The Piano Studio Growth Strategy That Terrified This Teacher

One of the best ways to grow your studio is to invite parents to sit in on their children’s piano lessons and witness your wonderful teaching… at least once a month.

However, inviting parents to sit in on piano lessons is not always easy. For one thing… it can be terrifying, especially for new teachers… it certainly used to be terrifying for me (not these days, these days my door is wide open!)

And for “seasoned teachers” who may not find it uncomfortable, having parents sit in on piano lessons generally means more prep than usual… you know… just to make things “perfect”!

So today I thought I would share a simple yet very effective way to facilitate occasional, but regular parental involvement in lesson time.

The No-Stress Strategy To An Open Studio Door

When you invite piano parents to sit in on piano lessons you want them to see their children learning and having fun. You also want them to engage directly with their children so that they have a shared musical experience to talk about when the lesson has ended and they head home.

And the best (and easiest) way to accomplish these goals is to use piano games. When it comes to showcasing learning for parents, piano games do several things very, very well:

1. Parents find them wonderfully unexpected. Many have tarnished images of the way piano lessons “used to be” and to see their children engaged with music AND having a blast definitely gets their attention in a good way.
2. Piano games are easy to use. It is difficult for a piano parent to participate in many lesson activities, but roll out a piano game, explain a few directions, and they’ll be all in!
3. Kids take ownership over piano games and are happy to explain how they work to their parents. This showcase of knowledge allows parents to clearly see that their children are learning a lot about music.
4. Piano games are portable and this means that once parents have had a chance to play a piano game under your supervision, they’ll happily take that game home and play it with their children all week long. And when this happens… music wins! 🙂

If I had taken this approach to parent involvement years ago, my life and stress levels would have been so much easier. Rather than worrying about eyes staring me down from a chair across the room, I would have instead been having a great deal of fun and cementing wonderful relationships with my piano parents.

And Now For The “Wow Factor” Piano Games

If you want to inspire your students with new and exciting piano games every month, hop on over to PianoGameClub and become a member today.