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My day job is increasingly grating on me and more and more I'm considering trying to do something with music. I'm not so naive as to believe I could make a living playing, but it seems that teaching can be a pretty stable way to get by.
However, I have no idea how to go about doing it. I've been playing guitar for 14 years, have played in a ton of bands of various styles, have a good grasp of theory, I even took some theory and performance classes in undergrad. I also really enjoy teaching and mentoring, and I have some experience doing it at my day job. The problem is my degree is in engineering and I have no formal qualifications in music. I'm not sure how I could sell a resume in what I imagine is a decently competitive market.
So my question is, especially for those who don't have a music degree and teach, how did you start? Are there qualifications other than a 4 year degree that could help get my foot in the door? (Preferably something I could pursue while working full time). Should I just go to the nearest guitar center and see if they'll take me? Lol
Also for those who teach, is that your main gig, and do you find it stable? Really just trying to explore options at this point.
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03-28-2024 01:45 PM
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Classroom teach or private lessons?
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Go to the local music store and see if they need a teacher. Show them you're competent and can play stuff in Mel Bay Book 1. You'll mostly be teaching kids, so the bar is low.
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Private lessons. I assume a classroom position would require a teaching qualification. I don't have one and don't know that it's feasible for me to go back to school for 4 years to get one lol.
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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To me that is the problem. You really have to love teaching and be patient with students. 45 years ago I started teaching in college. I did it for maybe 10 years after that off and on never my fulltime occupation except with in college. I have to tell you these days I do not like to teach unless it is with someone who already can play but needs guidance and maybe theory and ideas. After a while of taking beginning students, it just gets draining. I would not like to do it now and repairing guitars is much better.
All one has to do is advertise for students and be prepared. I cannot say I even like music stores all that much anymore. I would prefer to be away in a studio where the full attention is learning. I hate to be a negative but from my standpoint teaching guitar for a living is not nearly as decent and most regular jobs of any kind. After time even jobs we love can be a drag and we burn out a little.
Ok you heard the bad..................the good news was in college I made enough money teaching to get through and not live too poor.
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what would you tell a music teacher like me, if i was interested in taking up engineering as a side hustle? Originally Posted by BreckerFan
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Depends what kind of engineering you want to do. It's possible to work for a contractor and work your way into a construction engineering position without ever going to school, though probably becoming less common with the proliferation of college degrees. For other types of specialized engineering you need a degree, in part for the knowledge, and in part for the licensure barriers. Originally Posted by djg
I don't think music education has the same barrier of entry unless you're trying to work for an institution. I know there are plenty of guitar teachers who don't have a degree, I just don't know what you do to get there.
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before the advent of the internet you could make some money teaching nothing else matters to teenagers. with youtube, not so much anymore. who's gonna pay you 50-75 bucks per hour for that? and you have to compete with subsidised music schools as well. i do not know many guitar teachers in my area who do not have a degree. good thing, too. teaching music is as serious a profession as engineering. Originally Posted by BreckerFan
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So I basically fell into it...ran into the guy who ran the music shop I took lessons at as a kid (he was playing the piano at an Italian restaurant), got to talking, he asked me if I still played, I said yeah, he said "bring your guitar next week." So I did, played 2 tunes with him, and he asked if I could teach guitar.
That was a good side hustle for me for years...until I got laid off from my day job and suddenly a canceled lesson wasn't a "take a break and have a sandwich," it was "where's your fucking kid? You didn't call, you still owe me!"
Luckily that only lasted a few months.
I'd say be prepared to teach a lot of beginners if you want to keep a full roster...which is not particularly exciting. You'll have to be patient and to actually be any good at teaching you'll have to put in off the clock hours.
I quit a few years back after stopping weeknight teaching and cramming everyone in to Saturdays. It became too much, not fun at all, and I was missing time with my own kids. I miss the extra cash (I was still making over 1k a month working just Saturdays) but I don't miss the work.
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While I have worked as a high school teacher and college lecturer, I haven't given music lessons in decades so my story might be irrelevant or outdated for today.
