Why an average rate is only ever a starting point, and how to work out what you should actually be charging.
In this episode:
Why benchmark surveys like the ISM teacher fees survey are a ballpark, not a ceiling
The moment I realised I wasn't an average teacher, and what that meant for my rate
What your rate actually communicates to prospective families, before they ever meet you
A practical framework for working out what you should be charging
The very first time I raised my rate on an existing family, and what actually happened
The most common objections to charging properly, and honest reframes for each one
Links mentioned:
The Sustainable Studio (coming soon!)
ISM (Independent Society of Musicians) annual teacher fees survey
Vibrant Music Teaching Industry Report
Episode 5: How to Raise Your Fees and Secure Your Studio For September Without the Guilt
If you find this episode useful, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts: it goes a long way in helping other music teachers find my podcast!
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Part 1: Why we default to average
The email I rewrote half a dozen times
I remember it so clearly, because this email took me so long to write, even though it wasn't very long. I must have deleted and re-edited it at least half a dozen times, if not more. I was drafting an email to my current students, increasing my rate for the first time ever. I'd been teaching some of these students for a couple of years, and it was the most vulnerable I've ever felt. I was in ultra-overthinking mode, catastrophising, believing I was going to lose all these students because I was increasing my rates.
I kept editing the email, rewording it, deleting it, apologising for it, trying to soften the words and bury the increase in a longer email so it didn't feel quite so exposed. Up until then, I'd only ever done it the easy way: charging new students my new rate, while everybody else stayed exactly where they were. That day, the day I sent the email increasing my rates for my current students, was the first time I found out what it feels like to ask people who already trust you to pay you what you're worth. And, if I'm really honest, it all started with a teacher fee survey and a very average number.
I'm Victoria. I started teaching piano part-time 18 years ago, alongside a career in pharmaceutical market research, and I made pretty much every mistake you can make when it comes to running a teaching business. But today I run a thriving studio from my home on the south coast of England, with students I love and a waiting list I'm proud of. I started this podcast because I want that for you too.
If you've ever said yes to a reschedule you really didn't want to do, felt your heart sink when your phone buzzed with another last minute cancellation, or found yourself putting off increasing your fees for another year because the timing never feels quite right, this is the podcast for you. I've been there and come out the other side with a teaching business that lights me up every single day, and I'm here to help you do the same.
The topic we avoid
Welcome to today's podcast episode: "You're not an average teacher, so stop charging an average rate." I know that sounds a bit pushy, but this is a topic we all need to talk about. We're going to go into what we charge, how we choose what to charge for our music lessons, and why you may be undercharging, despite how it feels.
I really wanted to do this episode because pricing is one of the most avoided topics in music teaching. From everything we see online, very few music teachers are happy to share their fees, for fear of being judged. And those who do seem so far outside the realm of normal. Either they're far too low, and they get harassed online by the not-so-kind music teachers (there are a few, though not many, thankfully), or they seem to charge a huge amount that's out of reach for the majority of us. So I know this isn't a topic many people like to talk about, which is why I thought it would be really worthwhile doing an episode on it. It's integral to how we run our teaching studios, and it's a really important thing to think about.
Fee surveys are a ballpark
I'm a member of the Independent Society of Musicians, the ISM, which runs a teacher fees survey every year. I think it's a really useful thing, because you get a benchmark of the average teaching fees for your region. Nicola Cantan, the mastermind behind Vibrant Music Teaching, also runs her own independent survey. They're both really useful for giving everyone an idea of the current ballpark figure.
But what a lot of people miss is that the average figure doesn't capture any of the detail. It says nothing about the teacher's level of experience, their attitude to teaching, the amount of care and thought they put into their lessons, or any of the other intangible qualities that make someone a good teacher.
This episode follows on from Episode 11, What Makes a Good Music Teacher, because our self-perception and sense of worth tie directly into how much we feel we deserve to charge for our time. I think it's fair to say most teachers don't fully recognise the skills they have, so they default to copying whatever other teachers in their region or town charge, rather than pricing on their own merit. Or, if they don't have a music degree and see a teacher who does charging more, they automatically charge less than them, because they feel it's justified.
