Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum rant about phone call

I met a retired librarian who is new to our city and to our music club. She moved here to be close to her daughter. Anyway, she said she'd like to teach piano a couple of days a week. And she has at least once recently played piano for a friend's cocktail party.

She ended up calling me today to ask what the going rate for piano lessons is. I told her the amount generally charged for 30 minute lessons ($15) and she said "Oh, my GOD! That's highway robbery!" I explained how there is a lot of planning etc involved, but she again said her line about highway robbery.

I feel ticked off. There is someone sitting on a retirement plan from working as a librarian, criticizing what piano teachers charge. And with no teaching experience, little performance experience, limited education and little passion for piano playing...thinks she'll hang out her shingle...while rattling off her criticism about what professionals charge.

I'd hate to take another call like that. I tend to answer questions directly. But wish I'd had a better response to her criticism. I could have said "But someone with no experience teaching, little music background, little performance experience, limited commitment to teaching and little to offer generally charges much less." If only I could have thought of that and given myself permission to say it. (Maybe I'll have the opportunity at the next music club meeting.)

I know how you feel...

I live around several piano teachers who are 10 or 20 years past retirement age. They haven't raised their rates since 1972.

There is a teacher here charing $5 for a 30 minute lesson! She's quite old now, and I personally know one of her students who was in the same level of lesson book for over 2 years (we are talking piano adventures, which is not fast moving anyway!)

Ya get what you pay for!

Also, Hubby is often paying the bills!

I could have said that yes it can be highway robbery if the family is only receiving babysitting instead of professional education.

There has been a major shift in expectations over the past (X number of years, I can't say).

A suggested retort:

"No, it's actually completely legal, and I don't conduct my business on highways. If you are making an analogy: that charging $15 for a half hour piano lesson seems to you like I am holding people up at gunpoint and taking their possessions, then I suggest you talk to some victims of violent crime so that you can learn first hand how repugnant this analogy is to anyone with experience of being held at gunpoint and robbed. Further, if your point is that charging a rate of $30 an hour in any way resembles theft then you might do well to take a beginners course in running a small business. This hourly rate is not a wage, and it appears to me that you have made a basic error in accounting in deeming it to be thus. $30 an hour will result in a wage that returns from 50 to 65% more than the federal minimum wage once my costs have been deducted and all my working hours have been taken into account, putting my wage (calculated on a pro rata basis) well below the average wage in this country (which for women is about 2 times the figure I earn, and for men about 2.5 times the income I will receive this year). Further still, in this country a charged rate of $30 an hour for a professional who has studied for many years and in addition has gained experience in the profession resembles not robbery but charity, and it is only in charitable circumstances that you would find other kinds of professionals placing such a low value on their work. Thank you for sharing your views with me: your idiosyncratic and poorly informed economic perspectives remind me what a great country we live in."

Now, now, Calm down!

Of course, we would have all thought the same thing: What the Friggin, samhill, ^%$#@!(*&^%?

I wonder if she has an MILS degree. My wife, a librarian, frequently reminds me that the clerk who checks books in and out of the library at the front desk is not a librarian, but a desk clerk. Perhaps you can use this analogy somehow to your advantage the next time you chat with her.

I do think there is sticker shock when people hear what lessons cost. I've learned to not take it personally. Many people haven't priced out lessons since they took their own, many many years ago. They are reacting to the huge jump from then till now. Think about what you would think if you hadn't bought gas for 30 years - or 60. Generally, after they've thought about it for a little while, they come around.

I do not give a "per 30 minutes" price anymore - just a "16 week semester fee." Somehow, although it's a bigger number, it is more palatable. And then I can explain that I don't break it down into an hourly fee, because there is so much time I spend outside of the student's time, and that the lesson fee covers my planning, shopping time, expenses, planning and hosting recitals, emails and phone calls, etc. I use this to also explain why they don't get a refund for a missed lesson.

Lollipop, you're right that it's best not to take it personally and not to quote an hourly rate. I'll can give an honest answer by saying that most teachers charge by the semester or by the month. And I can quote semester fees that professionals charge.

John, I like your idea of asking this "librarian" if she has a MILS (Masters in Library Science? Or Media Information? Not sure what this stands for.) and if she considers the clerk who checks out books to be a librarian. This particular woman is living independently on retirement pension from being a librarian, so I'd say she has the degree. At least that was my impression from talking with her.

Elissa, well said. If only I could have thought of that.

I still feel zinged by the call. I thought she called to initiate a friendship and perhaps get together sometime. Instead I was just used to get one piece of information and then insulted. Yuck!

Well, it's easy to think of what to say when the moment has passed... I was also just thinking you could have said "oh excuse me, there seems to be something wrong with the phone connection: it sounded like you just said the words 'highway robbery' - how funny is that!! Sorry, what was that you were just saying?"

MILS = Masters of Information and Library Science. They have to take 15 or more grad hours in the information sciences (ie computer technology) on top of a regular masters degree. Many librarians have two masters degrees, one in library science and the other in an applied subject, which is the focus of what ever library they are working at. One of their primary tasks is collection development and source discovery, which means they have to be fluent in the language of their user base.

If this woman approaches me again (at music club meeting) I might tell her "If you're asking how much I think YOU should charge, I think you should charge $20 per month. That way you can know that your students will be getting their money's worth." (Ha! Ha!)

Elissa, I like the phone connection idea.

John, thanks for further info about MILS.

Ann, just to make you feel a bit easier, it's not apart what's happening with composition, but coming from young and inexperienced so called "composers". I've seen one too many ads on various forums, offering tracks for $5, per track. Assuming it takes a few good hours to create a track (regardless of length, btw), as well as the amount of money one needs to spend to build a studio (*ahem* everything THEY are using is cracked, as opposed to my dearly bought stuff!), you can understand that they are charging around $1 per hour for their work!

When in fact I charge lots more and any other professional in the industry does as well!

Honestly, I wouldn't have kept my mouth shut to such a comment! Then again, I'm a hot headed Greek so better not take my 'advice'!

Nikolas, I like the idea of your a hot headed response! But I am always too passive in these situations...always avoiding a confrontation. In all honesty, I will not be speaking to this woman again. Even if she shows up for club meetings, I'll find that I'm busy with someone else. I'll be polite, but distant. That's my pattern. If she asks me a direct question, I'll just have a vague answer...or smile and walk away.

My first response would be...

'Why do you ask?'

If she states that she would like to begin teaching I would suggest that this is a very bad idea given that she has no qualifications and no experience. Perhaps if she were to invest in some training she might begin to understand why professional piano teachers charge what they do.

Brilliant! Asking a question turns it around and the response given will give you all the clues you need (usually) as to why this woman does not see the value in piano lessons.

By the way, music teachers may be the lowest paid 'degreed' profession.

That is a great response to burn into your memory. I learned to use it whenever someone asks a question that they have no business asking, or that I do not want to answer. It really shuts them up, or exposes them.

And what if they answer "I want to know". This tactic relies on commonly held thresholds for shame.

But it therefore will be effective 99 times out of 100 (or 200/300/400, depending on how shameless the people are who you meet!)