My first music teaching gig came about from an interest in guitar. When I was perhaps 15 or so in the mid 1970s, I became enthralled with guitar, like a lot of teens I suppose. I was able to convince my parents to sign me up for some lessons at a music studio that taught guitar, organ and piano, mostly to kids. The lessons included rental of a nylon string guitar and the teacher was into folk. I did well in the lessons, but wanted to learn rock and play an electric guitar. He found a used mid-60s Tele and Princeton and convinced my parents I was "predisposed" toward music, so they bought them as a birthday gift. I soon outgrew the lessons and had begun playing in garage bands, doing a occasional gigs around town.
A few years later, I bumped into the head of the music studio at which I had studied and she was happy to hear I was still playing guitar, and mentioned they had an opening at their studio since the teacher who taught me had left. The students were mostly kids and, as some have already noted in this thread, the gig required a lot of patience. But I was good at it, and ended up being a popular teacher. Some of my students later went on to build lives in music themselves.
After a couple years at the studio teaching gig, I outgrew it but had developed enough of a reputation to attract private students, which expanded by word of mouth. The teaching, in conjunction with gigging (a wedding band, a big band, club dates, etc.), didn't pay enough separately but together they provided a modest income for a single 20 year old throughout the 1980s. One of the gigs led to an audition for a music program at a regional college, and I got a scholarship to play guitar in their big band and jazz combo. The only music degree they had, though, was music education, so I ended up with an unintended BA and even went on to get a NYC music teacher's license!
But ultimately, the lifestyle was not for me, and so by the 1990s I left music, sold my gear and used my savings to study and travel, eventually settling in Japan working as a college lecturer (non-music field) and rediscovering music as a hobby. But during those early years, from that first happenstance teaching gig, I really developed a love of teaching which remains with me to this day, having become a satisfying vocation.
I wish you well on your future endeavors and hope you find your teaching gig!
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I can’t advise you
I’ve recently had a couple of people
approach me for lessons ,
I’m not qualified and they know this,
but I’ve given them a rate
and they want to go ahead….
—————-
I’ve no idea how this will go
but I’m open minded
I think I might enjoy it , I’ve taught
other skills informally and enjoyed
…. and learned from …. the process
have fun with it anyway
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Classroom is unlikely without formal certifications but dude. Originally Posted by BreckerFan
Make an easily findable website and put that video of you playing your Night and Day transcription and private students or private lessons gigs will be beating your door down.
EDIT: you obviously need a way to get students to find you, but no one (NO ONE) will give a crap if you have a music degree when you can demonstrably play at that high a level.
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As for me … get some Zoom chops going. It works great on guitar after you work through some small hiccups. I make about half my income from private teaching. On a good months it’s more like 2/3. Then I work for a non profit after school music program for the rest. Stuff like that is great and I love it.
Except in narrow circumstances I’d be wary of a music store except just to get your feet under you.
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These days your competing with the internet. And yes there are some good sites..but many more bad ones that a novice student may
not be able to know the difference.
Teaching is a skill. Some can do it..many can't.
If you can..or think you can..really know what you want to teach and to who.
I don't teach beginners..this is mostly kids who may have watched a 10-12 yr old on the net playing speed metal..and they want to learn THAT!!
So I limit my scope to intermediate/advanced..this group mostly know the importance of practice..and have some grasp on harmony and theory.
Of course doing this I do not have a full dance card. And for me this is OK at this point in my financial life.
It is fulfilling enough for me to be able to share my knowledge with several students who will use it in their own playing.
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Well, who said private music lessons is a stable job? In my experience in the States it's always a part time job, schools will pay you per student, not per hour spent in school. And the number of students always vary, some would quit, etc... It's a good part time job for a career musician who also plays gigs, or for someone who has their main income somewhere else. So maybe it will be good for you in that sense, but don't count on it as an alternative career you can switch to.
Unless you come to China, here you can find a full time position for the same music tutoring job, that's how I initially got here btw. Pays really well too. But for this you would need a degree in music thou.
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I finished my education and was working in a few places before it even ended. So this is not it.
You already have enough experience playing-wise. Teaching is not that at all.
