20/20/20 Lessons

Note from Shane

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.​

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.

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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