6 Things You Should Know Before Launching Your Adult Group Piano Classes

Here at KeyNotes HQ we have turned our attention to adult groups, and we know we're not the only ones! SO many of you are telling us that you are also thinking about launching your adult group classes this fall! So let's get straight to the 6 things we think you should know, before launching your adult groups:

1. Flexibility

You can generally be more flexible with the times you schedule your group lessons for adults than you can for children.  Day time is particularly useful to teachers whose core market, children, are at school and therefore unavailable, as well as later evening times which are too late for young children. 

There are sometimes other issues in regard to adult schedules that can cause issues however: work commitments might mean that they are unable to attend a class or a hectic week at work might mean they are just wanting to stay at home. 

You could consider offering multiple groups at different times throughout the week so that if an adult can’t attend their usual group time, they might be able to pop along to a different class that week. 

Other options could include offering group lessons every other week, or running your group online.  You might even be able to do a hybrid – in person lessons every other week with a Zoom lesson in between?

 2. Depth

Adults love to go into much more depth than children do in their lessons. Where you can sometimes get away with explaining to children that “this is just the way it is” adults usually need to know that there is an explanation – even if they don’t quite understand it yet.  Make sure you have lots of theory to back up the learning in group adult lessons – this could be in the form of worksheets, explanation, listening tasks and, to a lesser extent, music theory games.  Be prepared to think on your toes – adults have a tendency to ask unexpected questions!

 3. Learning Styles

We are all used to providing for multiple learning styles in group lessons for children, but adults can be much more rigid and set in which learning style suits them. Be prepared to change direction in order to provide for your students but don’t worry about teaching the same concept in multiple ways in the same lesson for different people.  This can actually be beneficial as it provides a recap of the music concept and helps widen the learning styles of the students for all those listening.  

 4. Community

Adults can have quite busy lives and sometimes don’t want to have to leave the house once they have got home in the evening (at least in pre-covid times!). Building a sense of community into your groups will help lesson attendance and student retention. 

I always encourage having a time to just chat at the start of group lessons so the class can bond and put the world to rights – for me, this is often done with a cup of tea and biscuits (I am British after all!).  Other groups go to the pub after the lesson for the same reasons.  I find one of the main issues adults have for not wanting to learn in a group is that they are worried about not being ‘good enough’ for the group or worried about ‘being judged’. 

Building a good sense of camaraderie can really help with this as they are all ‘in it together’ and group classes become a supportive safe space rather than a negative experience.  For many students group lessons become an important bit of ‘me time’ in the week – a moment to switch off the phone and let someone else deal with the kids!

 5. Independent Learners

Adults are far more independent in their learning! With adults you don’t need to be concerned so much about classroom management as they know the value of their own time and therefore make the most of that time. 

It is also easier to spend one on one time in a group lesson with adult students as you can trust the others to stay on task and get on with what they are supposed to be doing and not just pressing the demo button when they think you aren’t looking. 

It is quite likely you will have a wide variety of abilities in your group classes, some will come with zero knowledge of piano and music and others may have learned piano in the past or can play a different instrument. 

Differentiation is key in any group lesson but particularly in group adult lessons.  I often find the more timid students in the group may be more reluctant to try the higher challenges as adults come with more ingrained baggage and sense of their own shortcomings and failure. 

Make sure you have a clear set of differentiated challenges that you can signpost your students towards so they are able to access the music at their own level, be encouraging and don’t shy away from rewarding those who push themselves – stickers might not cut it for adults, but praise always does!  Peer support and mentoring are essential in both child and adult groups.

6. Fun! 

Group lessons of any sort are lots of fun and adult group lessons even more so! The wide variety of backgrounds, abilities and musical tastes may make group lessons a challenge but part of the fun is overcoming this and using your abilities as a teacher to face them head on!  Also the sense of community that grows amongst you and your students alongside a more mature sense of humour (hopefully!) and discussion from your students means you can relate to them at a different level to your children’s groups. 

Most of my adult students have become good friends and this makes group adult lessons the highlight of my week! 

This post was written by Ellie Jaggers, who is a member of the KeyNotes Music team.