Now I get it! Having a web presence does make a difference! Eight calls the day after Labor Day, and five appointments to meet with potential new students! Two of the callers don't own a piano, and seemed surprised when I explained why they need an acoustic piano or a good digital piano with 88 touch-sensitive keys. I did advise them they could rent an acoustic piano rather than buy. I did my best to educate. One mother sounded vastly disappointed, and the other sounded as if she didn't believe me. I am sure the next teacher she calls will tell her the same. So here I am, very happy to have taken the website leap!

Having never built a website before, I am surprised I am still smiling. After tinkering with photos and several pages, my hair is not wind tunnel-wild and I don't have crazy eyes. That isn't to say it might not still happen, but so far, so good.

I really don't understand all that can be done building a website and I am pretty much doing it hit and miss. I don't even know if anyone will see the website, and if they do, how it will happen. Right now, I am simply hoping for the best.

And possibly talking to just myself.

I have to be competitive in this world. I live my day life as a piano teacher and my not-so-secret life as a writer. I can't quit my day job and here's the dilemma. I've always gotten piano students by word of mouth, and still do, though not in the numbers I've grown used to. Last year and this year, the calls have slowed down. I ask myself the following questions.

1. Are families too busy for the commitment of music study? (Maybe) 
   
2. Is everyone taking tennis lessons at $150/hour? (What's with that? How much college do you need to teach tennis anyway?)
3. Are kids doing track, swimming, dance, SAT prep in elementary school, gymnastics, Kumon, traveling soccer and local soccer six days a week? (For real?)
4. Have a gazillion new piano teachers moved into my area of Matawan, NJ? (Hmm, doubtful, who would willingly move to such a highly taxed state? 
5. Have people simply moved away from expensive NJ? (Good possibility this is a yes, because I have had two families debunk for Texas and another to a job in Boston) 

Along with all of those questions, I've been wondering what I can do to get myself "out" there in a different way. 


I posed a question to a piano educators group on Facebook. "Do private piano teachers need a website?" Wow, the resounding yeses are still echoing around my studio. So here I am, wading through construction, and maybe seeing some possibilities in having a site. This first attempt might turn out lame but I am trying. Let's see what happens.

So a few more hours on this project, then back to writing. Can I treat this blog as a writing exercise? That's what a blog really is, isn't it. Or it is a vehicle to talk to self? That's what writing is anyway, isn't it? Too many questions. I feel a headache coming on. Bad hair and crazy eyes will be next.