I've said this before: having a music degree doesn't automatically make you a better teacher, and not having one doesn't make you a worse teacher. I have a lot of colleagues with music degrees who've openly said to me, "I don't feel it did much, if anything, to help my music teaching," which says a lot, doesn't it?
"Just charge what everyone else charges"
Whenever questions come up in social media groups about how much a teacher should charge, or someone isn't sure what to charge and asks what other people charge, the most common answer is, "Just see what everyone else nearby is charging and go with that." But it's some of the most damaging pricing advice anyone can give. If everyone local is undercharging, following suit just continues the trend, without the teacher knowing they're undercharging, because they've taken the advice of teachers who seem to have more experience. It just makes the problem worse.
In my experience, very few teachers overcharge, because we're typically self-deprecating, and we care more about the teaching than the income. These are generalisations, of course, but our emotional connection to what we do interferes with running it as a business.
Don't undercut
One of the worst things I see, when people look at what other local teachers charge, is the decision to undercut them: deliberately pricing below the local rate to win students. It's one of the worst things you can do, for yourself and for the profession as a whole. It drags expectations of music teaching down even further, and makes it even harder for every teacher, not just you, to raise their rates without even more fear of losing students.
It also attracts the wrong type of students. You don't want students and families who judge the quality of a music teacher only on price, because there's so much more than what we charge that goes into the quality of teaching, and into the care, thought and enthusiasm a teacher puts in.
I saw a post in a piano teacher group the other day from a teacher who was struggling to attract new students. They knew a number of other teachers in their area were all charging fairly low rates, and they asked whether they should just undercut them to get students. It's a real question, and you can see the logic, but the result would be disastrous for this teacher, in lots of ways all at once.
A very low price doesn't signal good things about your teaching. If it's very low, you're likely to be viewed with some suspicion: "Why are they charging such a low rate? Do they not have confidence in their teaching? Maybe they don't have much experience."
It comes back to searching for any service provider. I use the example of looking for an electrician. I tend to go to Google and search for electricians near me. I don't always choose the cheapest, because I want to make sure their work is sound, for the safety of my home. I don't necessarily pick the most expensive either, because we have a budget, so I go for somewhere in the middle. It's the Goldilocks principle. Generally, most of them charge a similar rate, and if there are any outliers, anyone really low, it rings alarm bells: "What's going on there? That doesn't fill me with confidence."
I know hiring an electrician to sort something out in your house is very different from choosing a music teacher for your child for long-term lessons. I'm just talking about the first principles of searching for someone online, and the first decisions people make. Of course, choosing a music teacher goes far beyond price, as we know, with all its other intricacies.
Accessibility versus sustainability
I couldn't help responding to this teacher, and I strongly advised them not to undercut the other teachers in their area, for the reasons I've already mentioned. I got a bit of pushback from other people who read my response, probably because I hadn't explained myself as fully as I do here on the podcast. They took my view to mean I didn't think low-income families deserve access to music education, which, for the record, is not what I believe at all.
There's a big difference between lowering your rate for all your students, to the point where you can't sustain your business and have to take on too many students and wear yourself out just to make ends meet, and making lessons available for a particular family or two who really deserve them: who have real motivation, but can't quite afford it. There's a big difference. I know lots of teachers who offer scholarships, funding lessons for a couple of students who've shown real motivation and have an instrument they can practise on, or are lent one.
So the idea that I'm ruling out lower-income families is false, and I wanted to make that clear here, because it's not what I believe at all. This is about building a teaching studio that can support you and your family comfortably, so you can focus on teaching and be the best teacher you can be without sacrificing absolutely everything and burning yourself out, because then you're no good to anybody, and that's not what we want.
It was a very interesting conversation, with lots of back and forth and lots of opinions on that post, but I'm glad to say the vast majority said, "Please don't undercut. It damages our whole profession."
The universal fear
The fear of losing students because your fees are too high is universal among us music teachers. So I want to reassure you at this point that your ideal students are out there, whatever the local going rate. They exist for everybody. And as a reminder, your ideal students are specific to you. They fit the profile of the students you teach best and feel most comfortable teaching. We'll go into more detail on all of that later.
