What Does My Tuition Pay For?

I have chosen to make piano and vocal teaching my business and my occupation. As with any business, the cost of doing business is calculated to both ensure that the highest quality product is given to each and every “customer” and that the business makes enough profit to continue to exist and provide services.

The tuition fee that you pay covers more than just the actual lesson time. Your tuition payments are allocated over a specific amount of weeks worth of activities, not just the individual lesson time. For every hour enrolled in piano lessons, you are actually investing at least two hours of the teacher's time.

Tuition pays for the whole program of activities and opportunities provided to your child during the year. Much time is also spent outside of the studio, doing the following:

Planning curriculum and acquiring music for each student

Attending meetings, workshops and conventions to continually improve my teaching skills

Listening and evaluating music and studying interpretations. This sometimes involves attendance at concerts and other live performances

Performing organizational tasks involved with festivals, recitals, competitions, auditions, and other performance events

Belonging to and volunteering many hours to music organizations. I am currently a member of the Overlake Federated Music Club of the Washington State Federated Music Club, an affiliate of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Teachers must be active members of these groups for their students to participate in the festivals, competitions, and auditions. I have several responsibilities at the club and state levels of the NFMC.

Where does your tuition money go?

First of all, your tuition pays for the teacher’s time spent with your student in lessons, performance classes and rehearsals, as well as time spent at recitals, festivals, and competitions. Your tuition also pays for your teacher’s training, experience and expertise.

According to statistics, 30 to 50% of the money coming in goes out for expenses. Examples of these costs are: recital expenses, gifts and awards, certificates, repairs and maintenance of the piano(s) and studio, software, incentive programs and prizes, professional membership dues and journals, teacher expenses incurred in festivals and competitions, materials, postage, and normal operating expenses any small business incurs (i.e. phone, internet, power, copies, newsletters).
Property taxes, self employment taxes, insurance, business licenses & renewals, retirement: the Individual Music Teacher has no company to assist in providing health insurance and matching funds. Tuition helps cover the increased living costs of the self-employed teacher.
Continuing education such as conferences, conventions and workshops help keep an IMT current on methods and techniques of teaching and playing/singing. At times this will include attendance at concerts and other musical events where there are fees to attend.

Purchasing music online, which has become more and more of a necessity, incurs shipping charges that are not passed on to the student when billing for books.

A significant part of your music dollar pays for the teacher’s time, of course, but it includes much more time than that spent at the lesson each week. Not only is the time spent in organizational tasks, such as scheduling lessons, planning students’ repertoire, planning and physically preparing for recitals and festivals, adjudicating area festivals, attending local and state music meetings and seminars, but teachers also volunteer many hours to state and national organizations. These organizations provide musical activities for our students, such as the NFMC festivals, competitions, and opportunities for scholarships and awards.

Music lessons are a lifetime investment. Students who study through high school often consider the purchase of a piano to be a priority after graduation from college. Whether for profit or pleasure, they keep the piano and music as a lifetime investment as they discover that their music enriches others lives as well as their own. No price can be put on such a beautiful art as music. Yet, obtaining the skill of piano playing and vocal performance certainly requires assistance from a professional – your independent music teacher!