September 1, 2025 • 14 mins
Makeup lessons are one of the most debated topics in piano teaching. In this episode of The Scrappy Piano Teacher Podcast, I share how I approach teaching policies and studio management and why clear boundaries around makeup lessons and flex weeks have helped me protect both my time and my students’ progress.
I tie in a personal Pilates story that shows how accountability systems keep both students and teachers on track. I also walk through popular approaches teachers use for makeup lessons like group classes, swaps, virtual lessons, and asynchronous teaching. Finally, I explain how I now build makeup weeks along with flex weeks into my studio calendar for students and use flex weeks for myself to create margin and sustainability.
If you have ever felt drained by makeup lessons or wondered how to set clear studio policies that work, this episode will help you sort through your options and find what fits your studio.
Listen to Ep 48 The Raise You Didn't Know You Needed (all about flex weeks) https://podcasts.apple.com/ng/podcast/the-raise-you-didnt-know-you-needed-ep-48/id1749130212?i=1000709880746
Keywords: piano teaching, makeup lessons, Pilates, teaching policies, studio management, teacher accountability, flex weeks, student engagement, music education, teaching strategies
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hey friends, and welcome back tothe Scrappy Piano Teacher
podcast. If you're new here, my name is
Jacqueline Merozek, but you can call me Jackie and I've been
teaching piano for almost 3 decades.
And this podcast is where we talk about the real behind the
scenes of studio life. It's honest, scrappy, sometimes
a little messy, and hopefully encouraging because let's be
(00:24):
real, teaching piano isn't all about sitting back and eating
bonbons and giving out stickers.OK, so today I'm just going to
get straight into it and start with a little story of mine.
So I do Pilates and is not because I'm one of those people
who loves waking up at 6:00 AM and hitting the gym.
I do not like cardio. I do not like working out.
(00:47):
I would much rather sit and lay in my bed for about four hours
with my cats drinking coffee, but I don't always get to do
that. I it literally keeps my body
moving. And by saying that is because I
have rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and Pilates is basically
my physical therapy. I started doing it because it
(01:09):
was a lot more affordable and itdoes the trick.
So without it, I can't move comfortably.
I end up limping a little bit and I can't show it for students
the way that I want to. But when I go, it's like magic.
I can move just fine. Now, my Pilates studio has three
membership options that I can choose from.
I can do four classes a month, eight classes a month, or
(01:31):
unlimited. Meaning I could literally go
every single day of the week if I really, really wanted to get
out of bed. But that doesn't happen all the
time. Anyway, I have been lucky enough
to be grandfathered into the unlimited package at a special
rate, but here's how it works. If you're on the eight class
plan and you decide I'm going toadd in one additional class this
(01:53):
month, you end up paying the perclass rate plus an extra fee.
Well, that's an additional $25 just for that one class.
And honestly, when you do the math, that in itself costs more
than my unlimited plan. So it's just smarter for me to
keep the unlimited and not to adjust my package.
And they also have strict cancellation rules.
(02:15):
So if you cancel more than 24 hours in advance, it's no
problem. You can switch your schedule
around however you want to, but if you cancel within the 24
hours, there will be a $10 fee. And if you cancel within the
hour of the actual class, it'll be $15.
And listen, there have been times, there have been so many
times, it's kind of embarrassinghow many times I just didn't
(02:38):
feel like going and I cancelled anyway.
So the fees do stack up. Let me tell you, there's nothing
more humbling than realizing you've basically been paying for
a very, very, very expensive couch sitting membership.
And here's the big kicker. That has been the most, we'll
say the biggest accountability motivator for me.
(03:03):
I recently found out that if I am a no show at one of my
classes, it's not just about me.The instructors actually lose
part of their bonus or some kindof their pay structure.
I'm not 100% sure how it works, but I know that they lose the
financial incentive when the clients don't show up, IE me.
So those fees aren't just about keeping me accountable, they're
(03:27):
about protecting the instructorstime and income too.
