Private music lessons (not school based) - how do you pay?

[ISingSoprano]

If your dc have private music lessons can you tell me how and how often you pay please? I don't want to know how much.

Do you pay:

• for each lesson as it happens - cash or cheque OR
  
• monthly, half termly, termly, other - cash, cheque or direct bank transfer
  
  Many thanks.

[JimBobplusasprog]

Termly by bank transfer or cheque. £165 for ten half hour lessons which is a bargain. In contrast I will be paying £270 per term at ds' s school.

[HercShipwright]

For one teacher we pay trembly by cheque. For the other one we have a monthly SO and sort out overs/unders at the end of each term. I prefer the SO method to be honest. We have to pay the peris at the schools termly so it helps to have one set of fees that are spread. If I could I'd spread everything. I don't mind paying more upfront in order to get the spreading effect (we pay a month in advance).

[Roseformeplease]

Cash each week or we can pay in lumps ahead, or we write a cheque afterwards. All very, very relaxed here and music lessons all run by one organisation.

[Youdontneedacriminallawyer]

Cheque in advance, every four weeks.

[BackforGood]

Each lesson as it happens. Personally I pay cash, but I presume you could pay by cheque if you wanted to.
This has been the same for 4 different instruments over the years.

If we miss without notice (eg, dc forgets to turn up) then I would pay for the missed lesson the week afterwards when I pay for that week's.

[treaclesoda]

Teacher invoices me three times a year, I pay for 11 lessons each time, by cheque.

[treaclesoda]

and I pay in advance.

[OldBeanbagz]

By cheque every four weeks. The school lessons are paid for termly by BACs.

[Theas18]

Private lessons with an independent teacher? We pay cash/cheque each time and always have. It means we don't pay if we don't go (either because we can't or the teacher can't) .

[ISingSoprano]

Thanks everyone - that's very helpful.

[RaspberryLemonPavlova]

Cash weekly here

[JulieMichelleRobinson]

As a teacher, I prefer termly in advance (cheque, transfer or even cash in an envelope).

However, I'm quite flexible especially in the first term. So I have some students - mainly pre-schoolers and adults - who pay per lesson at the time of the lesson (48 hours' notice of cancellation/reschedule) and I accept payments either half termly or in random instalments from a few families who find the lump sum difficult.

Generally speaking, I invoice termly in advance. Paying in bits is by prior arrangement.

[EvilTwins]

I pay for DD's piano lessons a term at a time, in advance. Her teacher is lovely and very flexible, but I'd rather do it all up front - if I was paying every week I'd probably forget a lot!

[Nocomet]

Termly by check, usally £110 (10 weeks at £11 for 30-sometimes 45 minutes)

He's been kindly helping with GCSE music at no extra charge. In fact for free because I forgot to pay the last bill and DD is having time off to revise

[Ludways]

Every half term, cash or card. £10 a lesson in a group, bargain.

[Wafflenose]

My daughters play quite a few things between them, and I manage to do most things with them (music teacher!) but I pay for flute and cello lessons. Cheque for half a term, up front.

At one school, I bill a term ahead, and at the other, I am paid through the 'system', in arrears. Private pupils can do PAYG, or monthly by cheque or direct debit.

[Bonsoir]

We pay yearly in advance with three cheques, one per term, two of which can be postdated if we want.

I think termly in advance is only reasonable. I balk a bit at yearly in advance but the teacher is very good or else I wouldn't want to (she also lives in a really inconvenient place and we have to go to her).

[poshfrock]

Cash every week. £15 for an hour long lesson ( guitar and bass guitar). Sounds like we've got a bit of a bargain looking at what some of you are paying.
We do pay £12 per half hour for singing lessons though - again cash every week.

[AlpacaLypse]

I walk the teacher's dog in exchange for lessons! (Sorry, probably not helpful)

[cricketpitch]

I pay in blocks of five lessons, in advance, in cash.
Don't mind paying in advance - understand about sudden disappearance of income but hate paying by cash as have to draw out £85. Also have no proof of payment and there was a nasty "misunderstanding" over whether payment had been made or not.

[VenusDeWillendorf]

Yearly, in advance, and through the nose at 20 per lesson, and music theory as well.
Comes to about 1K in total.

[JulieMichelleRobinson]

Cricketpitch,

Ask for a receipt?

[pigsinmud]

For ds2's violin lesson we pay by cheque. She usually gives us an invoice after 5 or 6 lessons.

Dh gets paid for his private teaching in a variety of ways. Some pay after a block of 5 lessons. One pays by BACS after each lesson.

School teaching is paid termly in advance.....although by the time some of them pay it's nearly the end of term.

Why do people resent paying their music teacher so much? A few years ago, a friend asked dh how much he'd charge to give her son lessons. When he told her (I think it was £35 an hour then) she announced it was ridiculous and she wasn't paying that. Two minutes later she was telling us how her dh earned over £100 an hour.

[ISingSoprano]

Thanks everyone for your contribution, it has been very helpful to me.

I don't resent paying for dd's music lessons at all - she gets so much out of them, they are not cheap but worth every penny. My reason for asking the question was that her teacher suggested a new payment pattern which wasn't very easy for me. I wanted to suggest another but needed to make sure it wasn't completely out of kilter with normal practice (it's not and the teacher has happily agreed to my counter suggestion).

[pigsinmud]

ISing - sorry my rant wasn't aimed at you! It's the usual start of term payment dramas in our house. I can't pay for the music lessons now because we have to pay for swimming lessons/ mot/ holiday! I was letting off steam about it.