Music Tuition - AIBU

[PiriPiriMenopause]

DC have been having lessons with the same music tutor for years. All great, no issues. This week I get a very (unexpected and out of character) formal letter informing me that prices are being increased, which I completely understand, by £10 per hour. Tutor is excellent, absolute top of their game, has done incredible stuff for DC and they love their lessons. One DC is planning on making a career of it after feeling so inspired and encouraged by it all. Subject choices have all revolved around tutor.

However, I’ve been given absolutely no advanced warning and this change is taking place from tomorrow. Plenty of communication opportunity to have been pre-warned.

It’s an extra £100 a month now and I’ve simply not got the finances this week, and will possibly really struggle to find the extra in future as things are just financially at crisis point just now.

Tutor is a very decent but equally very black and white kind of person. There’s no room for leniency with various aspects. “My way or the highway” which is all fair enough. Finding another one would be difficult. Stopping one DC is a possibility but it would very likely cause great upset.

AIBU to feel as annoyed as I do about how little notification I’ve been given and pressured into making a decision about what to do before tomorrow?

I speak as a music tutor… I would give more notice AND I wouldn’t give such a big increase? I am increasing my prices by £3 an hour this year (which I will give two months notice of) but even if someone has a half hour lesson thats £6 extra a month not £100.
I also wonder if they would still hold anyone who now can’t afford it to their notice period…
so YANBU

A bit more notification would be good
i had
”new parents are now charged £35 an hour and from next term all parents will be charged £35 an hour “

so that’s a terms notice

Yes I'd be annoyed at the lack of notice. But equally with that substantial an increase and no notice, you probably have the right to terminate with immediate effect.

If you don't think you can afford the increase, you have to say so. I think as you have a long standing relationship, it's best to be completely honest and say that. If you could afford, say £5, you could offer that. It may be that the tutor makes an exception for you as longstanding clients but they may not.

Yanbu about the lack of notice. Have you definitely not been told/warned before? Perhaps in a newsletter or previous email?

If not then it's really not enough notice if the change is happening literally a day or 2 after the tutor issued the information. When was the letter sent and when is your next lesson? Have you been away on holiday and not seen the letter straight away?

Is there a possibility of having a shorter lesson or reducing the frequency of lessons? It sounds like you'd prefer not to just cancel all tuition.

It feels like a big increase to suddenly be spring on people. Tutor has always been a bit lax with this kind of thing before although I know I’ve been rigorous in making sure that I am never late paying and keep everything written down. I really don’t expect to be given any kind of discrepancies and wouldn’t ask, as there’s probably more to the reasons for this than meets the eye.

its just so very disappointing.

That would be really disappointing. I'm a music tutor and I have a contract with the parent that says a terms notice will be given for any increase in fees. Likewise, they must give me a terms notice to terminate lessons. I've put up my fees by only £2 per hour next term as I recognize that everything else has gone up drastically for my parents, £10 is insane. Are you London based?

Basically, if you don't have a contract you can do what you want. And if you choose to stop lessons and they take you to small claims, the musicians union will only support them in seeking a month's payment. I would explain your situation and if they don't relent, seek alternative tuition. You will have loads of options.

My dog daycare increased with a few days' notice as did my dog groomers fees. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm sure some people's energy bills have jumped by that much as well recently. Perhaps the teacher hasn't been very good about raising rates incrementally each year and has now reached an "oh $%*#" point.

YANBU about the notice, but it's not uncommon in this day and age. Sure, would have been nicer to have been able to plan.

Have a grumble to yourself (and in here!!) and then decide if it's a hill you want to die on.

sounds like it isn't and the tutor is very good and worth keeping.

No, no missed letters or emails. Good communication is always weekly. There’s been no mention of a hike in price at all!

Im really blowed to have to make the decision to leave, we won’t find anyone nearly as decent or experienced in such a vast way. It won’t affect the tutor at all if we leave, as as far as I’m aware they’re full (possibly even a waiting list)

There’s definitely no scope for anything less than hour long lessons or one lesson a fortnight. It’s all or nothing and that was made clear years ago when DC1 first started. This has always been absolutely fine, until now.

You have two dc doing 5 hours a month?

Could you drop one of the dc to half hour lessons instead?

Rather than leaving, why not drop down to every other week, and ensure they up their practice between lessons?

£10/ph increase with no notice is pretty unreasonable.

There’s no alternative other than weekly one hour lessons.

Hiw much are the lessons weekly? As in, what percentage is the increase?

YANBU

Could you reduce the number of lessons they are having?

