure to check it out!

I also have group classes every couple months, or so for my 20/20/20 students. This replaces their regular lesson for the week. In addition to the 20/20/20 lessons I have started offering group preschool lessons and group Kindergarten/1st grade lessons. I’m so glad that I decided to start offering rotating lessons and group lessons. It has made a huge difference in my studio! This, coupled with marketing the group lessons, has more than doubled my studio numbers. Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions on the structure of my lessons!

​- Amber

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It's Shane, again..

The benefits to 20/20/20 lessons are great for everyone involved!

For students and parents:
They get an HOUR of piano every week for the cost of 3o minute lessons. That's twice the piano for the same price. Parents can drop kids off and have a little more time now to take a break or run errands while their students get more hands on time with a keyboard and learn and retain more each week. Students get the team feel of being in a group setting with the benefits of private lessons. 

For teachers:
You can now fit in 3 students everywhere you currently fit 2 students...while charging the same price! If you charge $100/month for piano lessons you would normally make $50/hour with two private 30 minute students. Now, you can make $75/hour! If you teach for 10 hours each week that's an additional $250/week, $1000/month, or THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS every year. Could anyone else use an extra 13 grand this year while creating a more fun and unified studio? Yeah, me too. 

And that's with only 10 hours of teaching time per week. If you teach 48 weeks per year, you would make $36,000 a year by only teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3pm-8pm. That's not a bad schedule with 30 students. Add in Mondays and Wednesdays, and you can now fit in 60 students over 20 hours a week and will make $72,000 this year. Want to go crazy and teach 5 days a week? $90,000 for 25 hours a week and 75 students. 

I'm not one to promise 6 figures by teaching piano lessons, but you can see that this can be quite lucrative while also a lot of fun for your studio. 

In the past, I have done similar with 4 students working through a rotation for drum lessons in a large room at a church I taught at before opening my studio. ​Station 1 was private lessons with me on two acoustic drum sets. Station 2 was a practice pad drum set where they could work on rudiments or practice. Station 3 was a percussion station with a variety of instruments. Station 4 was an electric drum set where they could work on their songs or just play along.

So, these 20/20/20 lessons can work in a variety of ways made to fit your studio. Want to do 45 minute lessons? Try 15/15/15 lessons! Want to try them with a different instrument? That works too! You don't even need to offer them exclusively. Teach private lessons and also offer a few of these 20/20/20 spots to break up your schedule. 

Let us know how YOU are using or plan to use 20/20/20 lessons!

​

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6 Comments
Amanda
4/11/2017 12:48:35 pm

If you are just starting to implement 20/20/20 lessons how would you advertise to fill a time spot? Would you wait to start lessons until you had 3 students or would you start with 1 or 2 and fill in the other spots as you got inquiries?

Reply
Shane link
4/11/2017 01:19:13 pm

Hey Amanda!

That is the conundrum. I think ideally that you would want to wait until you had 3 new students ready to go, but you could also start it with two students. Since the cost is the same as two students, you wouldn't lose any money by running it with two students. You could just leave one of the 3 spots empty (and practice at the piano, work on admin, etc) while they rotate through your 3 stations.

Another idea would be to start it with two students that are already back to back in your schedule and try to find a 3rd to fill it out.

Reply
Carrie
6/8/2017 12:00:59 pm

Do you have all 3 students for the hour show up at the same time and you rotate within that hour, or are they arriving every 20 minutes?

Reply
Shane (The Studio Challenge)
1/22/2019 06:47:46 am

Hey! Definitely missed the boat on responding to this comment in a timely fashion...but, to answer your question:

All students show up at the same time and then rotate through 3 stations. That way you can be finished in an hour.

But, now that you mention it, I could see a version of this where students just keep coming in 20 minute intervals and continue rotating out. That way there would be no real ending period. Just a rotation of students in and out. Could be pretty cool if you've got enough interested students to keep it going for a while!

Reply
Emily Norris
7/16/2019 01:33:02 pm

Hi, I came across your blog and I have a question for you about how you connect your iPad to the piano. In the photos, it looks like your students are using headphones and playing on the actual piano. Do you have it hooked up in a way that the app can "hear" the piano through a MIDI cord or something like that? And do you have a splitter where the students can hear themselves and background music as well? I am teaching a piano summer camp and would love to know how you set this up. Thank you!

Reply
Shane
11/13/2019 05:42:05 am

Hey Emily!

Most apps give you the choice to either go through a MIDI connection or to pick up sound through the onboard microphone.

Not sure if Amber was using a splitter there, but I think she does now. You can grab them on Amazon. The splitter is also useful so that you can hear what they are playing. Just walk around with headphones and plug in to the other side of the splitter.

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