But I wanted to remind you that this universal fear of losing students to a cheaper teacher is there, and it's something we need to let go of. Instead, we can focus on the qualities and value we provide as music teachers, because that's what will see us through. That's what will attract our ideal students, and help us build music studios we love to teach in.
Part 2: When I stopped being average
Starting at the average
As you might already know, I switched to full-time piano teaching in October 2019. At that point, I joined the Independent Society of Musicians, and used their teacher fees survey to set my rate. At the time, the average was £18 for a 30-minute lesson, so that's what I set my fees at. For about two and a half years, I stayed at that rate. I considered myself an average teacher, mainly because my experience up to then had been part-time teaching. I hadn't invested much time or energy in continuing professional development. Of course, I loved the teaching and everything about playing the piano, but I figured, "Yep, I fit into the average category," and that was that. I didn't give it another thought. It fitted quite neatly with my view of myself as not the best teacher in the world, because I was moving from part-time to full-time teaching.
Finding the Curious Piano Teachers
In April 2022, I joined the Curious Piano Teachers, a wonderful community that gave me so much support, as it does all its members. It was the first really safe space I found where I could ask all my questions. I didn't ask many to begin with. I did lots of so-called lurking: you're in the group, reading everybody's posts, what people are asking about and the answers. You learn a lot that way, but you learn even more when you start asking questions.
I think it took me at least six months before I felt comfortable asking my own questions, and I'm so glad I took that leap, because it accelerated my learning and development enormously. I asked the questions I wanted to ask and was inundated with the most helpful, kind advice from the teachers in there. And Angie, I have to mention you now, because you're the star contributor. If you're listening, thank you for always being so kind and helpful to everyone.
Once you start asking questions and engaging with other teachers, it really helps you learn and grow as a teacher, because being a music teacher is typically quite isolating, especially if you teach privately from home. You don't necessarily have anyone to bounce ideas off, or hear what people are talking about, unless you go into social media groups, listen and join in.
Realising I wasn't average any more
Once I was comfortable asking questions in the Curious Piano Teachers group, and reading posts in the much bigger piano teacher groups, I started to realise that the care, thought, planning and continuing professional development I was naturally putting into my teaching pointed to the fact that I was no longer an average teacher. Possibly I wasn't even average when I switched to full-time teaching. It's just that I'd thrown myself into it and was learning everything I could to be the best teacher I could be. So once I realised, "Nope, I'm not an average teacher any more," I realised I shouldn't be charging an average rate.
What really crystallised it for me was that I'd been building up a picture of what an average music teacher is. This is just my opinion, based on what I've been reading and hearing from different people. To me, the average teacher is someone content to teach what they already know, plodding along with little or no ongoing development, and sometimes more invested in their own playing than in their teaching skills.
When I thought about that identity, I realised it definitely isn't me. I'm not someone who just plods along. I want to learn; I love learning, and I love learning about new things to teach. That's why my brain doesn't really switch off. And I can pretty much guarantee that if you're listening to this podcast, you're not an average teacher either, because you care about your teaching, and you're trying to build the best possible sustainable business for yourself by listening.
So even if you think, "Nope, I'm just a run-of-the-mill average teacher," I'd encourage you to really explore what that means. Don't forget that music teachers aren't just the ones on social media. There are all the ones who aren't on social media, who aren't engaging with new ideas or other teachers, aren't doing any professional development of any kind, and are teaching exactly the way they were taught. I'll acknowledge that's how we all start teaching; it's not a criticism. But if you stay there, and blinker yourself to all the new developments and research available, your teaching will be limited. Those are the things that would make someone an average teacher.
Leaving the corporate world
For me, my mindset shifted quite dramatically when I decided to teach piano full-time. It really switched from what was almost a part-time hobby (I'll use that word, because that's how it felt to me then: this amazing thing I loved doing, and, oh my goodness, people wanted to pay me for it too). It helped me switch quite quickly from a hobby mindset to a professional mindset.
