Starting out as self employed - no work - HELP!

Sharon87

I don't think the poster meant a proper music teacher. I used to have Clarinet lessons whilst I was in school by a non-teacher, when I say that it is someone brought outside of the staff to give private or semi-private tuition. Sometimes I was with her for 30 minutes by myself or I had someone else with me who was also learning. You don't need to a degree, just to know your instrument.

This will be good, but you will need CRB checked, which may take a while.

tiddly_widdly

Telephone the local council about the schools. They are the ones who organise it through their music for schools programme. You do need to be qualified though.

DazzaMc

I did my AVCM teaching exam in December and go Honours but need to do Grade 5 theory exam before I get the qualification so technically I'm not qualified. So I'm gonna hang back from approaching schools till I am. I've got the remainder of 5000 flyers to get rid of - did loads today so hopefully will get something from that. Thanks for all your help. I've started applying for jobs after tweaking my CV a bit to get rid of unnecessary qualifications. It's a sad world when you have to delete qualifications that you've worked for to get a job but there you go.

jobbingmusician

I don't want to be cruel, DazzaMc, but I do want to be realistic.

I studied at the Royal Academy of Music and hold an LRAM. Although I don't earn my living as a musician any more, I know plenty of people who do, and I know that it's hard to get enough work. I am APPALLED that any institution would award a teaching qualification on the basis of only Grade V theory for your musical knowledge - or even let you take the exam without being able to demonstrate much higher standards than those required by this very very basic exam, and having looked at the AVCM syllabus I don't think any school who researched this qualification will employ you on the basis of holding it.

I feel really horrid for saying this, but please believe that this information is offered to ground you in the real world, not to be nasty. If you are struggling to get your Grade V, I don't feel you should be teaching classical piano (although you might still be a fantastic keyboards tutor).

On a more positive side, there is no reason why you should not be employed directly by parents. Do you have any ideas why your pupil didn't come back? It is obviously not ideal if you are teaching in your parents' house - would you consider going to teach in pupils' own houses?

Do you have contacts in the local musical circles? If you were an orchestral player, it would be much easier as you would tend to know people from your local orchestra and chamber music playing. Do you have a second instrument through which you could meet other local musicians? Why not advertise for other players to play chamber music with you? This will introduce you to the local circuit, and you may well hear of opportunities.

If you are a good pianist, one way in which you might get quite a bit of employment is as an accompanist. Kids taking music exams in all other instruments need an accompanist and these can be quite difficult to find - might make a useful addition to your portfolio. Local schools might well be willing to recommend you to accompany at exams, auditions etc if your accompaniment skills are up to this.

Are there any local choirs who need accompanists? Again, it's a great way to get known as a local pianist.....

Good luck, and let us know how you get on!

DazzaMc

Who said I was struggling to get grade 5 theory? I know it's easy. And an avcm is a recognized teaching qualification, you even get the option of having a cap and gown like in a degree. Mygrades were all on keyboard but I've always played piano music which is why I want to teach both. I had a couple of enquiries today, one is starting lessons next week so things are lookingup

jobbingmusician

Just being realistic.

VCM may state that the AVCM is a recognised teaching qualification, but I note that it has extremely low standards (scales and arpeggios to Grade 6 standard, for one example). Potential employers are likely to do the same sort of research that I did on this not widely-recognised qualification and come to a similar conclusion. If you want to teach, I recommend that you take the qualification granted by one of the major musical institutions (e.g. RAM, RCM, TCM, GSM, RNCM to mention the best known).

Why do I say that AVCM is not a recognised teaching qualification? The following is from VCM's own website.

'Later legislation set up bodies such as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in England, and similar bodies with authority to accredit Awarding Bodies in Wales and Northern Ireland.

After some years of negotiation with QCA, it became clear that their concerns were principally for publicly funded rather than independent organisations and that VCM would be unlikely to attain accreditation unless it either changed beyond all recognition or amalgamated with other institutions, ceasing to exist in its own right. Two other prominent Music, Speech and Drama awarding bodies were forced to amalgamate.

It also became clear that the consultancy fees required to secure accreditation were prohibitively beyond the means of the VCM.

It was therefore decided not to proceed with the submitted accreditation applications to QCA.'

I am genuinely delighted to hear that things are looking up for you, however.