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How do the rest of you handle the situation when students show up with no music?

Lots of things

[1] Make them use my copy. It mightn't have all their little pencil markings, but that might make them remember theirs next time!

[2] Technical work

[3] Sight reading

[4] If it's one of my exam students, I use the time to make sure all the extra requirements are there - aural, general knowledge

[5] Aural work generally (as opposed to exam requirements)

[6] Sight singing

[7] If they're doing this often, I'd have a talk about their general organisation and find a way to make sure it doesn't happen regularly. As my dear old French teacher used to say: "You can forget once, you CANNOT forget twice!" (it worked for us! )

[8] If it's a symptom of total disinterest, then at least you've got a clue and can think about what to do next.

[9] Did I mention sight reading? Also sight reading duets. Although they may find it so much fun they purposely forget their music again.

I'm not a teacher but...
If you charge a fee for everytime the are not "prepared" and don't bring the music then I am sure they will make sure they have their music.
Or, maybe have a back up plan for this instance. Are they working on things other than that.
Not only is it an inconvenienc to you but ultimately I think they are hurting themselves.

Btw.. are they adults or kids?

I have to admit I forget things often. It's not lack of interest though, indeed I forget thing which I pay myself, so it's not even a matter of forgetting just what you don't pay for. It just happens. Sometimes it's just distraction, other times is having false memories of doing something something you actually didn't and other times might be because of rush or because of sickness (flu for example) which decreases your lucidity. I know parents who lost their pursue (with money) at the bar or lost their eyeglasses in the bus. And yet they work to pay those things.

I'm saying this because I believe we should be comprehensive and admit that those are humans mistakes we all do. I think Gary was looking for ideas on what to do when you lack the sheet to work on, rather than ways to "punish" the student.

A nice trick to suggest to students is to write in a sheet all the books they need for lesson, and hang it with a tape in the bathroom mirror. The school bag should be made the night before lesson, so when they go to the bathroom to wash their teeth, they will see the sheet, where all the books you need are listed in order.

Golly, that's not a problem I have at all, thank goodness!

If a student starts to say "My Mom forgot my...."....I interrupt immediately to say, "NO, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure you bring your music to lessons, NOT your mother's. Please remember that!"

That's usually the first and last time it happens, but it really doesn't happen that often in the first place.

A lot of the students have portfolio bags that carry their music around and everything they need is stored in there. That seems to help greatly.

It doesn't matter where the fault is assigned, no sense in complaining, you need to address it so that it cannot happen again. Tell them what you want in clear language as an instruction.

"It is your (the student's) responsibility to bring all music materials to all lessons."

"If you want to have a good lesson you need to have your lesson prepared with your very best efforts and spending enough time to improve upon your music lesson assignments."

I REALLY like your #3, Currawong.

Sight reading day!

If you pull out your own music to let the child use it, you might want to find some other way to negate the bad incentive you yourself have just created. If the child has a strong embarrassment sense, perhaps your stern look alone might do the trick. Otherwise, you may very well need to bring mom or dad into the picture, because by providing your own music you have certainly reduced any sting for that lesson.

In my studio policies, I state that should a student forget music, the "teacher will provide a new copy and the parent will be billed on the next statement." Surprisingly, some students have 3 or 4 copies of the same music.

And don't forget, these are the kids who will be paying your social security and medicare! :p

Doesn't work…
Usually kids. I have it covered. I write my own materials, so I can reprint anything, or print something new.

But if it happens more than once with the same person, it really is aggravating…

This isn't a problem as I have every music book they would have at my fingertips if they happen to forget their music at home.

But, one mom was a "clean freak" and would throw out her daughter's music if it was laying around the house. The student would find it out on the front lawn, or in the garbage! If the garbage man got to it first, she was expected to replace it everytime too. I didn't want to lend her any of my music as it was sure to find the same fate!

Another student hid her conservatory books behind her dresser. But I let her use mine for the remainder of the year.

Another time, a sibling was marking up her sisters music with a black marker and ripping up her other music. When I called the mom, turned out the sister was sabotaging her sisters music, and the mom found out because I called the house to inquire about what might be going on and the younger one was destroying her sisters music so the mom pulled the younger one from lessons because of her jealousy!

So I guess teacher's win some, and "lose" some!

if they forget their music books, i will ask them to do theory.

I have copies of many of the method books we use, so I just pull one of those out. I also say that this is their only time to do this, and the next time they are to go home and get it.

Wow, Diane. You have some stories that top mine!

You know this one: "My dog ate my music."

It's supposed to be a joke. Well, a dog actually chewed up a student's music!

If it's just a careless oversight, I let the students use my book.

It it happens more often, they can enjoy repetitive finger exercises for an hour. Or we can work on two measures for 45 minutes. With slow metronome.

The problem is that many of us make markings in the music, and of course any book of ours will not have the same markings. So I always give them something new. Occasionally, if it's a good student who seldom does anything like this, I will print something out again, but that is annoying. It's enough that I do this for them once, my paper, my ink. (They chip in for these things…)
That's too hard on me! It literally feels like cutting off my nose to spite my face.

The one thing that saves me is that my students are excellent readers. I just gave the student three more Christmas carols, and she had them in 1/2 hour.

You know this one: "My dog ate my music."

It's supposed to be a joke. Well, a dog actually chewed up a student's music! [/b]
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Just be grateful the kid didn't make the dog cough it up, and bring it to class! As proof!

The music had TEETH marks in it!!!

I've had students' music be destroyed by inquisitive oral-stage 15 month-olds. Instead of the dog, it was, "The baby ate my music!"

Casting my thoughts back to when I was eight, I would genuinely forget the music because I had been practising it on the piano (and so it was left there on the stand!) Often I found that if I didn't have to worry about remembering to bring the music, chances were it would be a tearful lesson because it would have meant that the music was sitting in my bag since the last lesson...!

Hahahaha! The truth comes out.

I suspect this happens a lot.

My personal favorite is when they leave the books at my house and then call me on the day of the next lesson to ask if I have them.

Diane, your story just reminded me on one which occurred about 5 years ago. A student showed up with no music, but swore he brought it out to the car. His mother was 99% certain she had seen him bring it out to the car. Mom and brother spent the entire lesson cleaning out the car.

An hour after the lesson, I got a phone call from the mom . . . . . . they had found the music, scattered along their street, from the driveway to the main road. Apparently student had placed the music on top of the car when first coming out to the car, and became side-tracked.

The music did have that "road kill" look to it next lesson.