To give you some context, I was working in London in pharmaceutical market research, and at its peak I was earning £43,000 a year. It was the most stressful job I've ever had. I had such extreme anxiety that I'd lost an extreme amount of weight, and I wasn't in a good place, and that's where it all broke down. That was before I realised I had anxiety; I just thought maybe I had a hormonal imbalance or something. So that's the sort of money I was earning.
Then I quit my job and went freelance in the same industry, pharmaceutical market research, alongside the piano teaching, which was still part-time. After a while, freelancing was okay, but I was still dealing with all the stress, just in contained bursts. So it was better, but not as good as it could be.
For some reason, I decided to go back into full-time employment, in a slightly different industry, strategic marketing, which was a little outside my skill set, and I found that pretty challenging. That's when my mum got really sick and died very suddenly, within a month, from pancreatic cancer. It was a huge turning point, because that event was very traumatic for me, as it would be for anyone, and it really made me review what I was doing with my life and what I enjoyed. It was blindingly obvious. The part-time piano teaching was the thing I loved, and I'd known that for so long.
But I was contending with the idea, and the expectation, that this was what I'd prepared for all my life. It was why I had a degree (in biology, by the way, nothing to do with music), and why I'd gone to work in London to have a corporate career. Looking back, it took me longer than it should have to accept that the corporate environment just wasn't right for me, while piano teaching was shouting from the corner, "Hey, you love this. It makes you happy."
So I took it seriously when I switched to full-time teaching, and that's part of the mindset shift that has helped me take on board all the ideas I'm sharing with you. I've experienced everything we go through: not wanting to charge too much, fearing losing students, rescheduling when people ask, the whole thing I talk about a lot.
I'm telling you all this because it's the backdrop against which "just teaching piano", in inverted commas, had to be reframed for me as a serious profession worth pricing properly, not a fallback position. I went into it full steam, and the result is a studio and business I love, which supports me and my family, and, most importantly, doesn't give me intense anxiety.
What is an average teacher?
I'd like to put the question to you, to help you start thinking: what is an average teacher? I've told you my thoughts on it, and how much we care about things. But I think it would be a useful exercise to do some self-reflection and think about the qualities you have as a teacher.
Do you care about getting it right? Do you care about whether the student who wasn't sure about a concept last week gets it next week? Yes, I bet you do. And I bet your brain has been in problem solving mode, trying to come up with solutions, without you even realising. You come up with the best ideas in the shower, don't you?
Think about the amount of thought and time spent researching materials, coming up with new ways to explain concepts that might have been lost on one student but not another, planning ahead and adapting to students in the moment. You'll be doing some of these things without even realising: adapting to the student in front of you who's showing that they don't understand what you're talking about, or that they're struggling with their confidence, or that they're enjoying an activity, so you should do more of it with them. Improvisation comes to mind.
Boundaries, not walls
If you're engaging on social media and reading other teachers' comments, there's a certain subset of teachers (unlikely to be listening to this podcast) who are very set in their ways and very strict with their businesses. To me, it comes across as a defensive kind of strictness, because maybe they've been burned in the past. That's not what I'm teaching you. That's the result of some bad experiences with students and families in the past, and their coping mechanism has been to put up a big barrier to protect themselves. It's a big defensive wall, rather than a boundary put in place to protect both sides.
I think that distinction is worth pointing out, because it's easy to read a studio policy and the way it's worded and think, "Oh my goodness, that sounds really harsh. I'd never speak to a student or parent that way." Of course you wouldn't. It's a policy document. It's not supposed to be written the way we speak; it's supposed to be written in clear, unambiguous language.
So having strict policies and sticking to them doesn't mean you have to put up a big wall and become a strict, tough teacher. Do you think that describes me in any way? No, it doesn't, and I wouldn't be comfortable in that position, because it's just not me. But I've found a balance between standing up for my policies and putting boundaries in place (sometimes being firmer than I'm comfortable with, to maintain those boundaries and protect my mental health, my time and my income), while still being me. The teacher I am, and always want to be, is warm and approachable. Getting the balance just right takes practice, but it's absolutely achievable for you. If this resonates with you, it's not either/or. You don't have to morph into a hard-nosed business person, because that's just not realistic, and it's unnecessary.
