Hello, teacher friends and WELCOME to episode number 114 of the Beyond Measure Podcast.  My name is Christina Whitlock, your self-proclaimed ANYTIME piano teacher friend – and I am so happy you are joining me today. I’ll tell you a funny story.  We’re going to talk about Transfer Students today, and I’ve had this episode planned since the beginning of the year. Well, just a couple of weeks ago, I clicked over to listen to Nicola Cantan on the Vibrant Music Teacher Podcast and guess what her topic was?  Transfer Students!  So… this is life in content creator world…. I immediately threw my hands over my face and I thought, “SHOOT. I can’t do MY transfer student episode so close to HERS…” BUT.  Here’s the magic.  You know what? As I listened to her episode, I felt an immediate swell of relief.  BECAUSE – Nicola took a completely different take on the subject than I am offering.  And this is something I tell the teachers who book consultations with me ALL THE TIME.  We need to stop assuming our contributions are unoriginal or unappreciated or anything else. It is true that there is nothing truly new under the sun at this point… but it is ALSO true that YOUR perspectives contain immense value.  SO. Needless to say – after you finish listening to me talk about MY evaluation criteria for Transfer Students – go listen to episode 232 of the Vibrant Music Teaching Podcast for some VERY solid advice as to specific pianist goals you need to evaluate in your transfer students.  And SERIOUSLY.  Stop being so quick to assume other people share your same unique understanding of our work.  They don’t.  Studio music teacher world needs more of us to step up and share so we can keep spinning out fresh ideas.

Alright.  One more tangent before we tackle transfer students today, because I wanted to tell you about a recent experience I had and the change it inspired.  I have to start by giving props to the INCREDIBLE group of teachers I had who opted into my first VIP group for the Studio Foundations Course.  We had a series of meetings that just lit me up in the best possible ways.  Well…. During one of our meetings, someone mentioned a specific piece her student was struggling with.  I pulled it up on my screen, and together we began using the principles they’d been studying in the course to examine how we could better introduce this particular piece.  We talked about ways to help the student find the true rhythmic groove of the piece, to enhance their lyricism, to keep them INTERESTED in the piece… the whole nine yards.

Well, friends.  That conversation had me jazzed for a solid, like, 48 hours.  😊  There was something – simple as it was – about looking at a specific piece and working through it LIVE with other teachers, hearing their ideas… workshopping my own… it was just a whole new level of camaraderie and I was immediately on a mission to figure out a way to DO MORE OF THAT.  I started to think about how I could host a group to do this every month… when it hit me.  Facepalm… I already HAVE a group of teachers I meet with every month!  If you don’t know, I host the kindest group of teacher friends over on a site called Patreon. And on the last Friday of each month, we have THE BEST MUSIC TEACHER CHAT ON THE INTERNET (fight me on that one, haha!).

Our conversations are always built around timely questions and concerns… and what I jokingly declare as our monthly airing of grievances.  😊  Well, starting this month, we’re going to start including this feature I’m calling Teachers Teaching Teachers (TTT, because I love an acronym).  The premise of TTT is really simple:  I choose a piece of elementary piano repertoire, and we dissect it together with our teacher brains, discussing how to introduce the piece, how to tackle the challenges involved, etc. etc. etc.

If you are looking for a way to up your teaching game and gain inspiration from a proven group of knowledgeable teachers, all you have to do is join the Patreon Community for $6/month. You can jump in and out at any time, but I would be SHOCKED if you didn’t find the value worth $6 for the month.

Anyway – if you’re interested in checking this series out, we’ll be holding our first round of Teachers Teaching Teachers on Friday, February 24^th, at 11:00am EASTERN time. I’m starting with a piece I imagine pretty much all of us are familiar with… and if you’re curious what piece that is, just send me a message and I’ll let you in on the secret.  😊

Links to contact information, how to join this community, and lots of other goodies can be found in the shownotes for this episode at christinawhitlock.com/episode114.

ALRIGHT.  That was a lot of suspense leading up to our discussion of Transfer Students.  But, here we are.

