How to Attract Your Ideal Piano Students (2024)
Estimated Read Time: 12 minutes
Finding your ideal piano students is a challenge. Whether new or experienced teachers, we can all have a hard time finding those students that are just the right fit for our studio.
As a new piano teacher, it can feel almost impossible, not knowing what you should be looking out for or being unable to spot those red flags early on (I know that was the case for me!). For experienced teachers, it can be easy to drift along with the current student cohort, perhaps not gaining that fulfilment we wanted, from teaching those who are not our ideal students.
The impact of teaching our non-ideal students can range from mild frustration through to significant anxiety when it comes to running our piano teaching studios. Mismatched personalities, misaligned expectations and poor communication are common symptoms of this problem.
But the great news is you can start taking active steps TODAY towards building a teaching studio full of the students you really want to teach. By spending a little time defining your ideal student, establishing your presence as a piano teacher and connecting with your potential student communities, you’ll be attracting your ideal students in no time. Although this article is aimed at private teachers, those teaching in schools will absolutely still benefit from this guidance.
Define Your Ideal Piano Student
Your ideal student will be unique to you and your teaching ethos, but that doesn’t mean you will have a beautifully clear picture of them right from the start! It takes time to work out who you want to teach and who will benefit most from your style of teaching (and even knowing what your style of teaching is).
Student Categories
The simplest way to start narrowing things down is to consider the following categories of students and decide which ones you would prefer to teach (and it’s ok if you want to go for more than one group):
Adults or children – these groups can be further subdivided into young adults/ middle aged/ retired and young children (4+)/ teenagers
Beginner/ intermediate/ advanced
In person/ online – if teaching online feels way too complicated, I can help you with that – it’s not as scary as it might seem.
Who is Your Ideal Student?
The next step is to think about who your ideal student is. You can choose one of the categories above and consider the following questions:
How old are they?
Do they listen to music at home?
Why do they want to learn to play the piano?
How do they respond to challenges?
What is their weekly schedule like?
How involved are their parents with their homework/ extra curricular activities? [if applicable]
Answering these questions can help crystallize the ‘perfect’ student in your mind. Don’t worry if you think this student can’t possibly exist (because I promise you, they do exist!), this exercise will help you understand the students you are looking for, which enables you to start looking in the right places. Also, you probably have more than one ideal student, e.g. if you are planning to teach adults and children, so complete the exercise for each main group.
Here’s an example ideal student answering the questions above:
So, can you see how this description gives you a much clearer picture of who this person is? When you can imagine your ideal student, you can understand their motivations and then have a much better idea of how to attract this student (or their parents).
Build a Strong Online Presence
When I first started teaching, some of the advice I was given focussed on word-of-mouth recommendations. It’s true, word-of-mouth is very powerful in growing your student base BUT it’s not very helpful until you have some students to recommend you.
Imagine you want to find a local electrician. The first place you go is highly likely to be Google or social media. The ones that have a good online presence, plenty of positive reviews and information on their website/ business pages are the ones most likely to get the business. The same applies to piano teachers. Adult learners and parents who want to find a good local piano teacher will search online and make decisions based on how much they trust the individual.
3 Quick Wins For Getting Visible Online
Now, don’t panic thinking you need to create a ton of in-depth content, an all-singing all-dancing website and be a master at social media. Start with the easy wins; the things that don’t take much time to set up but are incredibly valuable in raising your online presence.
The following are all free to set up:
Register for Google Business Profile
Set up a simple website – free plans offered by Wix, Weebly, Wordpress, Carrd, Ucraft, etc.
Create a Facebook/ Instagram business page
With a Google Business Profile you will show up on Google searches and maps (if you add your location) which is perfect for local potential students being able to find you.
The free website plans are a great way to get started, giving you a little foothold in the internet space where you can be discovered and share your teaching offering to potential students. Social media is a powerful way to share your business as you can create and upload videos and images with captions to start communicating with your ideal students.
Craft a Clear Message
Once you have those basics set up, you need to decide what you want to communicate to your ideal students. Introducing yourself is a great starting point as parents and potential adult students will be interested in knowing who you are before deciding to entrust you with teaching their child or themselves. A short background of your own experience learning to play the piano and how you came to be a piano teacher are a great way to begin.
It's important to be clear about the types of students you teach and the format, so include this in key information e.g. biography sections.
What Kind of Teacher Are You?
It can be difficult in the beginning to think of elements that make you unique amongst the piano teacher community. So, rather than getting bogged down in too much detail, take a piece of paper and brainstorm ideas for what kind of teacher you are. Here are some questions to get you thinking:
Why did you decide to become a piano teacher?
What lights you up about being a piano teacher?
What are your favourite approaches for teaching [insert teaching concept/ skill]?
What do you want most for your students? Is it achievements? Is it boosting their self-confidence? Is it bringing joy to your students?
With the answers to these questions, you’ll be able to start writing compelling posts on social media and an engaging About Me page on your website, that speak directly to your ideal student. Remember, if your ideal student is a child, you will be communicating with their parents, so keep that in mind when creating your message.
Network in the Community
Going into your local community is a very useful way of raising your visibility directly with those who live nearby, which is particularly important for teaching in person. If you plan to solely teach online, this section will be less useful for you, but you may still gain some transferable value for your business.
Local community centre - if you have a local community centre, you can visit and introduce yourself. They will often display any flyers or business cards for free, so you can start getting your business visible to the locals.
Schools - visiting local schools can also open up opportunities as you never know when they might be looking for a new piano teacher or wanting to introduce a music program.