Part 3: What your rate communicates, and how to set it
Your rate filters enquiries
This section is about what your teaching rate communicates to families, which I touched on earlier with the idea that if it's really cheap, it's a bit suspicious. For me, the first thing prospective families often ask when they contact me through my website is how much lessons cost, even though the rate is published clearly on the website, and that's fine; I'm happy to answer. But the question shows how they're assessing you.
Some enquirers are visibly put off. I'm assuming that's why some don't reply when the rate is higher than they expected. But that's a good outcome, not a bad one. It ends the conversation immediately and doesn't waste anyone's time. You're not spending time on a consultation or trial lesson, or booking in a family who'd struggle to pay and wouldn't commit to buying a decent enough instrument because money's too tight.
On this point, it's not excluding those who can't afford it; it's filtering for how people choose to spend their money. I'll acknowledge right now that that's a generalisation, because there will always be exceptions: families who have the devotion and motivation for music lessons when things are really tight. Those are the exceptions I mentioned earlier, who'd benefit from scholarships, sponsorship and that kind of support.
So my advice on choosing your rate applies across your studio, not to the exceptions, of which there will always be some. It's up to you how you choose to deal with those exceptions. If you have the financial stability to provide scholarships for one or two students, absolutely go for it. If that's something you want to do, it's a great thing to do for those families. But it's not something you should feel obliged to do as a music teacher just because we all care so much. It's got to fit within your boundaries and your financial needs, because you're a person too. More than likely you have a family or a partner, and even if you're just supporting yourself, you need to be able to live comfortably on your profession, which is music teaching. You don't need to apologise for that. It's okay.
Your rate signals commitment
Your rate also communicates confidence that your lessons are a real financial and time commitment, rather than a casual, disposable extra. If the fees are too low, music lessons can be absorbed as, "Oh, here's another activity we can sign little Johnny up for," without much thought for what they're doing, treating music lessons like other after-school activities. We all know they're not. The time commitment goes far beyond attending a once-a-week football practice, for example.
I say that without ever having been to football practice myself. As a child, I had piano lessons, of course, but I also did ballet, and I didn't practise between lessons at all. There was never an expectation of that; certainly nothing was communicated to me, or to my mum, I assume. We just turned up every week and did the exercises and dances. With music lessons, we all know that when that happens, no progress is made. It's frustrating for us as teachers and frustrating for the student who sees no progress, and so on, and we know how that story ends.
When your rate is at a level that takes a bit more consideration for a student and family to take on, it earns the respect it needs from the start. When you invest in something, you pay more attention to it and put more effort in. For a parent investing in music lessons, it becomes a higher priority than other things: "We're paying quite a bit for these lessons, so we need to make the most of them," which means supporting practice at home. So your rate encourages what we want all our student families to do: care about the lessons and the progress, and be an active part of it.
The same number lands differently
The other thing about rates is that they're relative to everyone's own life experiences and perspectives. One of my current adult students returned to me after a short break, and when she asked about my fees (I charge monthly; it's gone up since), it was £70 a month at the time. Her immediate response was, "Oh, that's not very much, is it?"
That comment wasn't meant as a compliment. She heard the figure and thought, "Oh, that's lower than I thought it would be," not in a way that made her doubt my quality, but as an honest reflection of her financial position. Either way, it's proof that the same number lands completely differently depending on who hears it, their financial situation and their expectations. So going low isn't the solution, because it damages more than just your income.
How to set your rate
When you're working out what to charge, my advice is to start with a benchmark survey, like the ISM Teacher Fees Survey or Nicola Cantan's survey (I'll include links to both in the show notes), to find out the current national average. But treat it as a ballpark, not a target. Honestly assess where you sit against that average. Think about how many years of experience you have, how much enthusiasm you put into lessons and planning, and how much continuing professional development you've done.
On that point, continuing professional development doesn't have to be official long-term courses or paid-for events. It includes learning from our peers in many ways, and that still counts. Workshops and meet-ups count, even if they're very inexpensive, because you're spending time outside lessons engaging with others in our community. It's not just to make connections and friends (although it's lovely having a bunch of piano teacher friends), but to share ideas, learn from each other, and develop and grow as teachers. So that still counts.
