<p>D is planning on taking a consultation lesson with a highly respected teacher. It is not that we are unhappy with present teacher, but it might be time to move on. So a couple of questions:</p>
<p>If she likes the lesson, how can we tell if the teacher might be willing to take her on as a student?</p>
<p>Should we wait for a bit before contacting the teacher after the consultation lesson?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Why not have your student flat out ask the teacher after the lesson?</p>
<p>Or, if your daughter is shy as mine was/is, you can ask the teacher yourself after the lesson, perhaps out of earshot of your daughter, if the teacher thinks your daughter is ready for that level yet.</p>
<p>Is it ever appropriate to wait for a day or two, just to let the experience sink in, and then contact the teacher again to find out?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend waiting; teachers’ time is valuable and they may not even be available. </p>
<p>For my D, an equally important question after the lesson was: do I think I could work with this person for four years?</p>
<p>Thanks for that thought. It’s difficult; in many ways, we don’t want to leave the current teacher, and this in many ways will be kind of like an informational interview for us as well as for the teacher. Although the current teacher and this other teacher are not in the same town, they know each other. But we may be moving to be closer to the other teacher, further away from the current teacher, and that would be the time that we would want to change. So it’s a sort of preemptive measure; if we move, and we’ve already met this teacher, then we could be in touch then to see about lessons.</p>
<p>So I am thinking that after the consultation lesson, we should just write to say thank you etc. But I know that this other teacher travels a lot, so I am wondering if we might say something like (if this is the case) D enjoyed the lesson and was wondering about one lesson a month, or every other week, something like that. We know that there are people who are on that kind of schedule with this teacher.</p>
<p>Changing teachers is common, among other things, students can outgrow a teacher. </p>
<p>I would talk to the teacher right after the lesson, ask for feedback, and ask him if they thought the student would be a good fit for the student, then take a couple of days ot decide if the student would be interested…it is a two way street, both have to agree.</p>
<p>One thought, if the teacher you are talking to travels a lot, what are you planning on doing? That is a common situation,with teachers who are performers for example, but you need to think it through. Would this teacher be a suppplemental teacher or the only one? Once every 2 weeks or once a month quite frankly isn’t going to work, to truly advance regular weekly lessons IME is what works. If your child decides to see this guy, you may want to work out where there is another teacher to work with them when/if this one is not available…least that is my take:)</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. Lots to consider, and I really appreciate all of the advice.</p>
<p>My daughter liked her teacher very much, but that teacher was offered a full time position elsewhere and said she would no longer be able to teach privately. My daughter had only been taking private lessons for about 4 months and was heart broken. I asked her teacher if she knew of anybody else that was at the level we wanted, and she recommended a retired orchestra player. We called and she offered a lesson but wasn’t sure if she could take on more students. </p>
<p>We liked her initial teacher but WOW the new one and my daughter hit it off the minute we walked in the door. Personality, teaching style, knowledge level, everything. We just asked right at that initial lesson – would you be willing to work with her (DD)? This teacher was more then happy to take her on and said that’s why she still teaches-- because she finds talented, friendly, hard working young people that make beautiful music to work with. She worked my daughter into her schedule that week. We thanked the first teacher for the recommendation. She said even though we left her because she got a new job, she knew that she’d have to recommend this other teacher sooner or later to my daughter. Even she could tell this person was who she needed to work with. And that it wouldn’t have hurt her feelings because different people fit better with different teachers, and a good teacher understands this.</p>
<p>Sorry, I misunderstood the question - I thought you were asking about having a sample lesson with a college faculty member.</p>
<p>We’ve had the lesson, and it was (we both felt – I sat quietly in the corner) really terrific. We thought it would be an hour at the most; it ended up being nearly two hours! We were both a bit overwhelmed at the end, so said thank you and left – kind of wondering if we had stayed too long, but on the other hand the teacher kept coming up with new things and so it was probably fine. I had asked before about paying and had not had a response, and when D was packing up I asked again, and the teacher said “I never charge for the first lesson,” so I am thinking that perhaps hidden in that comment is “If D wants to study with me I would be happy to teach her.” Crazy busy for the next couple of days but we plan to write a thank you e-mail this weekend. As I’ve said, we’re not sure that we’re completely ready to leave the current teacher, so this was more informational, but if, as we feel, it went well, that could bode well down the road.</p>
<p>If the teacher said “I never charge for the first lesson” that implies s/he believes there will be future lessons. In this situation, if my daughter were sure that she wanted to make the switch, I would contact the teacher immediately to make arrangements.</p>
<p>Thanks, @glassharmonica. The only reason why we are waiting for a couple of days is that she is out of the house in rehearsals all day today and tomorrow. And I don’t want to write the e-mail for her.</p>
<p>I’m glad it went so well! Hoping you can make the teacher transition decision with the least amount of stress possible and with the best results for your D.</p>
<p>The wording you received was positive. I know that many teachers are uncomfortable with “stealing” students from other teachers. The fact that your D didn’t get a strong invitation to sign up means the new teacher is just showing some respect to the old teacher. You will have to figure out how to part with the old one. I also hope for a smooth transition for you!</p>