So you want to become a piano teacher? Whether you're a college student going through music school or someone who is looking to switch careers, it can be confusing on where to start as a teacher. I had my first piano student while I was attending community college in 2008. I remember feeling confused on where to start with making a solid teaching income. Through trial and error and years of practice, I have some tips to help you find your path to becoming a new piano teacher!
MUSIC SCHOOL:
The easiest place to start is finding a music school in your area and getting a teaching position there. Here are the pros and cons of working at a music school:
Pros:
Easy to get students: The school will find all the students for you and you just have to show up within a specific time frame. Typically lessons are after school hours (3-8PM)
No stress over administrative tasks: The music school handles all the administrative work such as lesson cancellations, billing students, and scheduling lessons.
Work with others: You will have coworkers which makes teaching piano less lonely.
Cons:
Random student assignments: You don't get to choose who you work with.
Pay is less: Since the school takes a cut from music lesson payments, the teachers receive less than what would be charged privately. Depending on your area, the pay range is anything between $25-50/ hour.
You have a boss: There might be certain teaching requirements dictated by the owner of the school such as following specific piano examination programs (RCM/CM/ABRSM) or piano method books (Alfred/Faber).
Interview process: Wear an appropriate outfit; think Sunday's best. Prepare 1-2 copies of your resume and just in case, prepare a short piece to play for the interviewer. This might be asked of you on the spot or in advance. This does not need to be virtuosic, but something that highlights your pianistic strengths. The more prepared you are, the better you will look as a potential hiree.
PRIVATE PIANO TEACHER:
If you would rather be your own boss, teaching privately can be a great source of income! You can decide if you want to drive to students' homes or teach out of your home. Self advertising is crucial and will take patience to build a clientele. Here are the pros and cons with being a private piano teacher:
Pros:
You are your own boss: No need to report to anyone! You can teach how you like and be in charge of how you want to run your studio.
Trial lessons allow for freedom in student selection: You can choose who you want to take on or pass onto a different teacher.
Pay is more: You set your own rate. If you drive to students' homes, you can charge more to include transportation costs. If you teach from your home, you can set your competitive rate within the area you reside in. For example: I teach out of my home in North Boulder, Colorado and charge $45/ 30min.
Cons:
You handle all administrative tasks: It can sometimes be a headache to manage cancellations, rescheduling lessons, and billing. Luckily, there are a few music studio management softwares such as My Music Staff or Fons to help with all these tasks.
Need patience to build your studio: In my experience, it took a solid 1-2 years to build a decently sized studio of about 20-28 students. Self advertising includes posting piano lesson ads through Facebook groups, Nextdoor.com, lessons.com, and word of mouth.
Work alone: Although you are seeing students multiple days of the week, being a solo piano teacher can get lonely at times. I recommend joining groups like your local MTNA chapter or piano teaching communities online to meet other teachers!
Another strategy is to start at a music school and gradually find private students at the same time. Once you have enough private students, you can transition into just teaching privately. Just be careful of music studio policies that don't allow you to take any of their students for your own private studio.
If you are not in a rush to find students, take time to build your own website that features your teacher offerings. It also helps to have professional pictures of yourself or clear pictures of you and happy kids/adults that you've taught. Websites like wix.com, Squarespace, or Weebly make it easy to customize your own site.
My last tip: If you plan to teach from home, having a Google business page with reviews helped me grow my studio. As a customer, I always look up businesses on Google maps and read their reviews. It is an easy way for potential students to find your teaching business. Not to worry if you don't have any reviews yet. Once you build a clientele, ask them to write you a short review through your Google business page.
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