Then think about the range of students, with different needs, that you feel you can competently support. If you have a specialism in teaching neurodivergent students, that has significant value for those families. I say that as someone with an autistic child and a completely neurodivergent family, myself included. Knowing that someone has a reasonable understanding of how to adapt lessons and teaching for a child with different ways of learning, different levels of social anxiety and whatever else their profile might involve is incredibly valuable. Without that understanding, at least for my daughter, it would have been a disaster from the start, and that's a lot of stress and angst you can avoid.
You don't have to have particular training to offer some kind of specialism. I've taken on neurodivergent students, diagnosed and undiagnosed, and my way of teaching suits them because of my life experiences and who I am as a person. So you'll have skills you maybe don't realise you have, which suit particular types of students who really need you, and that increases your value.
As a guide, and remember this is just my opinion: if you're above average on all of those measures, price above the average. If you're a brand new teacher, it's probably safer to start closer to the average. Definitely don't underprice dramatically.
At this point, I'd like to mention that I charged only £10 for 30-minute lessons when I first started out in 2007. Don't do that; don't go that low. It was an indication of my level of self-confidence. £10 for 30 minutes is nowhere near enough, especially not these days. As a general rule, if a price feels very comfortable to charge, it's probably not high enough.
Increase a little every year
One really important thing I'd love you to take on board is this: whatever your starting point, build in a small increase every single year, to keep pace with inflation. I've talked about this so much, and there are other episodes going into more detail, which I'll link in the show notes. But even if it feels like such a tiny increase that it doesn't matter, please increase every single year, even by a small amount. If you don't, then because of inflation you'll be earning less the following year than you were the year before. Your spending power is less.
When you build it into the yearly policy agreement signing (signing up for the next year, or re-signing to keep their slot in your studio, I should say), students and families come to expect a small increase every year. That's exactly how I operate. I mentioned the £70 I discussed with my student; it's now £77, because that was a couple of years ago. And I don't lose any students each year when they sign up for the increased fee. It just doesn't happen.
So make it part of your annual signing up. It doesn't automatically take students out of your studio; it gives them the opportunity to actively opt in and say, "Yes, I agree to this fee increase, and yes, I want to keep my slot." And they all do, because you're you.
As well as increasing every year for inflation, you should increase your fees as you gain experience, and that experience largely takes care of itself, simply through teaching. We learn all the time, don't we? We learn from our students what works and what doesn't: "Oh, this is a type of learning I haven't come across before. Right, let's problem solve and work out what they need. Okay, this is what this student needs. I wonder if I could use it with that student." All that experience is so valuable, and it comes from the teaching.
But teachers with a real growth mindset, who engage with other teachers and keep learning, naturally outpace the average faster, and your rate should reflect that. If you're keeping up with your teaching community, engaging and learning from each other, your skills are increasing, you deserve to be paid for that, and you should be increasing your rates in line with it.
Back to that first email
So, back to where this episode started: sending that email to my students at the time, increasing their rate for the first time ever. It was terrifying and so difficult, but I knew I needed to do it. The first increase was from £18 to £20 for a half-hour lesson. Initially, because it was easier, I only applied it to new students from that point, because I was so afraid of unsettling my existing families and students.
But running two different rates side by side, for existing and new students, really complicated my invoicing. It took ages, and I always had to double check who was on the old rate and who was on the new one. It was more stress than I needed. It took me about six months to move all the other families across to the new rate.
Even though it was really scary, it was only scary because it was the first time I'd done it. I was actively asking for more money for doing the same job, though my experience had increased and my teaching had improved. One of the things that made increasing my rate for current families more manageable was giving them an opt-out, of course. You explain that the new rate will be this, and that if they'd like to keep their slot in the studio, they need to sign the new policy agreement with the increased rate to confirm. You're not holding them to a new rate they haven't agreed to. They're choosing to stay with you and take on the increased rate, probably because most of them expect it, because that's how life works these days, and has done for a long time. We're just catching up as music teachers, aren't we?
