Piano Tricks

For those of you who are considering becoming a piano teacher here are a few pointers.
1. Understand and be able to play piano yourself. You need to have piano experience before becoming a teacher. Most teachers have learned their craft thoroughly and enjoy it.
2. Decide how many lessons you want to teach each week, how much you will charge, and how long each lesson will be. Most lessons are 30 minutes long, especially for beginning players. Find out what other piano teachers in your area are charging. As a new teacher, your rate should be lower than theirs. Many starting teachers begin with a low rate of $10 per lesson and raise their rate every two-three years by a few dollars. When you're deciding how many lessons and when you want to teach each week, remember the time commitments of your students. Are they still in school? College students? Are they working a 9-5 job? You'll have to work around their schedules too. Remember to leave time for your lunch or dinner break.
3. Decide where you will have your lessons. You could have them at your house, at your student's house, or at another site, such as a music store or community center. Make sure there is a piano and a chair for you and your student. It should be clean, easy to work in, and easy to get to for you and your students.
4. Find students. Advertise in the newspaper, hand out fliers in your neighborhood, and tell everyone you know. If your city has a community center, ask if they have a music program that you could be part of. It would give you more credibility. Music stores are good places to find aspiring students. Ask if they have a place, such as bulletin board, window, or desk, where you could hang a flier.
5. Plan out your lessons. Once you have a student and the first lesson scheduled, plan out what you will teach your student at the first lesson. Introduce yourself and ask the student some basic questions about themselves. Find out if they have ever played piano before and how much they know. You could ask them to play a simple song for you. Do they have any goals or songs that they're working on? Why do they want to learn to play piano? What kind of music do they like? You may want to find out when the lesson is scheduled if your student is new to the piano so you can recommend books for them to buy before the lesson. Alfred Piano Course books are an excellent series for learning the basics, but there are many other series to choose from. As the teacher, you should be familiar with the books. Some teachers buy the books for the students (the student pays for the books at the first lesson) so that they can play through the songs themselves and be able to give the student helpful hints, skip songs that doesn't agree with your teaching principles or other things.
6. Have your first lesson. Learn from them and change how you're teaching for each student. Teach on the level of the pupil. Base your lesson off them. Go their speed. They're paying for the lessons. You want them to understand why the reason behind various music techniques. Start with what they know and build off it.
7. Encourage your students often. Tell them when they've improved and what they do well. Offer constructive criticism only.


Source: http://www.wikihow.com/Teach-Piano