Changing Music Teachers: A Clear Handover for the Next Lesson

Open your current music—or your child’s—to the passage practiced most recently. If you can point to the right page but cannot explain the task, that is the first thing to clarify before changing teachers. A useful handover lets the next teacher find the music, hear a starting point, and ask a precise question.

You can prepare it on one page. Use My Next Teacher: What We Are Working On to record the material, one current instruction, the student's question, and approved practical information. The examples below follow a fictional piano student working on an invented study, “River Steps.” Adapt the fields for your instrument; you do not need to write a musical biography. You can write these headings on plain paper; the printable card is optional.

Fictional example assembled on one page. The starting point is a student report; record a separately dated demonstration only after hearing it. Confirm lesson equipment with the teacher.

1. Tell the student what is changing

Start with what you know: who will teach the next lesson, when it happens, and which music to bring. For a child, try: “Your next lesson will be with a new teacher. We will take the piece you are working on and show the passage you practiced most recently. You can ask about the ending.” Say which details are still being arranged rather than promising a familiar routine.

Acknowledge the student’s feelings about the change, then let them choose a question they want answered about their music.

Give the student a small job in the preparation. Ask them to open the current piece and say what they have been trying to do. A parent can write the answer; the student can check whether it sounds like their own words. An adult learner can do both jobs. Keep the explanation of the change separate from the assignment description.

Fill in the confirmed teacher, lesson time, and music to bring; mark anything still being arranged.

Avoid asking the student to judge which teacher is better. Record a usable observation: “I can find bar 5 after you point to it.” That tells the incoming teacher something to check. “I was never taught properly” gives them no passage or action. You can discuss a concern privately without turning the handover into a comparison of teaching styles.

MTNA's Code of Ethics supports communication during a change of teachers while respecting student and family privacy. It also calls for respect for a student's choice of teacher. This one-page template is our practical suggestion, rather than an association requirement. Use the parts that help your next lesson begin.

2. Agree what information may be shared

Read the proposed handover together before passing it on. For a child, have the parent or guardian review the page and include the student's voice. An adult learner reviews their own page. Decide what may go to the incoming teacher, who will carry or send it, and whether a direct conversation between teachers is welcome.

Permission can be specific: “Please share the current piece, assignment, and instrument information with the incoming teacher. Please ask us before sending anything else.” Write the agreed scope on the handover card. In the card’s “Information approved for this card” field, list what may be included. Discuss exclusions privately rather than writing the excluded details on the shared page. This is a practical record of the family's preference, not legal advice or a substitute for a studio's own procedures.

If the outgoing teacher is available, ask through your usual lesson channel: “We are preparing a short handover. Could you check the piece and edition, assigned passage, and wording of the last task? We have approved sharing those details with the incoming teacher.” Ask for clarification of the existing assignment rather than a new assessment. If no reply is available, label the unchecked details and bring the current music.

Review which information may be shared and who will receive it. In this example, approval covers the current task and materials.

Include the information needed to teach the task. “Please give one instruction, then let me try it” describes a useful lesson preference without asking for a diagnosis. “I use a large-print copy” describes a material need. Discuss any further private information through an agreed channel; you do not need to explain the personal reason for every request on this page.

Describe the action or material that would help, with family approval.

Keep the page with the lesson materials or use the communication method agreed with the new teacher. No recording, personal contact directory, or upload to Tissimo is needed. If permission for teacher-to-teacher communication has not been agreed, bring your own description and materials. The new teacher can still listen and establish an assignment with you.

3. Identify the exact book, edition, and passage

Put the book beside you while filling in the locator. Copy its title, composer or author, edition or publisher, and the piece title. Add the printed page number and the assigned bars. If it is a teacher's original study, say so and identify the copy. A cover color can help you find a book in a bag, but use the title and edition details to identify the copy reliably.

Our fictional locator reads: “River Steps, original teacher study, version 1; page 2; bars 5–8.” Use your actual edition details and bring that copy to check its markings.

Identify the material, version, and exact passage; bring the copy you use.

Check your locator by asking someone else to open the passage from your description. If they reach different music, find the missing title, edition, or location detail together.

Point to the beginning and end of the passage. Bars 5–8 include bars 5, 6, 7, and 8: four bars. If the music has no printed bar numbers, ask the teacher to help identify the location. You can write “page 2, second line of music, first complete bar” as a temporary locator. On a piano score, count each joined pair of treble and bass staves as one line of music. Mark it uncertain if you have not confirmed it.