And even though I have wanted toargue their policies 100 times
because I hate losing money and I hate getting off the couch, I
do respect them. Their system works and most of
the time if I'm honest, when I cancel, it's really not an
emergency. It's just me not wanting to go
(03:47):
and that's on me. That's not on them.
So I think that relates really well with what we do.
And I think that's another reason why I've thought about
their policy structure so often is because we talk about our
makeup lesson policy all the time as music instructors,
because music lessons really arethe same way.
(04:09):
And parents they do. They want to argue about makeup
sometimes, right? Or no shows or refunds.
But just like my Pilates studio,our policies aren't only about
accountability for students, butthey're about protecting us as
teachers. Because hello, we're real people
too. And here's what I want to pause
(04:29):
and say before I get into this. I think that makeup lessons are
definitely one of those topics where every teacher has an
opinion, and that's fine. Spoiler alert, most of us think
that our way is the best way. And you know why?
It probably is for us in our specific situation, but what
(04:50):
works beautifully in one studio might flop in another.
And that is the beauty of this job.
We get to choose what works for us.
So as I walk through these options, I want to be sure that
we offer each other some grace and keep an open mind.
All right, so let's talk about the menu of makeup approaches,
(05:12):
shall we? So there is a popular monthly
group class option and that is where if you miss a lesson,
there is a day selected out of the month that is a group class.
And that is what you can do instead.
And the upside of this is there's lots of community that
you can create. There's a variety you can do
composers, composition, you know, stuff that you can't fit
(05:34):
into normal lessons. They are fun and families love
if they actually show up. I did this for a season and it
was OK. I don't know.
People didn't usually show up and they wanted a different
makeup lesson anyway and I felt like it didn't make much
progress with me, but I didn't enforce it maybe the way that I
should have. So if you can make this work, I
(05:56):
know that some studios love it. Another option that I have seen
starter studios do is when they simply just have lesson slots
that are built in makeup lesson slots, which creates some
flexibility for the family. So let's say that, you know,
Johnny can't do his Tuesday lesson anymore because he
started basketball, so now he's going to switch to Thursday.
(06:17):
Well, you have that wiggle room.So it's not really that big of a
deal. And that works great for smaller
studios. But as you build and fill up, it
becomes a little unsustainable. But if you can do it for now,
that's a good option. Another one that I have one
specific teacher friend I'm thinking of who swears by this
and that is her parents swap list.
(06:39):
So families that choose to do soswap with one another and the
teacher stays out of it. So there is a list of the
schedule. The parents can see it if they
need to switch to that Thursday time for Johnny, they can see
you know what other families areon there and they can contact
them themselves asking if they can swap for the weeks.
(07:02):
Other teachers I know use holiday weeks like that Monday
and Tuesday of Thanksgiving or Spring break to fit in their
makeup lessons, going along withthe monthly group class, maybe a
couple Saturdays each semester set aside just for makeups.
Families know that it's their only chance.
Virtual lessons. There's always those virtual
lessons that some people opt to do instead of the student coming
(07:25):
in. One that I do for inclement
weather, I don't do. This is not my makeup policy,
but for inclement weather this is.
And that is a synchronous lesson.
So this is becoming a favorite for me because I record a 15 ish
minute teaching video and I sendit out to the students.
(07:47):
It's on one subject. I am going to do a podcast on
that in two weeks, but then theycan watch it whenever.
So it fits with them. So asynchronous lessons are
really great. There's a few options that you
can do with them. Again, I will talk about that
here in a few weeks. And then of course you have the
no makeup lessons ever. Like the hard line approach,
(08:08):
tuition holds a spot. End of story.
Some teachers thrive with this and personally, I do not have
the guts. That's a mom of three.
I get how chaotic family life is, but if this works for you, I
applaud you. So there you go.
There's some different ideas. I know that there's more out
there, but I think those seem tobe the most effective and the
(08:29):
most popular. Now I don't do any of those.
