Piano Teacher ‘Monday Holiday Blues’: How to schedule piano lessons on Mondays

Ever feel blue about Monday piano lessons?

When so many holidays fall on Mondays, it’s the hardest day of the week for piano teachers to schedule.

There are holidays that always fall on Mondays, like Labour Day, Easter Monday, Victoria Day (Canada), Memorial Day (USA), and Canadian Thanksgiving (always on the second Monday of October).

Then there are holidays that sometimes fall on Mondays, like the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Canada), Hallowe’en, Remembrance Day (Canada) and New Year’s Day. Monday is the world’s favourite day for holidays because it gives regular businesses long weekends.

But for those of us who want to create regular weekly lesson schedules, Mondays simply give us the blues.

What you won’t find in this article is the idea that you should take holiday Mondays off, then make up missed lessons another time.

All four of the following scenarios avoid make-up lessons for Monday holidays.

Look no further for creative scheduling solutions!

1. Longer Monday Lessons

The first solution allows you to teach on Mondays and to earn your full income, and gives you and your students holiday breaks without the make-up lessons.

In this set-up, you schedule Monday lessons to be longer than those you teach on the other days of the week. For example, consider making Monday lessons 15 minutes longer than usual.

Students on the other days of the week who get 30-minute lessons would compare to your Monday students who would get 45-minute lessons.

Here’s how that looks in actual practice: In a month with four weeks, most of your everyday students would get four 30-minute lessons (120 minutes, or two hours of total teaching time). If your Monday students miss a week because of a holiday, but their other lessons are 15 minutes longer, they’d get three 45-minute lessons (135 minutes, or two hours-and-15-minutes of total teaching time). This actually gives them 15 minutes extra compared to the students on other weekdays.

Or, students who get 45-minute lessons on other days of the week would compare to Monday students who would come for one hour each week (15 minutes extra).

So, most of your students would get four 45-minute lessons in a month. If your Monday students have a holiday (and miss one week) they’d get three one-hour lessons. With this adjustment on Mondays, both groups of students get equal teaching time (180 minutes, or three hours total).

You would charge for the actual time you teach. Your Monday students would simply get a slightly different quote for the year’s tuition.

To get that quote, you’d look ahead in your calendar, count the weeks you plan to teach minus the holiday Mondays, and multiply the number of lessons by your rate (in the number of minutes per lesson).

But even with the holiday misses, you may find that your income and time are nearly the same as students who attend on other days.

And…no make-ups!

2. Mondays get fewer lessons

The second solution also allows you to teach most Mondays, gives you and your students holiday breaks, and still avoids make-up lessons.

The difference here is that there is no adjustment in the length of Monday’s lessons. Monday students would simply skip a week when there’s a holiday. They’d get fewer lessons a year (and get less lesson time).

With fewer lessons, it means that Monday students wouldn’t pay as much for lessons as students on other days of the week. But before you pass this solution by, hear out the advantages.

In this scenario, you’d select your Monday students very carefully.

For example, perhaps you’ve noticed that some families struggle to afford lessons. Without pointing that out as your reason (you’d handle it with tact), you might email them and offer them a Monday time slot, saying: “Monday students get fewer lessons because of holidays, so the year’s tuition is $—, which is lower than the fee for lessons on other days of the week. Would this set-up interest you?” This gives them the opportunity to be in piano lessons but also gives them a bit of a break on fees.

Or, perhaps you have a busy adult who frequently misses lessons or isn’t prepared as often, or a teen who doesn’t seem as invested in lessons. You might offer them Monday spots saying, “Holidays give Monday students a few built-in breaks through the year, and the schedule is a bit more relaxed. Would this set-up interest you? The year’s tuition would be $—.”

Another option is to schedule theory group lessons on Mondays for students who are in weekly private lessons, with the theory group lesson as an add-on. These groups might be weekly (except for Monday holidays) or bi-weekly, in which case you’d try to time the weeks off to coincide with the holidays. If it’s their week off the group anyway, the holiday just gets tucked in without a disruption.

It’s recommended to be very clear with these piano parents from the beginning of your lesson year that you don’t teach on holiday Mondays.

Because this set-up offers less contact time with the teacher, it isn’t recommended for students who are preparing for exams or are otherwise serious about lessons.

3. Teach on Mondays, including holidays

The third solution has you teaching on Mondays like any regular day. You’d earn your regular income and not have to give any make-up lessons. It’s simply understood that, holiday or not, lessons are on.

Just business as usual.

You may not feel the need to take holidays or breaks. You may also have some students who don’t mind attending on holidays. Perhaps they don’t celebrate certain holidays and it’s less significant for them to observe them.

To fill your Monday spots, you’d put out a general email to your piano parents, explain about Mondays and and let them choose to take Monday lessons.

There are two downsides to this schedule. First, there can be a sense of ‘missing out’ when you know that most of the world is experiencing a holiday, a break, and you’re not. Holidays exist for a reason: they’re good for renewal. Always working and never resting might lead to burn-out.

A second downside is that some families may forget to attend lessons on holidays. It might be wise on the mornings of holiday Mondays to send out a quick email or text to the families with a reminder that lessons are ‘on.’

4. Don’t teach on Mondays

With the fourth solution, you don’t teach on Mondays, period. This gives you every single Monday off, not just the holidays.

True, you wouldn’t earn any income on this day of the week, but there are several upsides to this schedule.

It’s simple. There’s no need to work around Monday holidays if you never teach on that day of the week. You completely avoid adjusting your fees or figuring out make-up lessons.

In this scenario you’re free every Monday to schedule your own appointments, your own classes or to take time to get errands done, or to do whatever it is you need to do.

Then when the holiday Monday hits, it’s still a day off–a true holiday.

When you take every Monday off, it shifts your teaching to the days of the week that are predictable ‘business days’ so you won’t experience as many disruptions to your schedule. True, there will be occasional holidays on other days of the week (Good Friday, for example), but these are relatively few compared to Mondays.

How will you beat the Monday Holiday Blues?

Choose your own priorities!

• Avoiding make-up lessons? Any of the above solutions will work.

• Maximum income? Solutions one and three are fairly equal.

• Observing your own holidays, plus good income? Solution one is best.

• Offering flexible fee and scheduling options to certain students? Give option two a try.

• Consistent, weekly lessons for all students? Look to solution three.

• Having a day to get your own things done? Option four is for you!

At one time or another in my career, I’ve tried all four of the above options. To make Mondays work, I’ve had to be creative with my scheduling and fee structures. I’m hoping that some of these ideas can help you beat the Monday Holiday Blues!

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