Transfer students – of course – are any students who come into your studio after having studied somewhere else already. Transfer students can be amazing.  Especially when you are in a position where most of your students are beginners, transfer students can be a breath of fresh air because they bring with them a previous level of experience.

Of course, that previous level of experience is a total mystery… which can make transfer students a unique challenge.

Some teachers LOVE transfer students; others avoid them at all costs.  It really depends how much work you’re willing to do to help someone adapt to your style of teaching and your technical expectations (because, let’s face it, transfer students often seem to show up with some pretty interesting physical approaches to their instrument).

REGARDLESS – let’s start at the beginning.  As in, even agreeing to take on a transfer student in the first place.

Personally, I have a goal prioritize maintaining positive relationships with the teachers in my local community.  And, for this reason, I never want to be seen as a “student-stealer” or anything of the like.  My personal policy is that I will not consider a transfer student while they have an active relationship with another local teacher.  If a family wants to transfer to my studio, they need to end the relationship with their current teacher before I will discuss bringing them on.

You’re allowed to have a different policy, of course, but I’m just throwing out a reminder that you are often in relationship with your local teacher colleagues for longer than you are your student families.  It pays to build those relationships, and I’ve always found there are plenty of students to go around.

I always interview new transfer students and their families before accepting them into the studio.  However, to avoid awkward situations, there are plenty of things I like to find out before even OFFERING the interview.  Here’s a list for you:

Establish the student background.  How many years have they studied, and with whom?  Take note of how forthcoming (or not) they are in sharing this information, as there can be some red flags here if you pick up on a reluctance to answer those questions.

You also need to find out about their home instrument.  It’s very easy to assume transfer students have an instrument – but you know what they say about assumptions… 😉

Next, and VERY importantly, you need to learn why they left the previous teacher.

You are typically going to get transfer students for one of two reasons:

• They are unhappy with their current or past teacher
• They lost their previous teacher (due to a move, a death, or a significant life change)

It’s important to recognize BOTH of those scenarios have significant challenges for you. It’s very important you find out WHY a student is transferring to you so you can make an educated decision as to whether or not this is going to be a good fit.  If they were unhappy with their previous teacher, you need to find out WHY, because they might hold expectations that do not suit your teaching, either.  If they lost their previous teacher in a matter that was outside their control and have been left feeling “stranded”, you have your work cut out for you.  I love being the piano teacher who helps turn a previously-negative experience into a good one.  That brings me a LOT of joy.  But those students who come to you with a beloved past piano teacher already up on a pedestal?  Those can be tough.  Students often feel a fierce sense of loyalty to their music teachers.  Ask any school band or choir teacher who has had to come in and take the place of a previous director.  Students are slow to embrace a new musical mentor.

Lastly, prior to the interview – it’s important to leave yourself an out.  What I mean is, if you DO schedule an interview, make it clear that you will meet, run some casual assessments, speak to the adults involved, and you will get back to them LATER THAT WEEK about potential openings or scheduling talk.  This is some great advice, friends. Hear me on this.  Making it clear you will NOT be making a decision at the actual interview saves you from having to turn them down face to face, in front of the student at the interview itself.  Even if you are SO SURE you’re going to love them and say yes… do yourself a favor and leave yourself an out. Schedule the interview, and say, I’ll be able to let you know on such-and-such date if I’m able to proceed.  For the record, this also spares YOU the awkwardness if the other FAMILY decides they don’t want to study with YOU.

Okay.  Let’s assume you have all the previous information, and you proceed to the interview.  Let’s talk about rules for the transfer student interview itself.