What works for me, and again, this might not work for you, but
this is what works really well for my studio and that is I have
built in student weeks into our calendar so I offer two makeup
lessons a year. Example, if I plan on teaching
(08:50):
44 weeks in a year, I only charge for 42, but there are 44
lessons scheduled. So if a student misses once or
twice, it's already covered. And if they don't miss, when
they come to all 44 weeks, they get a bonus.
They get like 2 free lessons. And yes, people might tell me,
(09:11):
you know, but Jackie, you're giving away free lessons.
And my response to that is, aren't you already giving them
away if you reschedule even justone of them?
I mean, think about it, you've already set aside a lesson slot
for them. They didn't take it.
So chances are you got a nice break.
(09:31):
Maybe, maybe you got to use the restroom.
Maybe you got to eat a snack. Maybe you got to play some Candy
Crush. I hope you got some admin time
done. But let's be real, I never end
up getting admin time done. So then you have to reschedule
again. It's going to take up your time
whether you like it or not, withbuilt in weeks.
(09:51):
It's defined and it's limited. Everyone knows the boundaries
and for me, it's taken away a ton of the stress.
I'm not scrambling, I'm not resentful, and parents are clear
on the expectations. Now those are for makeup lessons
for my students. And I want to be clear about
this because a few months ago, podcast episode 48, I did an
(10:15):
episode on flex weeks. And the flex weeks are for when
the teacher needs to miss a lesson.
So makeups, the two makeups thatI built in for the year.
So let's say there's 44 lessons that I've scheduled in the year.
I'm charging for 42. Those two weeks that I have
(10:37):
taken off of the billing schedule is for the makeup
lessons for my students. The flex weeks that I'm going to
talk about now are for the teacher.
Flex weeks are not makeup weeks.Makeup weeks are for the
students. Flex weeks are for the teacher.
I know that other people might use different words.
That's great. That's fabulous.
(10:58):
But for the sake of this podcast, I'm going to use that
to help differentiate the two. So flex weeks again for the
teacher are my PTO, they are my paid time off, they're my
vacation, they're my sick days, conference time, mental health
days, you know, whatever animal emergencies call it what you
want. That's for me.
(11:19):
So here's the math. If I put it all together, OK,
let's say that I am going to schedule 44 weeks in my
calendar. I'm going to subtract 2 in the
tuition for my students. So now I'm charging 42 weeks so
that the students can miss any two weeks that they need to.
But then I want to have two flexweeks for me, meaning that I
(11:41):
want to be able to say anytime during the year.
If I need to take a week off, I can, but I don't want it to
affect my tuition. So I'm going to subtract 2 more
on the calendar. There are 44 weeks scheduled,
but now I'm charging for 40 weeks spread evenly across a
year. Students will still see 44 weeks
(12:03):
on the calendar, but tuition math is based on 40.
So the key take away is that makeup weeks are student facing,
flex weeks are teacher facing. They're two separate things.
And this is really a beautiful thing because let's say that I
don't actually get sick. Well then guess what we're going
to do? We're going to end our season 2
weeks early and I get two additional weeks off in May.
(12:27):
How great is that? Because we all know how much we
love May summer. So that might be something to
think about. And then you might ask, well,
what if I have to miss more thantwo weeks?
Well, that's a great question. Then you might want to consider
maybe sending out asynchronous lessons for additional lessons
that you missed. Maybe you do want to credit
those weeks. That's a whole other
(12:47):
conversation. But ask yourself, do you usually
miss more than one or two weeks?What's your average?
And then you want to take that. So that's the breakdown.
There are lots of ways to handlemakeups, group classes, swap
lists, designated days, asynchronous, or even no makeups
at all. And if your system is working,
(13:08):
don't change it. But if you're tired, resentful,
or constantly chasing down absences, maybe it's time to try
something new. And for me, that magic
combination is 2 student weeks and two flex weeks.
Families know what to expect. I have breathing room and my
studio feels sustainable. And if flex week still feel
confusing, don't worry, it does take time to get used to the
(13:30):
idea that teachers deserve PTO 2.
I know it's hard to wrap your mind around it, and I get
questions on it weekly since I released that podcast a few
months ago, but once you build it in, it really does feel like
the raise that you didn't know you needed.
