Suzuki Piano: Going rates in your area?

[WTMCassandra]

This is the beginning of our third year with this teacher, and each year the tuition has gone up substantially.

 

Both children are in Book 2 and have 45-minute lessons.

 

This coming year it will be about $23.50/lesson each + $70/family registration (mandatory every single year). It comes to just under $1000/child. Yikes.:tongue_smilie:

 

Is this normal?:confused:

 

Last year we had to tighten our belts, but this year we are having to cut out ALL other outside activities to afford this.

 

I told her today that if the prices increase like this again the next year I will likely be priced out of the market. She is the only Suzuki Piano teacher in our area, within a 45-minute drive.

 

Reality check: Is this what other people are paying? (We are in the Pacific Northwest, but not in a major city.)

[momof3gifts]

In Alaska we paid $15/half hour (although the lesson usually ran to 45 min) and $50 family reg. It is expensive but we really liked it. There isn't anyone within a 2 hour drive where we are now so we are with a standard piano teacher. (we pay her $12/half hour without any family reg. fee).

 

I understand your frustration though. I think that they require so much training and continuing education that it gets expensive to stay a teacher. Not to make excuses but I have a friend who teaches suzuki and I know it would get expensive for her.

[WTMCassandra]

Thanks for this. Do you know what your friend charges? I just need some perspective here. I get this feeling like we're paying for this teacher's decisions to HAVE to have THE suzuki chair and a separate studio and a brand-new grand and a separate set of every single book every child uses (both suzuki and reading) and . . . you get the idea. It seems to me like things could be done a little more economically--she used to have an adjustable piano bench that seemed to me to work just fine before she got THE chair, for example.

[WTMCassandra]

Oh, and I just spent time AGAIN reviewing Suzuki piano teachers in our state. The next nearest teacher is two hours away : (. So here we are. I feel trapped.

 

I committed to this method (changed over when we moved here) and asked the commitment of my children too, but the money is beginning to get out of sight. We are now paying over four times what we used to pay back in Virginia for conventional lessons.

[Tracey in TX]

We pay $33 per half hr lesson. It's not Suzuki method, but it's the going rate for our music conservatory no matter what the instrument. I agree--ouch.

[myfunnybunch]

We're in the PNW too. I'm too lazy...er, tired...to run down to get my ds' notebook, to figure our exact per-lesson fee, but those rates seem very close to ours.

 

We love the Suzuki method and our piano teacher, but I agree--OUCH. If the rates go up again we're going to have to switch, especially since her studio is a pretty good drive away.

 

Cat

[LauraGB]

This is the beginning of our third year with this teacher, and each year the tuition has gone up substantially.

 

Both children are in Book 2 and have 45-minute lessons.

 

This coming year it will be about $23.50/lesson each + $70/family registration (mandatory every single year). It comes to just under $1000/child. Yikes.:tongue_smilie:

 

Is this normal?:confused:

 

Last year we had to tighten our belts, but this year we are having to cut out ALL other outside activities to afford this.

)

 

This is about what it is for us, too. Our registration is only $40, but we have a mandatory fundraising time input thing or a $100 fee - I just pay the $100 because I'm so not a fund raiser. And our lessons are only 30 min. Last year we scaled our lessons back to every other week, which, honestly worked quite well. Teacher just gave dc 2 weeks worth of work instead of one and went over what they needed to know to complete the work. She was also very available via email or phone if we had a question. We really didn't feel it was that big of a change, except of course, financially, which was a good thing. We didn't take lessons during the summer, but she did assign them work to do, and we've been in communication with her a few times over the summer, but no lessons, and the work is going very nicely. In fact, I believe I will keep dd at the every other week in the fall. (Ds has been grudgingly given the privilege to study guitar instead in the fall as he has worked so hard on it during the summer and prefers it.)

[MomOfOneFunOne]

We're getting ready to start Suzuki violin. For $120/month my husband and daughter have a weekly 45 minute lesson. It's arranged like a small group -- they wanted to do it together. It also includes monthly group get-togethers with other students. I think they're monthly. It doesn't include books/CDs. I can't really say more b/c they don't start till Friday.

 

I can say that our arrangement is somewhat unusual so may not reflect the average.