Bars 5–8 include four bars: 5, 6, 7, and 8. Check both endpoints in your copy.

A tablet can show a different screen page from the number printed on the music. Record the printed number when available, then check that the intended passage is visible. If two copies disagree, open both and locate the passage together. Do not silently convert a remembered page number into an apparently verified one.

Different arrangements can put the same tune on different pages or change the notes and difficulty. That is why the incoming teacher needs your actual copy. Trinity’s electronic keyboard and organ syllabus illustrates the distinction: it specifies editions for listed arrangements and allows other reliable, unaltered editions for other pieces. Its exam policy is not a requirement for this handover.

If there is no score, identify the resource you actually use: the exercise name, lesson-note date, or recording title and version. For a song, quote the opening and closing words of the assigned phrase. For a recording, note the start and end timestamps. For an unnumbered exercise, name the pattern and the exact part assigned. Ask the teacher to confirm any uncertain boundary.

Here is a fictional example: “Voice: the phrase beginning ‘Morning light’ and ending ‘home’; current task: use the breath point marked in my lesson notes.”

4. Record one current instruction in plain words

Read the latest assignment note before relying on memory. Write one action and where it applies: “In bars 5–8, hold the final half note for its full written length.” Separate that instruction from what the student can currently demonstrate. For our fictional student: “I can start at bar 5 after someone points to it; I sometimes release the last note early.”

For the demonstrated starting point, record only what you actually heard: the starting bar, ending bar, and tempo if used. For example, “Today: began at bar 5 after a prompt and played through bar 8; final note released early.” If you have not heard it, write “Student reports releasing the ending early; not demonstrated today.” A practice setting belongs in its own entry unless it was used in that demonstration.

Date the last assignment and any demonstration separately. If the assignment date is unknown, say so.

Keep the assigned instruction, student’s report, and question in separate fields.

Borrow a precise entry from your practice notebook. Merton Music Foundation’s diary guidance describes notes identifying pieces, sections, and weekly work, with questions flowing back to the tutor. Select the present task for your handover.

Change “work on rhythm” into something the next teacher can observe. Name the passage and the intended action. If you cannot translate a note confidently, preserve its wording and add “please explain.” Do not invent an exercise or a technical correction on behalf of the outgoing teacher. A short, accurate uncertainty is more useful than a polished guess.

Replace a broad label with a passage and action. Preserve uncertain wording and ask the teacher to explain.

How to practice offers a small-section approach and a fix-it loop. Its worked routine includes piano-specific hands-separate work; use it here to help locate the small problem you are describing, rather than assigning that routine to every instrument. For the handover, point to the exact bar or moment you find difficult and describe what happens there. Keep any new practice exercise for discussion with the teacher.

Make a tempo number interpretable

If tempo belongs to the current assignment, write the beat unit and the number together. “Quarter-note beat = 60, current practice setting” explains more than “60.” At that setting there are 60 quarter-note beats per minute, one each second. It describes the pulse used for practice, not a claim that the student has mastered the passage.

Include the beat unit and label the setting as current practice.

Use Tempo & the Metronome to check how a metronome mark connects a note value with beats per minute. Keep a printed performance marking separate from a slower practice setting. If you do not know what each click represented, write “setting remembered as 60; beat unit to confirm” and let the new teacher check it.

Finish with a question in the student's own words. In our example: “How do I know when to let the last note go?” A parent may need to prompt the student to name the confusing moment, but should avoid replacing it with an impressive technical question. The aim is to give the teacher a place to begin listening and explaining.

Write a question the student recognizes, and point to the confusing moment.

5. State practical instrument and material needs

Describe what is available for the assignment: the instrument used at home, the current music, and any accessory the teacher has already asked you to use. “Digital piano at home; current book available; sustain pedal unavailable” gives concrete information. Distinguish home equipment from lesson equipment. Ask what the studio provides and what you should bring; for an online lesson, list the setup you will actually use.

Add a practical request if it affects the first lesson: “Please write the starting bar before I play,” or “Please allow time to open the large-print copy.” Keep the request separate from an assessment of ability. With family approval, a factual description can give the teacher something to act on without a private explanation attached.

This inventory describes home equipment. Confirm what the studio provides and what to bring, or list the setup used for an online lesson.

MTNA's parent guidance encourages listening to a child's playing and providing practice time and an instrument. For this transition, turn that broad support into a concrete check: can the student access the named music and instrument before the next lesson? List anything unavailable so the teacher can plan around it.