It really is spectacular. So thanks for hanging out with
me today. In two weeks I will be back with
(13:52):
a whole episode on asynchronous lessons, how they work, why
they're so powerful, how to create them, and how to use them
as one of your best flexible teaching tools.
In the meantime, feel free, if you haven't already, to grab my
free editable Canva calendar at Scrappy pianoteacher.com and you
can start playing with it so that you can see what this could
(14:14):
look like in your own studio. Until next time, keep teaching,
keep learning, and don't forget it.
You deserve margin too. See you next time, bye.
Hey friends, and welcome back tothe Scrappy Piano Teacher
podcast. If you're new here, my name is
Jacqueline Merozek, but you can call me Jackie and I've been
teaching piano for almost 3 decades.
And this podcast is where we talk about the real behind the
scenes of studio life. It's honest, scrappy, sometimes
a little messy, and hopefully encouraging because let's be
(00:24):
real, teaching piano isn't all about sitting back and eating
bonbons and giving out stickers.OK, so today I'm just going to
get straight into it and start with a little story of mine.
So I do Pilates and is not because I'm one of those people
who loves waking up at 6:00 AM and hitting the gym.
I do not like cardio. I do not like working out.
(00:47):
I would much rather sit and lay in my bed for about four hours
with my cats drinking coffee, but I don't always get to do
that. I it literally keeps my body
moving. And by saying that is because I
have rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and Pilates is basically
my physical therapy. I started doing it because it
(01:09):
was a lot more affordable and itdoes the trick.
So without it, I can't move comfortably.
I end up limping a little bit and I can't show it for students
the way that I want to. But when I go, it's like magic.
I can move just fine. Now, my Pilates studio has three
membership options that I can choose from.
I can do four classes a month, eight classes a month, or
(01:31):
unlimited. Meaning I could literally go
every single day of the week if I really, really wanted to get
out of bed. But that doesn't happen all the
time. Anyway, I have been lucky enough
to be grandfathered into the unlimited package at a special
rate, but here's how it works. If you're on the eight class
plan and you decide I'm going toadd in one additional class this
(01:53):
month, you end up paying the perclass rate plus an extra fee.
Well, that's an additional $25 just for that one class.
And honestly, when you do the math, that in itself costs more
than my unlimited plan. So it's just smarter for me to
keep the unlimited and not to adjust my package.
And they also have strict cancellation rules.
(02:15):
So if you cancel more than 24 hours in advance, it's no
problem. You can switch your schedule
around however you want to, but if you cancel within the 24
hours, there will be a $10 fee. And if you cancel within the
hour of the actual class, it'll be $15.
And listen, there have been times, there have been so many
times, it's kind of embarrassinghow many times I just didn't
(02:38):
feel like going and I cancelled anyway.
So the fees do stack up. Let me tell you, there's nothing
more humbling than realizing you've basically been paying for
a very, very, very expensive couch sitting membership.
And here's the big kicker. That has been the most, we'll
say the biggest accountability motivator for me.
(03:03):
I recently found out that if I am a no show at one of my
classes, it's not just about me.The instructors actually lose
part of their bonus or some kindof their pay structure.
I'm not 100% sure how it works, but I know that they lose the
financial incentive when the clients don't show up, IE me.
So those fees aren't just about keeping me accountable, they're
(03:27):
about protecting the instructorstime and income too.
And even though I have wanted toargue their policies 100 times
because I hate losing money and I hate getting off the couch, I
do respect them. Their system works and most of
the time if I'm honest, when I cancel, it's really not an
emergency. It's just me not wanting to go
(03:47):
and that's on me. That's not on them.
So I think that relates really well with what we do.
And I think that's another reason why I've thought about
their policy structure so often is because we talk about our
makeup lesson policy all the time as music instructors,
because music lessons really arethe same way.
(04:09):
And parents they do. They want to argue about makeup
sometimes, right? Or no shows or refunds.