It lets you feel a bit more comfortable that if it's not for them, they don't have to sign up. You don't need to word it like that. I know it ignites that deep-seated fear of losing students because of increasing our rates. But as I've experienced time and time again, every time I increase my rates, I don't lose a single student.
Why students really leave
In fact, I put a poll in my Facebook group this week asking what the most common reason is that students give when they stop lessons, because the vast majority of the time, it's nothing to do with your teaching. This is just an aside, but by far the most frequently cited reason was too many other activities, which really makes sense, because kids are so overscheduled these days.
In fact, one of the questions I ask when a student family comes to me is, "What other hobbies and activities do you do?" If they start listing gymnastics, karate, swimming lessons, badminton lessons, "and we'd like to take on piano as well," that's an immediate red flag for me. I know they won't have enough time to practise, and it'll add to a child who's already overscheduled. So I'm honest in that moment: "Learning to play the piano, or any instrument for that matter, requires a level of time commitment beyond what I believe is possible with your current schedule." It's better to be honest in those situations than I have been in the past, because we don't want students who don't practise, we don't want students to feel overwhelmed, and we don't want to mislead anyone. It doesn't make for a good teaching environment if a student always comes to lessons feeling completely worn out and guilty for not practising.
To allay your fears about losing students when you increase your rates: students don't choose you based on how much you charge alone. Yes, it's a factor, because everyone has to budget and make sure they can afford what they're paying for. But they'll be reflecting on all the value you've given them up to that point, how much they enjoy the lessons and the established relationship. There's so much more than your teaching fee. So it's highly unlikely you'll lose students when you increase your rates.
On the odd occasion that you do, if it's purely because of your rates, this is unlikely to be a student who'd have been an ideal student in the long term. If an extra (what would it be?) 50p a lesson is enough to tip them into "We can't afford this," it could mean one of several things. It could mean the priority they give to the instrument and those lessons is lower than it needs to be, because we all decide how we spend our money, and there's always some wiggle room. Or it could mean things were already too tight, and this is an opportunity to bow out without feeling as awkward as giving notice out of the blue. And if things were that tight, they're unlikely to be comfortable investing in a good enough instrument; in my case, they may well still be on a keyboard. But as I've said, it's never happened. In all my rate increases over the years, I've never lost a student because of one.
Don't catch up in one big jump
I strongly encourage you to review your rate every year, because small increases each year are much more manageable. If you haven't reviewed your rate in a number of years, one single enormous catch-up jump is not recommended. Please don't do that, because it's likely to scare your students. The way round it is a slightly larger than normal increase for one year, followed by a return to small annual increases. That closes the gap gradually rather than all at once.
I recently experienced this with a mailing list subscription I had. They communicated a lot about it, saying, "We've kept our rates the same for years, but with the introduction of AI," I think it was, "and everything else, we need to increase our rates to this amount." It doubled overnight, and that made me cancel my subscription and find another provider, because it was far too big a jump. And there was no need, because the alternative I found was much easier to work with. So don't do the big jump. I'm sure you wouldn't, but just in case you're thinking, "Oh, I'll get it all over and done with in one go, so I don't have to keep increasing," I'd advise against it.
And, like I said earlier, making the review an expected annual event, tied to the start of a new academic year if that's how you teach, or a new calendar year, removes the emotional weight from any single year's increase, because families come to expect it as part of how the studio runs.
Part 4: Objections, and one thing to do this week
"I'm the only teacher in my area"
I want to address some objections I've experienced myself, talking about this with other teachers, and that I've read online and heard in conversation.
The first: "I'm the only teacher in my area, so there isn't a large pool of students to choose from, and I can't charge much." This might sound a little harsh, but being the only teacher in a remote area is a reason to charge a bit more, not less. You're in real demand. I know some teachers disagree with this on principle, and it comes back to the wish to make lessons accessible to all. But this is your livelihood and your business, so it needs to support you. If you have to charge so little to feel okay that the business fails and you need to take another job, that's not where we want to be. Scarcity is exactly that. If you're the only one, charge what you're worth. Even if you're not the only one, charge what you're worth; it just shouldn't be taken the opposite way.
