Teaching Musical Instruments

sophief333 · 8 May 2012 at 12:03PM

Hello,

I have just begun teaching the piano to some young students and I'm really enjoying it! I would love to eventually make this my full time job.

Are there other instrument tutors here? Just wondering if you have any advice regarding getting new students. I have dropped leaflets round my local area and put myself on yell.com and gumtree but so far had no luck.

Maybe if there are a few of us instrument teacher in here we could use this as a regular thread for chat, advice, tips etc??

:wave:

aitch-aitch · 8 May 2012 at 12:36PM

I'm not a music teacher myself but all my 3 children play instruments and have had both school and private lessons. My DD was desparate to play the violin a few years ago and the school couldn't offer that as an option so we ended up going private.

So what I am suggesting is that you also contact local schools and ask them to pass your leaflets out.

Have you also tried any local community learning groups - we have a scheme in our area driven by the LEA which is providing adult learning (not just in music) and uses the schools as an outlet so could try this in your local area?

musogirl295 · 8 May 2012 at 1:28PM

Hi,

I've been teaching piano for the last 6 years now. I work privately now but when I first started I worked as a peripatetic. This was valuable for experience. In terms of advertising I'm probably not going to be very helpful! I have advertised in many ways over this time and have probably only had a handful of enquiries from them. I have also tended to find that most people (although certainly not all) that I have taken on from internet listings and the like have been very unreliable and not committed to learning music. By far the best families that I have worked with have been those that I have got through recommendations from current pupils.

A great source of support and advice is the ABRSM forum. There are loads of us all the same boat.

And finally, if you haven't already done so, it is really important that you set out terms and conditions with your students as soon as possible so that you don't get in any sticky situations down the line.

sophief333 · 8 May 2012 at 1:51PM

Thanks musogirl!

I think your right with recommendations being the best way to get students! That's certainly how I got my current students.

And don't worry, I have done a through T&C's!

Do you teach full time or at least survive off your earnings as a teacher?

tyllwyd · 8 May 2012 at 2:02PM

I'm trying to find a piano teacher at the moment, and I've got the opposite problem to you - the ones which have been recommended are all busy. I would agree about advertising through schools (although you might find they already have teachers who offer lessons at the school), and perhaps you could try local music shops. I would think that with music lessons, once you are established you will find that you have younger brothers and sisters following on so you might have a sucession of pupils from the same family.

To become better known locally, maybe you might think about things like running little music classes for young children, or maybe workshops for older ones where you could get a group of children playing keyboards in a group. At our local primary school, the teacher teaches an introduction to keyboards in a group, which keeps the cost down per pupil but gives them a taste of whether they might like it.

Teaching Musical Instruments

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