But just like my Pilates studio,our policies aren't only about
accountability for students, butthey're about protecting us as
teachers. Because hello, we're real people
too. And here's what I want to pause
(04:29):
and say before I get into this. I think that makeup lessons are
definitely one of those topics where every teacher has an
opinion, and that's fine. Spoiler alert, most of us think
that our way is the best way. And you know why?
It probably is for us in our specific situation, but what
(04:50):
works beautifully in one studio might flop in another.
And that is the beauty of this job.
We get to choose what works for us.
So as I walk through these options, I want to be sure that
we offer each other some grace and keep an open mind.
All right, so let's talk about the menu of makeup approaches,
(05:12):
shall we? So there is a popular monthly
group class option and that is where if you miss a lesson,
there is a day selected out of the month that is a group class.
And that is what you can do instead.
And the upside of this is there's lots of community that
you can create. There's a variety you can do
composers, composition, you know, stuff that you can't fit
(05:34):
into normal lessons. They are fun and families love
if they actually show up. I did this for a season and it
was OK. I don't know.
People didn't usually show up and they wanted a different
makeup lesson anyway and I felt like it didn't make much
progress with me, but I didn't enforce it maybe the way that I
should have. So if you can make this work, I
(05:56):
know that some studios love it. Another option that I have seen
starter studios do is when they simply just have lesson slots
that are built in makeup lesson slots, which creates some
flexibility for the family. So let's say that, you know,
Johnny can't do his Tuesday lesson anymore because he
started basketball, so now he's going to switch to Thursday.
(06:17):
Well, you have that wiggle room.So it's not really that big of a
deal. And that works great for smaller
studios. But as you build and fill up, it
becomes a little unsustainable. But if you can do it for now,
that's a good option. Another one that I have one
specific teacher friend I'm thinking of who swears by this
and that is her parents swap list.
(06:39):
So families that choose to do soswap with one another and the
teacher stays out of it. So there is a list of the
schedule. The parents can see it if they
need to switch to that Thursday time for Johnny, they can see
you know what other families areon there and they can contact
them themselves asking if they can swap for the weeks.
(07:02):
Other teachers I know use holiday weeks like that Monday
and Tuesday of Thanksgiving or Spring break to fit in their
makeup lessons, going along withthe monthly group class, maybe a
couple Saturdays each semester set aside just for makeups.
Families know that it's their only chance.
Virtual lessons. There's always those virtual
lessons that some people opt to do instead of the student coming
(07:25):
in. One that I do for inclement
weather, I don't do. This is not my makeup policy,
but for inclement weather this is.
And that is a synchronous lesson.
So this is becoming a favorite for me because I record a 15 ish
minute teaching video and I sendit out to the students.
(07:47):
It's on one subject. I am going to do a podcast on
that in two weeks, but then theycan watch it whenever.
So it fits with them. So asynchronous lessons are
really great. There's a few options that you
can do with them. Again, I will talk about that
here in a few weeks. And then of course you have the
no makeup lessons ever. Like the hard line approach,
(08:08):
tuition holds a spot. End of story.
Some teachers thrive with this and personally, I do not have
the guts. That's a mom of three.
I get how chaotic family life is, but if this works for you, I
applaud you. So there you go.
There's some different ideas. I know that there's more out
there, but I think those seem tobe the most effective and the
(08:29):
most popular. Now I don't do any of those.
What works for me, and again, this might not work for you, but
this is what works really well for my studio and that is I have
built in student weeks into our calendar so I offer two makeup
lessons a year. Example, if I plan on teaching
(08:50):
44 weeks in a year, I only charge for 42, but there are 44
lessons scheduled. So if a student misses once or
twice, it's already covered. And if they don't miss, when
they come to all 44 weeks, they get a bonus.
They get like 2 free lessons. And yes, people might tell me,
(09:11):
you know, but Jackie, you're giving away free lessons.
And my response to that is, aren't you already giving them
away if you reschedule even justone of them?
I mean, think about it, you've already set aside a lesson slot
for them. They didn't take it.
So chances are you got a nice break.
(09:31):
Maybe, maybe you got to use the restroom.
