Payment
Payment is due at the first lesson of the month, for the entire month. If after two lessons have passed without payment, lessons will be put on hiatus until payment is received. This is due to unfortunate situations in the past where I was kind enough to continue giving students lessons, racking up a number of unpaid lessons for which i was never able to recover payment. By putting lessons on hold, there is no increasing debt to be paid.
Absences & Rescheduling
If You know you need to miss a lesson, The most advanced notice possible is appreciated. At least 24 hours notice is required for the lesson to be excused, That will allow me time to move students around to fill that time slot. As long as an absence is excused, I will work out a makeup lesson, if possible. If insufficient (or no) notice is given, The absence will be unexcused and treated as a lesson taken. Of course, if a student is sick, that is an excused absence. I don't want to be trapped in a confined space wihth a contagious student and risk catching illness myself. :-) Often times with sickness, the 24-hour advance notice is not possible. I understand that, but please let me know as early in the day possible, so I'm at least aware of the pending absence and can try to jugle my schedule if I can.
Lateness
If a student is late for a lesson, the way I typically handle it is thus: If they are just a few minutes late, we'll get right down to it and they will have the remainder of their lesson time. If they are over 15 minutes late, the lesson will be treated as an unexcused absence. Treat lateness as absences. If You know there is a reason you will not be able to make a lesson on time, let me know, with as much warning as possible. If I am running late for some reason, I will be certain to give each student their full lesson time, provided there is not some later function limiting them from being able to go longer than their regularly scheduled lesson time. In such cases, I will make up the time deficit the following week or at a later lesson. Sometimes, a lesson will run into a "breakthrough" moment that I get carried away with and I lose track of time. Sometimes, it's a "brick wall" moment to which attention needs be paid.
Makeup lessons
If I have more than one day of teaching at the school, I will try to makeup lessons on one of those days so that it is more convenient having the lesson at school. Often, however, Makeup lessons need to be done at my house which is just off of Scarsdale near Blackhawk.
Other equipment
I expect students to have a metronome and practice with it always. Practicing without a metronome ensures that a student will not develop even technique or a clear sense of time; the exact opposite of what we hope to accomplish in practicing.
I strongly encourage, but do not require students to have a tuner. Tuners provide a reference point while practicing to be able to see when notes are sharp or flat and will help with intonation when playing in band, or other ensembles.
While I do not require a tuner, Korg makes the TM-50 which is a very affordable and perfectly adequate combination tuner AND metronome for about $30. It is available from WW/BW along with other on-line sources, and I believe both H&H and Music & Arts sell it in store. Considering some metronomes and tuners cost that much (or quite a bit more) on their own, I recommend this combo device as a great purchase until further down the line (high school or college), When more specialized and dedicated devices would be beneficial.
21st century update :-)
With smartphones now being so ubiquitous, There are several good tuner apps ranging from free to a few dollars.
One of the most popular ones, and one that is easy for students to grasp/read is Tonal Energy. I believe it is about $20. It has many extended functions that other apps don't have, such as a basic metronome and the ability to record oneself quickly and easily without having to to go to another app such as voice recorder or voice memos.
I like strobe tuners for their accuracy and ease of reading. Peterson tuners has.a strobe tuner app called "Strobosoft" for around $15. If feeling spendy, it has additional premium features that allow for seeing sound in different ways, These additions aren't necessary for students, but I do sometimes use them in lessons to show different aspects of musical sound to students.
on iPhone, there are a couple of other freebie tuner apps, as I'm sure there are on Android, as well.
On the metronome side of things, I have less knowledge, as I prefer stand-alone physical metronomes. But there IS one iphone App I use often in lessons out of convenience, which is called simply "Tempo". It's not free, but it is the most functional app I know, and not outrageously pricey.