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Question: What should I charge for piano accompanist services to college students!?
Hello all,

Does anyone have a method of determining pricing for accompanying students that factors in the amount of time the accompanist needs to practice!?

I’ve been doing professional accompanist work for a few years now at a major university!. I’ve been using a straight hourly rate, similar to other accompanists!. However, I don’t feel like that’s necessarily fair to me or my students!. For one thing, it’s not fair to the student who has just a few, easy pieces to have to pay the same price as another student who has a larger number of very difficult pieces!. And related to that, it doesn’t seem fair to me to be paid the same amount by a student whose song selection requires me to practice 40 hours or more in comparison to another student whose pieces require only a couple hours of practice!.

I can’t seem to find any way of being objective about prorating my prices!. I can’t charge per song, because some songs are more difficult than others!.

I will say, I’m torn on this subject… On one hand, I don’t think it’s fair for a student to pay more because I’m not talented enough to play their pieces without a lot of practice!. On the other hand, most businesses only expect a certain level of performance for their employees – they don’t force them to work unpaid overtime to make up for what they can’t finish during their normal business hours!. Similarly, I don’t feel that I should have to put in a lot of "unpaid overtime" to practice the extremely difficult pieces that a student might give me – especially considering that they don’t give me their music before they ask me to commit to being their accompanist!.

Thoughts!? Suggestions!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Musicians get paid the same for difficult music as they do for easy!.
The percussionist who does not perform 20 minutes out of a 2 hour concert gets paid the same as the violinist who played thousands of notes throughout the entire concert!.
Insist on seeing the music before you commit!. If something is extremely difficult you can explain why you will charge extra!. Do not be surprised if they go elsewhere!.
Good LuckWww@QuestionHome@Com