"My area is low income"
A second objection: "My area is low income, so my students simply can't afford proper rates." I'd point out that this is often an assumption rather than a tested fact. It may be true for some families, but pricing your entire studio around a low income expectation means you're not reaching your ideal students, who exist wherever you live.
Choosing to charge less to support families who truly can't afford more is a valid personal choice, but it's not a sustainable business model if you apply it to your whole studio. And no one's forcing you into it. We often take on these ideas and feel obliged, as the kind music teachers we are, to make everything accessible to everyone. But that's not necessarily for us to do for everyone at the expense of our own livelihood.
It's a bit like giving away everything you own to charity because you want to give to charity, and then becoming homeless because you can't pay your bills. I know that's an extremely extreme example, but it's along the same lines. If you can't support yourself, you've created a problem rather than helped fix one.
"If I raise my rates, I'll lose students"
I've already touched on this objection, but I want to make the point again because it's so important: "If I raise my rates, I'll lose students." It's such a universal fear, isn't it? But I've never experienced it, and I've raised my rates several times. Whenever students have left, it's always been for entirely different reasons: a change of heart, moving away, a busier life, just wanting to try something else. It's never the fee increase. So believe in yourself. Your students value you for more than your rates.
"I don't have the qualifications"
The fourth objection I'd like to talk about is, "I don't have the qualifications to justify charging more." Having letters after your name doesn't automatically make you a good teacher, and lacking them doesn't automatically make you a bad one.
Think of a concert pianist. Of course they're very accomplished at their instrument, but that doesn't make them a good teacher. As a teacher, yes, you need your understanding of your instrument and all the rest of it, but communicating how you do what you do to a range of people with different learning approaches, personalities and levels of social awareness takes so many different skills. So I don't think it's something we should hang on to so much.
Active engagement with the teaching community, continuing professional development in whatever form it takes, and real achievements, like completing a structured teacher training course designed to help you teach more effectively, all build your capability, with or without a formal music degree or diploma.
One caveat I'd like to bring in here: in my opinion, music teachers shouldn't take on beginner students on their instrument unless they've reached at least Grade 8 themselves. You need such a strong personal grounding in the instrument to avoid accidentally teaching bad habits in those early stages. You don't want to cause more problems than you realise through a lack of experience on your part.
One thing to do this week
So, to summarise what we've covered: teacher fee averages are a ballpark to start from, not a rate to hide behind, and what you offer determines what you should charge.
I'll put the ISM Teacher Fees Survey link in the show notes, and one action for you this week is to open the survey and have a look. Look up the average fees for your region, if you're in the UK, and really reflect on where your own experience and effort place you against it. Let it help you think about what rate you should be charging, and detach it, if you can, from all the emotions that get in the way, like, "Oh, but I know that teacher's really good, and they only charge this, so I can't possibly charge more than them." Those comparisons don't help you. It can only be a reflection of you: your value as a teacher, and what you offer your students. There'll be lots of ways you're providing value to your students that you don't even realise at first. It can be hard to reflect on, but it's worthwhile.
I offer Focus Sessions, one-to-one mentoring for music teachers, if you'd like support working through this kind of activity. You can book them through my website, and I'll put a link in the show notes as well.
I'd also like to let you know that I'm in the process of building a course teaching lots of the concepts covered in these podcast episodes. It's going to be called The Sustainable Studio, and I'll release it first to a small number of teachers at a discounted rate. So listen out for more details on that.
One parting thought: setting your teaching fees properly, pricing yourself properly, is what allows a teaching practice to be sustained for decades, rather than ending with an overworked, burnt-out teacher who's teaching too many students just to make ends meet, and losing the joy and energy they have for this wonderful job of music teaching. So you owe it to yourself to charge what you're worth, and really reflect on your value as a music teacher.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you think it would help another teacher, please feel free to share it with them. And if you're enjoying my podcast, I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a review on whichever podcast platform you listen on. It helps other music teachers find my podcast and benefit from the things we talk about. Thanks very much. See you in the next episode.
