Selling Reeds to Students

Would you benefit from selling your own hand-made reeds to your students? How much should you charge? Is it worth it? There have been times in my teaching career where it has been a wonderfully convenient thing–and then other times when it has caused me way more stress than I bargained for. Learn from my […]

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Plastic Reeds

My first bassoon teacher used plastic reeds. They were thin and produced a weak sound, but I didn’t know any better. They were cheaper and easier to play on than cane reeds, so I played on them for a couple of years. Then I switched teachers. Whoa. I quickly learned that plastic reeds were the worst […]

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Basic Marketing for Bassoon Teachers

Do you have as many private students as you would like? When I started this blog in 2015, I did not have enough students. (Perhaps that’s why I thought I had time to start a blog.) I soon found myself with more students than I could handle. A waiting list is a beautiful thing. The […]

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Every-other-week Lessons

This post is about the every-other-week lesson schedule. I don’t like to put students on this schedule. I try to avoid it at all costs, unless the cost is that the student will have no lessons. Every-other-week lessons are better than no lessons, obviously, so these are the measures I have put into place to […]

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eCards with Custom Audio Tracks

In lieu of a Christmas recital, my studio sends out personalized eCards to friends and family. Check out our 2015 studio card. The music is a quartet arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (actually, all the parts were read straight off of a piano part–easiest arrangement I’ve ever done.) The card will open in a […]

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Easy Christmas Solos

If you are looking for easy Christmas music for a student, look no further. Here are some resources that will get your kids practicing! Who can resist playing Christmas music? First Year Players For my new beginners, I use easy piano music. Piano music at this level has teacher duet parts that work just as […]

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Give Yourself a Yearly Raise

Are you making the same amount per lesson this year as you did last year? Do you get stressed out when you think about raising your rates? Here are a few ideas that are meant to motivate you. Every “real” job I’ve ever had gave raises at least annually. Why should teaching music be any […]

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Lesson Attendance Sheet & Payment Tracker

How good are you at keeping track of your students’ tuition payments? How about their attendance? I haven’t always been good at keeping track of tuition payments and attendance. I always think that I’ll be able to remember if I’ve been paid or not—and then I never can. I ended up teaching more than my […]

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Tax Tips for Studio Teachers

This series of posts on tax tips was written by guest author Tairsa Mathews. She’s an accountant, bassoonist, and piano teacher in Utah. I am so excited that Jessi asked me to write this series of blog posts. It’s not often that I get to use my accounting degree to discuss my favorite subject: music. […]

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Should I be a Sole Proprietor or an LLC?

A guest post by accountant, bassoonist, and piano-teacher, Tairsa Mathews When starting a business (or just adjusting the way you manage your business) there are a lot of options to choose from. Before studying accounting I didn’t know what it meant to be a sole proprietor or a limited liability company. I honestly don’t think […]

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