Music/ Piano shops - If you happen to have any music shops or even a piano shop nearby, these are excellent places to visit and meet with the owners. Many prospective students visit music shops and enquire about local teachers. Being recommended by a music shop will give you a big boost in developing trust with your potential students!
Leverage Word of Mouth
Ok, so you’ve got your business basics set up, you’re communicating your message to your ideal student and you’ve acquired a few new students for your studio. WELL DONE! This is a fantastic achievement, and proof that you are growing your piano teaching business.
How to Request Reviews
As mentioned earlier, the power of word-of-mouth recommendations is second to none. Once you have established yourself with these new students, e.g. after about 6 months, ask your adult students and parents of child students for reviews and referrals. It can feel awkward at first, but these people are on your side – they chose YOU as the piano teacher, so they obviously value your skills and personality. There are a few ways you can go about this:
Share a Google Review request link by e-mail – this creates a visible review on your Google Business Profile
Request a Facebook Review – you can either sent direct messages to current students if you are connected on Facebook, or you can share the URL from the Reviews tab on your Facebook business page via e-mail with current students
With these reviews, you can then create a Reviews page on your website, you can share individual reviews in posts on Facebook and if you create physical marketing materials, e.g. flyers, you can include these reviews here too!
Connecting with Other Piano Teachers
Recommendations can also come from other music/ piano teachers. If you have connected with local teachers or with teachers online, you will start to see them post about students they can’t take on (either due to timings/ having a full studio/ being too far away) and asking if any teachers have availability.
There is immense value in connecting with other piano teachers, for so many reasons, not limited to: learning about different methods/ approaches, discussing common problems and how to solve them, asking questions and giving advice, building rapport with your colleagues even if they’re not nearby, the list goes on and on. Join our supportive Facebook Group
Be Selective and Find the Right Fit
As student enquiries start to come through, it can be tempting to take on every student that shows up. I’ll be honest, this is what I did in the beginning, so I understand. The focus is finding students and developing your experience, without restricting yourself by turning anyone away.
With hindsight, I want to encourage you to be selective and take on the students that you think will fit with your teaching ethos and personality (i.e. your ideal students). This approach will protect you from taking on too many students too quickly, and also ensure the ones you take on will work well with your approaches and benefit both you and the student.
Not every student is right for every teacher, and that’s ok.
Warning Signs To Be Aware of When Considering a New Student
Over the years, I’ve learned to spot certain warning signs which makes accepting new students a simpler, less risky process. Here are some warning signs to be aware of when considering a new student:
Student has a very busy schedule – Children who have a different after school club every day are unlikely to have enough spare time to dedicate to piano practice. Similarly an adult with a busy work schedule and home life is less likely to be able to find enough time to practice. This is not a deal breaker of course, but it’s important to manage their expectations of progress, during the initial meeting, if there is little practice time available during the week.
Communication is slow or sporadic – communication by e-mail is one of the most important elements of the smooth running of your piano studio. If they struggle to communicate via e-mail, things like updates, invoicing, payments and general communication are all going to be challenging.
Parent has an excessively strong focus on graded exams – this one is potentially very damaging to the teacher-student relationship if the parent only cares about exams as soon as possible. This depends on your particular stance on exams, but is a big topic which I will be posting about.
Reluctance to invest in a decent instrument – This is a tricky one: I fully understand the hesitation of parents in buying a digital piano for their child starting piano lessons, in case they don’t take to it. BUT this is one of those situations I’ve seen time and time again where the students, who have a full-size weighted key digital piano on which to practise, thrive in their piano learning journey, while those who are restricted to anything smaller/ no weighted keys often lose motivation and make slow progress or give up altogether.
The importance of students having a reasonable instrument from the beginning cannot be overstated, and in fact I include it in my studio policy agreement, to have a minimum of 5 octaves with weighted keys. If you don’t have a studio policy agreement yet, or you would like to update yours, I have a free studio policy template available here.
To Sum It Up
Attracting your ideal piano students can be difficult but by following the steps in this article, you’ll soon be on your way to filling your studio with YOUR ideal students.
Spending a little time defining your ideal student is extremely valuable in identifying for yourself the students you want to teach.
Creating your online presence in the form of a Google Business Profile, a website and social media business pages allows potential ideal students to find you, especially when you create content that speaks directly to them (or their parents). Showing up in Google searches and map results lets your local community know who you are and where to find you.
Crafting a clear message to communicate about yourself and your teaching ethos allows potential students to get to know you, to like you and to trust you. These students are likely to be your ideal students as they have resonated with your message. With trust, students and parents feel confident completing that contact form and engaging in lessons with you.
Making yourself known in your local community goes a long way to helping your teaching business and opens opportunities for collaboration within your community – it’s a win:win!
Actively encouraging recommendations from your existing students is one of the most effective ways to grow your studio. Who better to sing your praises, than your own lucky students?
Finally, engaging with piano teacher communities online is an immensely valuable use of time. These connections can lead to new students, learning new methods, being able to ask for help and share experiences with other teachers, and generally growing and developing in confidence as you grow your teaching business.
Come and join the Piano Teachers: Tips and Support Facebook Group
If you are looking for a safe, supportive corner of the internet where you can connect with other piano teachers and ask all the questions you want, come and join our community on Facebook. The piano teachers in this group are all there to share their experiences, connect and give advice and support to others - it really is a lovely group! Come and see for yourself.
Grab your Free Editable Studio Policy Template!
If you don’t have a studio policy agreement yet, or you would like to update yours, I have a free studio policy template available.