10 TEACHING AND BUSINESS HACKS FOR GROUP LESSONS
FEAT. MELANIE FROM KEYNOTES MUSIC

In this vlog I had the awesome opportunity co-present with Melanie from Keynotes Music.

Together we’ll give you Melanie’s 5 top tips for teaching group music lessons on any instrument, and my 5 top tips for music teachers to help them build a thriving music school around your group lessons.

Melanie’s 5 Top Tips for Running Successful Group Music Lessons

 
1. Have a collaborative approach

Make sure everyone is learning the same song together which will allow all your learning needs to be met. 

2. When teaching group lessons, definitely have a strategy for managing your individual learners

Your students will move at different paces so you need to know how you will manage those who move fast, and those who move slowly.

The Keynotes Music programme specialises in this.

3. Use singing in your lessons all the time

Singing is a great way for children to learn new concepts (just think of the alphabet letters) which is why we encourage our students to sing everything from finger numbers, note names, melodies, and instructions.

If you do this, you may find your students develop the ability to retain more information, and self-correct when they sing your instructions back to themselves without prompting.

Also, in a group lesson setting, children are more likely to sing together than in solo lessons. 

4. Go into every lesson knowing your learning objectives for each student

As the old saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail - you want to know exactly what you want your students to learn every time you teach them.

You will also want to know how each student is going evidence that they have indeed learned the objectives you set for them.

Finally, make sure your plan for providing valuable feedback to your students is robust by offering a positive observation first, then giving suggestions for improvement next.

5. Consistently structure your lessons each week to include a variety of learning activities

Consider including things like:

- Games that both introduce and consolidate musical concepts

- Listening activities

- Singing

- Practice and playing out loud time

- Colouring

- Moving/dancing 

These will allow you to cater for all the different learning styles in your classes.

The Keynotes Music program does this for teachers by providing structured lesson plans, games, and resources across varying difficulty levels.

Jonny’s 5 Top Tips for Building a Thriving Music School Around Your Group Lessons

1. Get your group lesson pricing right

Don’t just copy someone else’s pricing that doesn’t have any relevance to what you actually need to charge to line up with your budget, or where you sit in the market locally.

Getting this wrong can cause a world of frustration if you ever need to correct your prices.

Feel free to use the Build a Music School Group Lesson Pricing Tool in our private library with a free 7-day trial of our membership.

2. Focus on building community

At my music school we believed that people would come for the content, but stay for the community.

There’s plenty you can do for this, but a small idea you could do tomorrow is include a quick ice breaker question at the start of your group lessons like ‘what was the highlight and lowlight of your week?’.

Even small things like this can help your students develop friendships and empathy for each other, and experiencing this type of community can make staying on with their lessons very enjoyable, and quitting them less desirable.

3. Leverage healthy competition within your music school

Tapping into the potential promotional marketing power of your students can bring about amazing growth in a music school.

One thing we had great success with was our ‘sign up a friend and win’ challenges where any student or family who convinced a new student to enrol with us gained the opportunity to win a voucher (food, shopping, movies), or a fun ‘holiday prize pack’ of vouchers their whole family could enjoy.

This was one of the most popular campaigns that brought about exponential growth at my music school which started off with just me and 30 students, and grew to 55+ teachers and 2,000 students learning solo and group lessons with us each week.

4. Review your studio policies / terms and conditions in relation to group lessons

Group lessons differ from solo lessons, so I encourage you to think through all the tricky situations that parents might press you on, or pick holes in, then update your policies or terms and conditions on your website with a clause that allows you to update them regularly online.

Then do it regularly, especially each time a new objection comes up from a customer when you could check if your policy wording is succinct and easy enough to understand.

Train your customers to refer to your terms and conditions on your website if they ever have a query. 

[Michelle recommends a cancelation notice period of 6-8 weeks for students in group lessons to allow you the time to create groups for the next term effectively.]

5. Reinvest the extra money you’re going to make from group lessons

Group lessons can skyrocket your income if you follow my advice to price them correctly. 

After doing some good budgeting and financial planning I would encourage you to consider options to reinvest that income into creating more exciting experiences for your students, and the growth of your business.

Having more profit allows room for philanthropic pursuits as well … each Friday afternoon my music school fills a bus with students from families who can’t afford lessons to feed them and teach them an instrument … there are so many new things you will be able to do for your school, including investing in Keynotes Music if you’re teaching piano and looking for an all inclusive solution to setting up group piano lessons for the first time.

Bonus tip from Jonny

If you’re an independent music teacher or academy owner who is really serious about building something epic for your ideal number of students, I suggest surrounding yourself with the best music teachers and resources to help you do this effectively.

Come join us in what I believe is the world’s #1 membership for people like you - you can totally try before you buy with a free 7-day trial of our Build a Music School membership which is (currently) only $40 USD per week to join as of October 2021.

Just keep scrolling down this page to learn more about our membership.