This isn't related to anything that technically happened today, but I think it's a well-deserved rant, and a warning to anyone considering taking music lessons:
Pay your teacher.
One of my two current students (I'm not sure whether I should consider her a student at this rate) has had only two total lessons, due to insane and inconvenient scheduling, courtesy of our schools. They were both a few weeks apart, but she has still so far failed to compensate monetarily for her usage of my time. Mate, I'm not going to listen to you play a plastic oboe on a store-bought reed for no cost. I want something to make me understand that I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart, as the goodness of my heart is rapidly waning.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that $25 an hour is a ridiculously low fee. Because, um, it is. Therefore, I'm not seeing what the huge issue is with paying me. I don't bite unless you bite me first; I'd just like to be able to have some spending money without having to ask my parents for it. Self-sufficiency is a marvelous thing.
My mother is of the opinion that she (the student) is now embarrassed and afraid to approach with the money, or maybe there's an issue with her parents or something. In either case, she ought to come up to me and discuss it. I sent a very civilized (and I am a civilized person despite being a double-reed player, I'm neither exaggerating nor lying) message to her, and got no response.
Hmph.
At this point, every single ball I own is in her half of the court, and I'm willing to wait to see if she does anything with them. I'm not going to do a middle-school-teacher-esque hounding for what's due. You pay, you play. In the meantime, I'll just go and try to get rid of some of the irritation with English horn. We'll see how that goes.
Pay your teacher.
One of my two current students (I'm not sure whether I should consider her a student at this rate) has had only two total lessons, due to insane and inconvenient scheduling, courtesy of our schools. They were both a few weeks apart, but she has still so far failed to compensate monetarily for her usage of my time. Mate, I'm not going to listen to you play a plastic oboe on a store-bought reed for no cost. I want something to make me understand that I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart, as the goodness of my heart is rapidly waning.
Personally, I'm of the opinion that $25 an hour is a ridiculously low fee. Because, um, it is. Therefore, I'm not seeing what the huge issue is with paying me. I don't bite unless you bite me first; I'd just like to be able to have some spending money without having to ask my parents for it. Self-sufficiency is a marvelous thing.
My mother is of the opinion that she (the student) is now embarrassed and afraid to approach with the money, or maybe there's an issue with her parents or something. In either case, she ought to come up to me and discuss it. I sent a very civilized (and I am a civilized person despite being a double-reed player, I'm neither exaggerating nor lying) message to her, and got no response.
Hmph.
At this point, every single ball I own is in her half of the court, and I'm willing to wait to see if she does anything with them. I'm not going to do a middle-school-teacher-esque hounding for what's due. You pay, you play. In the meantime, I'll just go and try to get rid of some of the irritation with English horn. We'll see how that goes.
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