Maybe you got to eat a snack. Maybe you got to play some Candy
Crush. I hope you got some admin time
done. But let's be real, I never end
up getting admin time done. So then you have to reschedule
again. It's going to take up your time
whether you like it or not, withbuilt in weeks.
(09:51):
It's defined and it's limited. Everyone knows the boundaries
and for me, it's taken away a ton of the stress.
I'm not scrambling, I'm not resentful, and parents are clear
on the expectations. Now those are for makeup lessons
for my students. And I want to be clear about
this because a few months ago, podcast episode 48, I did an
(10:15):
episode on flex weeks. And the flex weeks are for when
the teacher needs to miss a lesson.
So makeups, the two makeups thatI built in for the year.
So let's say there's 44 lessons that I've scheduled in the year.
I'm charging for 42. Those two weeks that I have
(10:37):
taken off of the billing schedule is for the makeup
lessons for my students. The flex weeks that I'm going to
talk about now are for the teacher.
Flex weeks are not makeup weeks.Makeup weeks are for the
students. Flex weeks are for the teacher.
I know that other people might use different words.
That's great. That's fabulous.
(10:58):
But for the sake of this podcast, I'm going to use that
to help differentiate the two. So flex weeks again for the
teacher are my PTO, they are my paid time off, they're my
vacation, they're my sick days, conference time, mental health
days, you know, whatever animal emergencies call it what you
want. That's for me.
(11:19):
So here's the math. If I put it all together, OK,
let's say that I am going to schedule 44 weeks in my
calendar. I'm going to subtract 2 in the
tuition for my students. So now I'm charging 42 weeks so
that the students can miss any two weeks that they need to.
But then I want to have two flexweeks for me, meaning that I
(11:41):
want to be able to say anytime during the year.
If I need to take a week off, I can, but I don't want it to
affect my tuition. So I'm going to subtract 2 more
on the calendar. There are 44 weeks scheduled,
but now I'm charging for 40 weeks spread evenly across a
year. Students will still see 44 weeks
(12:03):
on the calendar, but tuition math is based on 40.
So the key take away is that makeup weeks are student facing,
flex weeks are teacher facing. They're two separate things.
And this is really a beautiful thing because let's say that I
don't actually get sick. Well then guess what we're going
to do? We're going to end our season 2
weeks early and I get two additional weeks off in May.
(12:27):
How great is that? Because we all know how much we
love May summer. So that might be something to
think about. And then you might ask, well,
what if I have to miss more thantwo weeks?
Well, that's a great question. Then you might want to consider
maybe sending out asynchronous lessons for additional lessons
that you missed. Maybe you do want to credit
those weeks. That's a whole other
(12:47):
conversation. But ask yourself, do you usually
miss more than one or two weeks?What's your average?
And then you want to take that. So that's the breakdown.
There are lots of ways to handlemakeups, group classes, swap
lists, designated days, asynchronous, or even no makeups
at all. And if your system is working,
(13:08):
don't change it. But if you're tired, resentful,
or constantly chasing down absences, maybe it's time to try
something new. And for me, that magic
combination is 2 student weeks and two flex weeks.
Families know what to expect. I have breathing room and my
studio feels sustainable. And if flex week still feel
confusing, don't worry, it does take time to get used to the
(13:30):
idea that teachers deserve PTO 2.
I know it's hard to wrap your mind around it, and I get
questions on it weekly since I released that podcast a few
months ago, but once you build it in, it really does feel like
the raise that you didn't know you needed.
It really is spectacular. So thanks for hanging out with
me today. In two weeks I will be back with
(13:52):
a whole episode on asynchronous lessons, how they work, why
they're so powerful, how to create them, and how to use them
as one of your best flexible teaching tools.
In the meantime, feel free, if you haven't already, to grab my
free editable Canva calendar at Scrappy pianoteacher.com and you
can start playing with it so that you can see what this could
(14:14):
look like in your own studio. Until next time, keep teaching,
keep learning, and don't forget it.
You deserve margin too. See you next time, bye.
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