I’m a member of several different websites that advertise piano lessons. Parents can send in requests and the teachers can choose to respond to requests in their area that fit their professional goals. So many of the requests on these boards and inquires that I receive through my website are parents asking for lessons in their home.
I do not teach lessons anywhere other than my home studio. There are several reasons for this.
1. It costs me time and money. Lessons at Brunner Studios are $26.25 for a 30 minute lesson. If I have to drive to your house, teach a lesson, and drive home. That is costing a lesson time on either side of the scheduled lesson. Also, gas and wear and tear on my vehicle. Gas is approximately 3.50 a gallon right now. That can eat into my fees quickly.
2. There are great resources that I’ve spent time building at my studio. There are keyboards, computers, bookcases full of music that can be loaned, workbooks, reward charts. These are all things that can’t travel for a weekly lesson. If the student needs a new book or supplemental material, I am almost guaranteed to have it on my bookshelf. You won’t find it dragging around in the trunk of my car.
3. You forgot. Way back when I first started teaching (in college) there was a family that I went to their house to give lessons. It wasn’t close but there were multiple lessons and at the time gas was around $1 a gallon. The family was always forgetting about lessons and leaving me hanging. If you forget your lessons and are taking at my studio, I can still get work done if you forget or get sick at the last minute. There is a lot of time involved in teaching lessons other than the 30 minutes you are here.
4. Student don’t take the lessons as seriously as in a different environment. My studio is a dedicated space for lessons. It is a environment set aside for education. Your living room with the siblings running through and the door slamming just doesn’t allow the same focus.
So there are a few reasons that I don’t advocate lessons in the student’s home. Now this isn’t to say that it would never work, but for me from a professional standpoint, I want a dedicated music space for educational purposes.