An Introduction for Musicians
For many of today’s musicians, working as a private music tutor
has many benefits over working within an educational
establishment. Firstly, you are a lot freer to choose where,
when, and depending on how well you teach, WHO your students
are. This will also let you continue whatever employment or
other commitments you already have. Building up your student
base slowly allows you to commit time to each of them to find
out their learning style and prepare for their lessons without
feeling overwhelemed suddenly with 30 new students starting next
week.
Starting out, the idea of being an “expert” can feel rather
daunting… especially for those of us who learned by gigging,
and may not be the best sight-readers. Others among us have
studied music and/or education to higher levels. But no matter
where you stand between these two, those first few steps into
teaching music as an income is terrifying.
Two main advantages I have seen in my time working as a private
music tutor are
1. You have a lot more potential to work the hours you choose,
and where you choose. Allowing your other commitments time where
they need it.
2. If you teach children, generally, they are far more likely to
behave and be responsive to teaching when either on their own as
there is no one to show off to. School music lessons -
especially in junior high school can be pretty hard to control.
3. You can vary the genres and methods you use as you see fit,
not as a strict school curriculum requires.
4. You can focus all your attention on one student who WANTS to
learn… if they don’t, why are you teaching them - your morale
will take a huge blow, and your time would be better invested in
working with an interested student.
Monetary benefits will come into the equation somewhere… let’s
face it; they have to in this world. However, if all you can see
are pound signs and have no real interest to teach, work with
others, or enjoy music… perhaps private tuition is not for you.
In my personal opinion, private teachers can make a very
comfortable living, and with some commitment and effort can
easily make £40 upwards per hour.
It is not unheard of for tutors to have a waiting list of
students who want them as their tutor. Once you find yourself in
this position, although it isn’t time to relax, it is most
definitely time to congratulate yourself. You can now (within
reason) charge what you REALLY feel you are worth per
lesson/hour, as you have people desperately waiting for your
time.
If you didn’t increase your price at this stage it would be
foolish. You have developed a product (your tuition service)
that is in such a need the demand out numbers the supply - the
number of lessons you have available per week.
Building your “studio” into this size is an achievable target,
but one not as many as could reach it actually do. Those who do
are employing valuable marketing techniques whether they realise
it or not.
One of these marketing techniques is so subtle, many don’t even
realise they are doing it when they are advertising in their
local newspaper or shop window. This is a basic example, but
stick with me; this idea can be applied at any time in your
teaching career. By advertising in a local newspaper, you are
already targeting the first most likely people to use your
tuition services… your local community. Unless you are famous
for being an incredible musician, people will neither just ask
if you would teach them, or travel to find you in the hope you
teach music. This one simple ad is telling the local community
“I live in this area, and I have spaces available to teach music
lessons.” I would save the expense and time on that website
until further down the line if you live in a small town, the
paper would provide a far higher return on income when you are
starting off.
To develop this further, think what your ads say about you? Do
they say professional, or do they say “I can play a few tunes on
the piano, let me teach you cos I really need the money” Here
are my top 5 mostly marketing techniques for musicians aspiring
to earn a decent income from private tuition.
1. Choose a name for your “studio” this can be anything from
“Maria’s Singing Tuition” to “Bass riff School”. Choose one and
use it in ALL your advertising
2. Make sure you include contact details on everything -
advertising is an obvious one, but what about your pupils’
notebooks in case they ever need to cancel a lesson?
3. Make at least two copies of your teaching schedule. One that
stays with you (especially if you are as forgetful as me), and
one that everyone else in your household can see. This allows
them to know when not to disturb you, or when you’ll be home.
(A third copy is ideal to keep with your musical instrument as a
reference.)
4. Make sure that the two copies in point 3 have contact names
and numbers for all your students. Should you ever have an
emergency, this allows all your pupils to be contacted by
another person in your family should you not be able to attend.
5. Don’t be afraid to tell people that you teach music -
especially if you have spaces available. Word of mouth is the
best form of advertising, and when you combine this with the
power of NETWORKING, you can only succeed.