Pack the current copy, the relevant assignment note, the handover, and the materials requested for the lesson. For an online lesson, open the music file and have the page ready beside the instrument. The Royal Conservatory's online teaching guide recommends preparing resources and communicating with families between lessons. Apply those suggestions to the actual format you have arranged.

Bring the current music, relevant assignment note, handover, and requested materials. For an online lesson, open the correct file and passage first.

Check the packing list against the current task. If an old notebook contains unrelated family notes, use a family-approved summary of the relevant instruction. If a book is borrowed and must be returned, tell the incoming teacher that the copy will be unavailable. Keep administrative arrangements in their own conversation so they do not crowd out the musical starting point.

6. Bring the handover to the first new lesson

Put the completed card beside the actual music. Offer it as a starting point: “This describes the last assignment. Could we check it together?” The student can point to the passage and explain the task before playing. The incoming teacher decides how much to hear and whether a different starting task would be more useful.

Find the passage, explain or demonstrate the current task, then ask the teacher to confirm the next assignment.

For River Steps, the teacher might ask the student to begin at bar 5, play through bar 8, and explain the ending. A pause, an early release, or a forgotten starting point gives the teacher something to investigate.

If an entry turns out to be wrong, correct it openly. “I wrote page 3 from memory; our copy says page 2” is enough. If you are relying on memory, label the instruction “student’s recollection” or “parent’s recollection,” as appropriate, and bring the materials you have. Let the new teacher distinguish what can be verified today from what remains uncertain.

Correct the locator against your copy. For remembered instructions, identify whose recollection you recorded and what needs checking.

After a break in lessons, add: “This was the last assignment before the break; we have not checked it recently.” Keep the old assignment date distinct from a new demonstration date.

Ask the new teacher to hear the student's question as well as read the adult's summary. If the student is hesitant, they can point to the question on the page. You can also say, “We are unsure what this assignment note means.” The handover has done useful work when it makes that uncertainty visible and gives everyone the same passage to discuss.

7. Let the new teacher confirm the next assignment

If a different instruction needs a demonstration, ask: “Could you show us how you want that done this week?” Write the answer while the student tries it.

Before leaving, write the new task beside the old description or on a fresh assignment page. Include the material, passage, action, and any agreed practice setting. The incoming teacher may retain the old task, narrow it, or replace it after listening. Label the entries “Previous assignment” and “Current assignment,” and date the current one. Ask the teacher to confirm which instruction to use before the next lesson.

Label the previous and current assignments clearly. Date the current entry and confirm which instruction to use before the next lesson.

Ask the student to explain the new instruction back: where to start, what to try, and what question to bring next time. For River Steps, an incoming teacher might assign only bars 7–8 and ask the student to count through the ending aloud before playing. That is an invented possible response; it is not an extra exercise every reader should adopt.

The Royal Conservatory's practice-planning guidance describes teachers creating daily plans and breaking work into parts. ABRSM's Practice Notebook description likewise identifies goal-setting and lesson notes as uses for a notebook. You can use your existing notebook for the confirmed assignment; no special product is needed. Ask the teacher how they want subsequent questions recorded.

Read the page back together: locate the music, explain the task, check the student’s question, and confirm sharing.

If a needed material is unavailable, ask what to use in the meantime. Record the temporary task and its copy or passage; bring remaining questions back through the teacher’s usual communication method.

Make one final check together: can you find the material, explain the task, identify the student's question, and tell what information has been approved for sharing? Read back any correction before putting the page away. Once the new assignment is clear, use it for home practice.

Free worksheets for the handover

• My Next Teacher: What We Are Working On — a material locator, current-task card, and sharing and arrival checks, with a fictional completed example.
• How to practice — a piano practice sequence, small-section work, a fix-it loop, and a weekly log to consult when identifying the current problem.
• Tempo & the Metronome — tempo words, metronome examples, and a practice sequence to help interpret a recorded setting.

Bring the page and the music, and leave room for the teacher to listen. A Tissimo teacher can help confirm the passage, clarify the student's question, and agree on a manageable next assignment in a live lesson.

Sources

• Code of Ethics — Music Teachers National Association
• Choosing a Music Teacher: parent's role — Music Teachers National Association
• Making the most of your child's Practice Diary — Merton Music Foundation
• Teaching Music Online: Practical Guide — The Royal Conservatory
• Practice Plans, Goals, and Techniques — The Royal Conservatory
• The ABRSM Practice Notebook — ABRSM
• Electronic Keyboard & Organ Syllabus: editions — Trinity College London