Teaching people is like filtering out that very narrow stream of the most useful info according to your plan with the student.
... that's a warning when first jumping into it. It is completely different from what you have done so far.
Got to have plan, make sure it is good for the student(s), then stick to it (so hard).
..
Private lessons are lucrative, of course, but consider looking out community centres, youth centres, or if you have your own place
to accommodate a group of people, then try group lessons for similar people - age-wise, skill-wise etc. This is where you can
have the most fun and money the same time
But the simplest way to do it is to go to a place where the city is trying to keep young people to drive their skateboards and play pool instead going to the streets and start robbing the elderly to buy cigarettes. Offer them guitar lessons, bass, drums. Uh, not the kids but the office.
Ask them for money to buy instruments, fill a band room asap. Send notices to schools that there's this opportunity.
You will get SO many people each year. It works even in small towns.
Well, it takes a few years to get it really going. But make sure you are there on your own terms, financially. That means it is not free or entirely on the city's budget. They got to pay... the parents hopefully.
This is another warning right here - if you rely on the office's "goodwill", you don't have a say in what your fee is. At some point, it can become a problem.
edit: that "but the simplest way" - this is how my colleague did it. Exactly like that (without the financial foresight sadly). Later we had 100-200 students per year in a town with 17000 people and just one respectable music school. He just barged in, said "lets make a guitar class here". No-brainer. Awesome gig.Last edited by emanresu; 03-29-2024 at 06:47 PM.
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Personal contacts and occasionally a formal application to a job ad
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This year I started teaching in a private music club. I had a precarious position at my main job (at a scientific institute) and I wanted to quit and focus entirely on music. But I end up working two jobs. I teach several times a week on weekdays for 2-3 hours in the evening. I’ll be honest, it’s hard both mentally and physically. My students are beginner level teenagers. 1. They have a very limited musical horizon. like: "The Beatles? Hmm... heard something about them." They don't know the word "jazz". 2. For them, music lessons (like music itself) are leisure activities of the 10th level of importance in life. 3. They often forget about homework (despite the fact that I try to make it as simple and not burdensome as possible). Moreover, sometimes they admit that they simply haven’t picked up a guitar all week. 4. Their most favorite counterargument (when you try to explain to them the placement of hands or some kind of fingering): “Why? Is it more convenient to play the same way?”... and they continue to crawl with one finger along the fingerboard, sticking the thumb of their left hand out from under the fingerboard. 5. Often I don’t understand how to overcome all this in learning and there are very demotivating lessons. 6. The money they pay is small, in order to have enough to live on, you need to recruit many such students. Personally, I realized that I was not ready for this. 7. As a musician, I rather degrade in these conditions. The advantages are as follows. 1. Since the situation at my main job is now difficult, I still have a small additional income. 2. Compared to the main job, there is generally no stress here. 3. I also have no formal music training. No one cares, no one even asks about it. Just as no one expects any specific results from training. My conclusion is the following. As additional work, it is better to take a couple of private students of an intermediate level and work with them on the musical material that interests you. If you consider teaching as your main job (without having a musical education), you will most likely teach beginners the way I described it. Or you have to be a very cool musician and teacher. Like Ted Greene for example.
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That's a very accurate description of what guitar teaching job is like. If you're no name guitar teacher that's how it's gonna be. If that can be your passion I applaud you. Most teachers I know, myself included, have to just grind through it. To keep my sanity I had to learn to emotionally disengaged from it, in simple words learn not to give a f..k. If I come across a student with talent and motivation I'm all there to help 100 percent. If not, fine just whatever. Originally Posted by Kmatuhin
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Keep your expectations low and it’s a very rewarding job haha
I think pop and rock musicians from Gen X have a bit of culture shock because we grew up when guitar music was vital and relevant. (Although I didn’t really like a lot of it haha.)
But classical teachers have always had this issue - you need to introduce a canon of music and be an advocate for it. This is where electric guitar teachers are today. This is problematic, but there you go.
It doesn’t mean kids won’t become interested in and passionate about music, but it’s all a lot less organic… at least most of the time.
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