Your #1 job during this time is to find out what they know and what they don’t. You want to start very basic and then get more detailed.  Don’t be afraid to ask VERY basic information, even if you think they are far past that.  I’ll give you a great example.  I had a transfer student years ago who was a strong little player.  She was also a violinist.  Her biggest technical hurdle was the fact that she used atrocious fingering, like, all the time.  She would just choose really wacky fingers to play passages with.  No joke, friends, it took me TWO MONTHS to realize she didn’t know piano finger numbers were DIFFERENT than the finger numbers you use in violin.  Oh my word.  I felt like such a dummy.  I couldn’t BELIEVE it took me so long to figure that one out. I also can’t believe I’m confessing this on the internet, but whatever…

Seriously, though:  your big task here is to try and get a read on what strengths and weaknesses this student has. I’ve shared before that I see each student as a puzzle and I just LOVE trying to put their pieces together: what motivates them, where they need work, what natural inclinations are there to capitalize on, what lights them up, what makes them shut down, why they respond the way they do… I just seriously love figuring all of it out. And transfer student interviews are such fun in that regard. Of course, what you see in that first meeting is never exactly what’s there; but I always approach it as the beginning of a lifelong relationship.

I need to start wrapping up here, but I’m going to give you a little lightening round of do’s and don’ts of transfer student interviews, okay?   Here goes:

• One, DO NOT make judgements about the previous teacher. We ALL have students who have moved away or whatever and left us praying they forget our name when meeting their next piano teacher. I know, sometimes we’ll inherit multiple students from a single teacher and it’s easy to complain about things they did or did not do.    That gets you nowhere – there’s literally nothing you can do about how someone else teaches – and you’re wasting energy by spinning your wheels on that.  There’s an old saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”  I just shrug any weak areas off as opportunities for me to help the student shine brighter.
• Two, building on that idea, if a PARENT or the STUDENT is speaking ill of their previous teacher, DO NOT fan the flames. You can listen, you can redirect the conversation, but please, please PLEASE do not contribute to that negativity. It is not respectful of your colleagues in this profession, and honestly, it does not reflect positively on you.  The high road pays off here, truly. More importantly, if you have a parent who is just really ranting and raving about issues from the previous teacher, you need to see that as a potential red flag and ask yourself if this is the type of person YOU want to get into business with.  I SURE wish I would have known that earlier in my teaching career.
• Speaking of red flags: here are a few others:  Look out for teacher-hoppers (those students who have tried every teacher in town), families who are overly-negative, families whose story about the background of their student seems to keep changing, and/or students who show up with copious amounts of illegally photocopied music.  None of these things have to be deal-breakers, but listen to your intuition, alright?

I have more to say on the area of red flags and the interview process, so here’s what I’m going to do:  Next week, we’ll tackle New Student Interviews, period.  All the things one could (or should) examine in a new student interview.  I’ve saved several overlapping points that apply for transfer students for next week, so please consider this list a TO BE CONTINUED…

AND, be sure to jump over to the Vibrant Music Teaching podcast and listen to episode 232, which works as a lovely companion episode to this one.

Before we wrap up today, grab the glass closest to you, and let’s have a toast:

Music teacher friends of the world, today I wanted to remind you that the beginnings of our student relationships are so special. How we begin them – and who we begin them with – has a tremendous impact on all parties involved.  I know my students and their families shape my life, and I also consider my presence to be a pretty strong influence on theirs.  We need to be thoughtful about the energy we surround ourselves with.  We need to be intentional with our action plans with our students so we are delivering the best possible service to them. We need to spend time outside of lessons determining what values we want to embody in our studio work, and what qualities of musicianship we’re going to focus on.  ALL of these things impact our work with transfer students.  So here we are, once again, giving this work SO MUCH MORE THOUGHT than anyone outside of studio teaching will ever know.  And for that, I raise my glass in honor of you:  my fully-committed studio teacher friends.  Here, here.

Thanks for listening to episode 114, friends!  Check out the shownotes for this episode at christinawhitlock.com/episode114 for details on joining the Patreon community.  You’re not going to want to miss our first round of Teachers Teaching Teachers!  Friday, February 24^th at 11am eastern time. In the meantime, don’t be shy! Feel free to send me an email at [email protected], or come find Beyond Measure Podcast on Instagram and Facebook.  That’s a wrap for today!  I’ll be back next Monday with some words on New Student Interviews.  Onward and Upward!