Can you then book one hour a week and let the kids alternate so they have an hour every two weeks?

I think you need to speak to the tutor and explain your situation , your DC sound like they're talented and those are the kids that they like teaching the best. Depends what "level" the teacher is, if conservatoire level, they'll never be the cheapest. But it might just be possible you can come to a compromise in the short term. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

It's very unreasonable to put prices up by so much. I increase mine by 50p to £1 every year or so. Especially with so little notice. But the problem is if most people will pay it anyway because it'd be hard to find a replacement teacher, there's no reason for them to reconsider. If you have a good relationship with them I would get in touch and explain this,will be hard/impossible for you to out in place straiaway with no notice. If people come to me with genuine money worries, I offer solutions like splitting the cost of a term into installments etc.

If you really can't afford this going forward you'll have to start looking for different teacher.

It depends on how much they currently charge and how much it's going up to.

My DC have music lessons. One teacher charges £20, one £18 and one £17.50 per 30 minutes. I spend about £85 a week on music lessons.

They all gave me a terms notice to increase their prices which was reasonable.

What is their justification for increasing the prices so much?

I think I'd tell the teacher that you understand they want to increase the prices but doing so at such short notice is unfair and that they should complete the term at the agreed price.

That’s a pretty unprofessional move from the tutor, and more so if they’re very firm in the way they work.

It’s not unreasonable to discuss it with them and try and come to an arrangement that gives a transition. Whether that’s missing a week lesson with no charge sometime in the next month, or postponing the fee increase and catching it up over holiday periods if they have them, or shorter lessons.

It’s totally unacceptable. My mum teaches piano and there’s no way she would do such a big increase like that.

This is the only reasonable proposal I think I can come up with. Tutor was adamant very early on that fortnightly lessons aren’t very productive and so it’s not offered. That was just with one DC though. I feel I may have more reason to go back and ask for this as an alternative now. If it doesn’t work and they both start losing focus and drifting then I’ll admit defeat. But just now, where they are, I don’t think there’s a danger of them losing focus. I never have to get on to them for practicing. In fact I sometimes have to tell them both to stop!

Or an hour lesson split between them both each week.

I understand tutor was very prescriptive in the set up and you're probably nervous to annoy them, so they have you over a barrel, but this is new information and not reasonable notice. On some level they must understand this is not reasonable.

Is it worth asking if they would consider delaying the increase for one calendar month to make this more manageable for you? Then take stock on your next steps.

Or if you absolutely can't, resign yourselves to scraping together the money for the next 2 months, but look at it as a temporary state while you figure things out. And if you do quit this teacher, I would be tempted to do it with the same notice as they gave you!! Though this is doubtless poor advice. (However if you do have a contractual notice period, ask for them to apply this same notice period to their price increase because contracts do need to be approximately symmetrical.)

You would be better off splitting the lesson each week rather than alternating fortnightly. I also teach music and fortnightly lessons are often a slippery slope. It sounds like your children do practise so might be less of an issue but when I had fortnightly people when I first started 20 years ago the children rarely practised in the first week after the lesson and started practising a few days before the next lesson by which time they'd forgotten what we'd done.
There can also be problems with technique if the child doesn't have a lesson every week because they can easily reinforce technical errors over the fortnight.
A half hour lesson once a week is better than an hour every fortnight.

I really think it's not on to announce a price increase like this with immediate effect. It's a lot of money too, it's not like it's a couple of quid.
What's your period of notice for the contract with the tutor? If you have to give a month's notice or can only leave end of the term it's really outrageous that they are expecting you to pay 10 pounds a week more from now with no opportunity to give notice from your side.

I only ever put prices up at the start of September. All parents receive a letter in the middle of June with the price information for September. That means they can decide whether to continue in September or not.

Thank you all so much on your input. It’s really helpful.

it wouldn’t be such an issue if I were only paying for one! I know I’m paying for the very best, and it’s been worth every penny. In fact youngest DC has had life turned around thanks to this.

Thankfully I only pay monthly so terms would only reflect that. I just don’t know where the extra money will come from in the next few days to pay for the unexpected inflated next block. I’ve really been dropped right in it and ultimately DC will be truly gutted if I have to terminate now.

"Thankfully I only pay monthly so terms would only reflect that."

sure, but if you've had zero notice of the hike it is reasonable to ask for that notice, which should delay the price hike.

It sounds like fortnightly and 30 min lessons are not on the table.

It is worth an honest low pressure conversation with one DC, just to check whether they do love it as much as you think. Sometimes there will be more obligation behind it than you are aware of.