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Why are people finding lesson so expensive ? lesson prices and the economy. (All Teachers)
A recent lesson enquiry ended
“I’m gonna stick to you tube thankyou for getting back to me I’ve done ok so far.i didn’t realise that guitar lessons were so expensive”
I charge £25 p/h about the average really.
A cancellation this week was in essence Im short of money can I postpone for 2 weeks.
How much should a lesson cost. If we say the legal minimum wage is £10p/h. for maybe a semi skilled job but probaly not. The skill level for music puts it in the professions a real rate £40-£150 p/h for comparable. The muscian union say a minimum of £35p/h.
I think the rate at £25 is about the minimum. Remember subtracting cost this could end up 30% less.
Why are people finding lesson so expensive ? “Its the economy stupid” Higher living expenses for essentials mean less disposable income. Music lesson are an early casualty of household cuts. Brexit uncertainty doesnt help. People 18-30 generally are very short of money due to an out of balance wealth distribuiton. Quanative easing aka printing money didnt mean the lower paid (less than £10000000 peranum yes ten million) had a trickle down effect. It just boosted asset prices leading to higher living expenses.
What next? My usual Bearish position says after 10 years of anemic growth with QE and low interest rates this fix has been over used and is broken as a fix.
Worse. We are due a major economic catastrophe and it wont be brexit. Unfortunately no one knows what it will be until we are in meltdown. One casualty will be music lessons. My message is expect the unexpected because I expect it will happen. Remeber its not you,your teaching or your prices. “Its the economy stupid” -
7 Replies
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I would agree with much of the above, especially when you look at the impact on students in areas like Swindon where there have been lots of redundancies from well-established companies in the area.
Earlier this week, one of the teachers I know in Swindon decided to offer pro-rata lessons to a young student whos dad had been made redundant until he finds a new job. This highlights the challenges currently for families due to a difficult economic environment – the son loved his music lessons yet there had to be cut as the family tightened their budget.
As you mention music lessons are one of the first things to go in an economic downturn as they are not as important as food, housing and basic bills. One note that is positive is that I started setting all of MGR Music Tuition up from 2008 onwards just after the worst economic recession in the recent past so I am positive that even in economic downturns that there will be a stream of students coming through even in the most challenging of economic times – this is very much influenced by the micro-economic factors to that city and its relative affluence compared to the national average.
Phil did you watch/read some of the films/books about the last economic downturn in 2008 and what was going on in Iceland with the banks? I couldn’t believe what I was watching/reading about.
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Hi Matt
The more I read about how economies “work” the more frightened I get.
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I have always been interested when I hear politicians talking about the economy “growing” because it is such a strange word to describe what they mean. Economies don’t grow or shrink in the same way a living thing might, it is the liquidity of movement of money through the system – you want people to be buying more things, so more transactions take place.
What you don’t want is people to sit on money, as without transactions there is nothing to tax. So really when they talk about the “economy growing”, they want to say “an economy with ever more transactions taking place over time”
This analogy of economic growth is so widespread and I think it is such an unhelpful one that I wonder whether some people really believe we are “growing” the economy, without considering what that really means!
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Hi Matt
Exactly Liquidity is the answer. When economic crisis hits liquidty is the biggest problem. It stops. To stop people sitting on money governments cut interest rates and print money and increase borrowing. The country is ran on paying back money in the distant future. I think this started in the 1700s we are still altereing the size of this loan.
Today we are hitting a conflict environment versus economic growth. Consume less v spend more. Of coure we can rely on the “free market” without government intervention to sort this out. Much like windows operating systems finacial systems become out of date.
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I believe there are lots of reasons:
1) Depending on where a catchment area is in the UK, some schools offer ‘free’ lessons. There are pros and cons for this. The opportunity for ‘free’ lessons is amazing but on the flip side, students will view the lessons as free and therefore will not value lessons as much.
2) Though 1-2-1 is effectively the most successful way of teaching, it is also the most expensive. Some parents may not see the value of this as 30 minutes can go very quickly. Parents will also look for value for money.
3) More schools are viewing music (and the arts) as less important due to the EBacc and so GCSE Music may not be chosen as an option. Therefore, students who have lessons will probably give up at Year 9.
4) Students themselves sometimes only see learning an instrument as leading to a musician or music teacher. They may not value the holistic qualities that music lessons may have.
5) Music lessons can be expensive from some parents point of view: a musical instrument, lessons, exams, etc. In my opinion, the first 2 years are the key time in terms of the student. If they persevere in these two years, then there will some long term benefits to us as teachers… -
Hi Phil,I find this works for me,the highs and lows of family finances can change dramatically,
I never charge for missed tuition with a genuine reason.I keep overheads to minimum,with free sheet music bespoke backing tracks.Entry into performing arts,and performance.With the economic situation at the moment,I encourage multi student tuition with reduced cost or free.
I realise not all teachers are in a position to work this way,but it really is rewarding when some students worthy of training would never have had that chance.
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Well, we can all work for free and everbody is happy to take everything for free but its no business model that I recognise. If you dont put a price on your skills no one will.
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