Upping The Price of Guitar Lessons

Ask him how many years he has been at $30 per hour.

If he has been 5 or more years, then use the following, as it has worked for me
[template, that is] over hundreds of clients over many years.

"{Name} your guitar lessons are now $40 per hour. This is the first time in [number of years]
there has been a price increase. You'll still receive the same level of tuition and care as with [last tutor].
Let me know if this won't work for you.
[sign off]"

Best,
Doctor E. Vile

How many students paying $40/hr do you CURRENTLY have in this new location?

If the answer is "none" - I'd suggest an upbeat and welcoming to the students being sent your way by the other teacher. Tell them you've always charged $40 but because they will be your first students you will reduce the fee to $35/hr. (Or give them $30 for the first 3-6 months).

I'd reduce my fee to get the students and give myself time to build up my own clientele. If the students like you they will pay the higher fee to stay on later. It's not often you'll have someone funnel several music students to you - I'd take advantage of it.

An email of "hi, I'm new and charge 25% more" could be a deal breaker. The question becomes - how badly do you need these students?

The endorsement you get from the other person WILL BE KEY to the student's decision to pay more.

Let the other guitar teacher do the talking for you. Basically what he should say on your behalf is "He may cost a bit more, but he's worth it. You're worth it. Your guitar training and future as a professional musician are worth it. Here's why..."

Anything you do, other than be a great guitar teacher, will screw up the deal.

There's an old saying I use regularly: "You can't paint a halo around your own head."

So let the other guitar teacher do it for you.

You just have to sit back, shut up and do your best job you can do, proving by implication the other guitar teacher was right.

PS: If this line of thinking feels right to you, let me know and I can expound further. But I've given you the basics of the strategy.

A quick qualification...my mom a retired University lecturer...still teaches piano to several students a week and she is in her late 70's.

The going rate as per the Music teachers association of NSW in Australia is $80 per hour and $110 per hour for group tuition of 3-6 students Teaching Fees - 2015 - Music Teachers Association of NSW

Now a few things to consider in addition to the excellent responses that precede this one and no doubt the ones that follow...

Maybe do what the food companies do on a regular basis which is change the packaging.

If the $30 was a barrier to a student could the package be changes to 45 minutes for the $30?

Could a student who might be price sensitive combined into a class with another similar individual at $25 each per hour yielding $50 return to you.

Not that I'm suggesting a lower price but you can always have that option if it appealed.

The other thing is to quote a recognised music teachers association like I did earlier in this post and show that the "going rate" is actually $25-30 for 30 minutes and you are competitively priced at $40 for an hour.

Teaching music lessons, mainly guitar, was where I first discovered by copywriting skills. I was renting a private studio in a school where I was the ONLY person who didn't have a doctor's or master's degree in music. Hell, I was still working on my 4 year degree. But I managed to get paid the same amount per hour as most of the other teachers because I learned to market myself as a specialist instead of a generalist.

I targeted college age kids who wanted to either learn rock or blues guitar or pianists/songwriters and/or singers who wanted to become better songwriters. I had plenty of originals written. I was studying music composition, I'd gotten my start playing in rock bands...and I had long hair and drank beer.

Meanwhile, the other two guitar teachers, both doctors, had spent decades noodling around with classical finger picking pieces. They had written no original pieces and showed up to work in dockers and polo shirts every day.

Who do you think a 24 year old, long-haired, classic rock lovin' young guitarist or aspiring young songwriter would rather work with?

Market for the rate you want, but DO NOT lower your rates. You'll be forced to keep charging them to your "old" students" long after you've managed to attract new students at a higher rate. Identify a specific demographic and music style which you excel at working with. Position yourself as a specialist for that demographic and for teaching that style.

Chances are, everyone else is just taking any student who will pay them and advertising themselves to attract "anyone." That's a big marketing no-no, but most of them will never learn that. They'll just lean on their reputation and/or degree.

Use that to your advantage. Trust me, the people who match your demographic AND who want to learn the specific style you're teaching will get it. They'll choose to learn from someone who "gets" them and who "gets" the kind of music they're into.

NEVER underestimate the power of affinity. And don't lower your hourly rate to compete with someone else just because they've put in more time warming a chair at chamber of commerce meetings.

I could probably write the copy for this, for the emails.

Maybe you could position yourself as the most expensive guitar teacher in town.

You could almost definitely keep the 40 probably charge more even if you wanted.

If I were to write the copy for this, I would tell a story around it, because as you wrote here, stories about guitar players and money can be interesting, you could teach them one of the most important things about music early on as a free start.

I may sound a bit cynical, but I've found music and art comes down to money as much as anything, that's part of the reason why I personally got into copywriting instead of poetry or music, where someone else would be doing the marketing.

Allow circumstance to slash your ass, and you'll never shit straight again.

Shit on opportunity, and your ass shits nuthin'.

So you lead with the 'I'm a $40 a throw guy' — because you ARE.

But you figure also that no one likes change, no one likes a hike, no one likes an easy deal schwumped, so you see HOW SHITTY THEY'RE GONNA FEEL if you ME ME ME on the deal, even though THE DEAL IS ALREADY $$$ SEALED.

So, offer $30 for a month, leading up front with where you currently stand in this oscillatory $$$ wonderworld.

That way, the comers will come, and if you're truly a $40 guy, they'll see you're worth it when the month done with your SPECIAL ATTENTION is over.

Any guys sniffin' their old teacher's pants, you ditch. Ditto the quibblers, same as on your current $40 deal.

And if bucks are realy a problem to some guy you see is desperate, then you already had courage to set your own rates, so make with the one-off discount.

Best I can do with morphin' an old existence into a new existence without forcing Principle and Opportunity to rip the heck out of one another.

Thanks a million to everyone who took the time to respond, some really good food for thought here and I don't think there is any question that I need to stick at $40.

I'm basing it on a few things, but it's exactly what the other most popular school in town is charging, and if I don't start out at $40 i'll be fighting with it from the start. Also, someone asked about the qualifications of the other teacher and while he is a good guitar player (i don't really know how he is as a teacher), I have more education (masters vs bachelors) more teaching experience in years, and not to brag but I can play circles around him (which actually isn't all that important when it comes to teaching but I had to throw it in there).

Love the idea of letting him do the selling for me, as well as a few of the other ideas here, the idea of wording it with them in control ala ewenmack makes sense to me from a marketing perspective definitely.

Anyways, it's all in the works now, I'll let you know how it goes !

$40 isn't even that much honestly. I've contacted teachers who want $50 or more per hour and they were booked to the point that they weren't even fighting to get me to sign up (though the instructor had played with Hendrix and the Doors).

It's a lot perception of quality or 'fame' by association, and if you can knock a learning curve off as well as help the student in other aspects of their music career, like marketing, which could help them reach fame or recognition in a more effective way then you could probably charge way more and it would actually be worth it.

This is my opinion anyways...from someone who wanted to be a musician and then found out that probably as much as talent, the marketing plays a huge role in the success of the musician. You know this though, that is why you are here

Also, to get more for your time, you could probably hunt through some good products online at sites like Clickbank for example for information and digital products... and if you really believe in them, recommend them as a purchase via a wordpress blog for affiliate commission.

You could probably recommend a new one every week even as a 'sifting through and testing products' fee and encourage, even require them buy your recommendations if it is legal.

For one example, beats collections for them to play rhythm guitar to, music marketing resources, studio set up instructions and tips etc...

With a better marketing system, getting the equivalent of at least $100 per hour seems very possible.