In-home piano lessons strike a chord with parents

When banker Mose Witt and his wife, Charlotte, of Middletown, Del., cast around for a way to increase their family’s future income, they turned to Scott McGowan, AS ’89, who was no financier.

McGowan, who majored in psychology and minored in music at the University, had worked as an adult-home supervisor after graduation.  Then, he had a brainstorm that he dubbed Playtime Piano Instruction.

The notion is simple: Provide in-home piano lessons that children actually want to take. No more stern teachers. No more whining kiddies. Jettison the endless carpooling.

In 1993, McGowan decided to parlay his own seven years of private piano lessons and his experience working with children and adults with developmental disabilities into a new career teaching piano and keyboard.

McGowan’s in-home lessons were a hit with busy parents in the Baltimore area, and his calendar was soon filled every weeknight from 3 to 9 p.m.

“We seemed to have tapped into a market that was underserved,’’ McGowan says. “In-home piano lessons are not a typical service anymore. These days, in most areas, children are taken to a studio.”

Business kept building, and McGowan’s wife, Harlene, ditched her advertising job and joined him. She had never taught before, but she had a decade of classical piano training.

Her schedule soon filled up, too.

And, then, they had a waiting list.

They hired additional instructors. Their piano teachers, who agree to an Internet criminal background check, don’t need a teaching degree, but they do need piano training plus child-friendly personalities.

The McGowans gave their new instructors a teaching manual that they wrote. They also taught them what Scott had learned while working with people with developmental disabilities: Everyone learns in his or her own fashion.

The McGowans and their cadre of instructors teach children theory and technique, but they customize the instruction to each child’s personality. They let the children pick the music. They allow children to wear their favorite–not necessarily their best—clothes to recitals. They encourage bubble blowing at recitals. They also offer “bribes,” allowing students who earn a certain number of points to win prizes.

Business ballooned.

Then Harlene got the idea to franchise. The couple decided to package everything they’d learned and provide an instructors’ manual and billing systems.  

The Witts bought the Middletown franchise.

“For a couple of years now, we’ve been identifying various businesses we could possibly operate out of our office in our home, just wanting to become entrepreneurs,“ Charlotte Witt, a human relations specialist, says. “We have a love for music, and we’ve been involved in music all our lives.”

Witt says operating a part-time business from their home gives the couple a chance to earn extra money now, with the potential to build their franchise over time to the point where she could manage it on a full-time basis and stay home with their two children.

She says they chose a franchise because the McGowans provided a package with the feel of an already established business. “A lot of things have been tried and experimented with, so the trial-and-error part of the business is already past,” she says. “Plus, there are a lot of resources such as reference materials, online forms and teaching books.”

The McGowans say it makes sense to pass along the timesavers and knowledge they’ve garnered along the way. “We’ve been out in the field for a while, so why not give them any tips we might have,” Scott says. “A lot of instructors have said it’s very helpful.”

Playtime now boasts six franchises bringing weekly lessons to almost 400 children age 4 and older in Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio.

—Kathy Canavan