How To Become A Private Music Teacher And Start Teaching Lessons At Home In Your Own Business

Looking for a way to supplement your income or a way to work from home? Teaching private music lessons is a great way! You get to set your schedule, and often times it’s minimal hours per week, but can still produce a good income.

Can You Be A Teacher?

Not anyone can teach. You don’t have to have a degree in music but you do have to have knowledge and a basic understanding of music. If you’re here you probably already have experience playing an instrument or singing.

• You must be able to have a competent understanding of note reading, dynamics, rhythm and counting.

• If teaching beginning lessons you can build on your abilities over time as you continue teaching others. General rule of thumb is that you should only teach to your own level of playing. If you only learned up to early advance, then that should be as far as you teach unless you continue your own education and feel confident teaching higher level music.

• If teaching string instruments you should be able to tune the instrument, proper bowing techniques, fingering and maintenance of the instrument.

• Wind instruments you need to be able to teach the basic fundamentals of holding the instrument, blowing and producing a good tone and maintenance of the instrument.

• Vocal instructors must be able to teach proper singing techniques.

How To Get Started

Determine how many hours you can teach in a week, and that will determine how many students you can have. Beginning lessons are generally 30 minutes long. Intermediate are 45-60 minutes and advanced is 60 minute or more.

Decide much you will charge for tuition per lesson. You will have to compare other rates in your town so that you are at a reasonable rate but not undercutting other teachers just to get more students into your studio.

Locate a place where you will teach your lessons. If teaching in your home, You must have a clear space in your home, with easy access to a restroom for any emergencies just in case. Plus I ask my students to wash their hands before they begin playing. If you don’t have space in your home you can contact a music store to see if they are accepting new teachers. They will ask for credentials though. You can also look into places of worship, schools or the local community college or university to see if you can use a room.

Organize your business for bills and receiving bills. For tax purposes you must have record of all income received so you do have to be organized with that.

Plus side, you don’t have to go this alone! Get your IRONCLAD Studio Policy that will protect you and your new business HERE! And soon to be released is our 12 week online course Successful Music Studio Strategies. Video tutorials and access to all my templates and tools to help you Start, build and maintain a successful and THRIVING private music lessons studio.

Happy Teaching,

xo Becky

Music Studio Business Strategy: Maximizing Your Schedule

The great thing about having your own business, is that you get to pick your own schedule! You don’t have to work 9-5 if you don’t want to. Most of my teaching happens between 3:30-6:30pm. And it doesn’t have to be every single day either. Making it something super simple you can add into your life like a side hustle before you make the big jump to having private music teaching becoming your everyday, or every few days job.

Maximizing Your Schedule: If you are just starting and want to add in a few lessons in the week, take time to look at your calendar and see where you can teach. AIM for back to back lessons. You could fit 4 students in a 2 hour block teaching 30 minute lessons.

Make it a goal to have __ amount of students by __. And get your name out there. When potential students inquire, you already have your lesson times scheduled and then it’s a first come first serve. As you fill up you can apply the same strategy to fill up another day, then another day and so forth.

Now that you have students, The next step would be to start putting together your Music Studio Policy Contract! Not sure where to start? Check out our Private Music Lesson and Studio Policy Template with a step by step tutorial video on customizing it to fit your studio’s needs!

Happy Teaching!

xo, Becky

Start Your New Music Studio As A Beginning Level Music Teacher

Have you had dreams of working for yourself? Maybe from home? Did you play piano or violin, or any other instrument when you were younger? Have you thought about teaching beginning level private music lessons? I get it, the idea of teaching lessons when it’s been forever since you picked yours up seems a little intimidating but, why not? If you have a basic level of music, you can teach it. And it’s something that you can pick back up very quickly, especially when you turn it around and think about it in a teaching way.

A degree in music, (performance, education or therapy,) is not necessary when teaching private lessons. A good teacher who wants their students to be successful is. And while you are teaching others, you’re going to start practicing and developing your skills back up too.

My first piano teacher, was only and still is only a beginning level music teacher. She won’t teach beyond that point. And she doesn’t have to. There’s no rules out there that say you have to teach a student from Beginning level to Advanced collegiate entry level. You can teach any level you decide. Choose to teach beginning to early intermediate, or just advanced. It’s your business. You choose how you are going to run it. There will always be a need for beginning teachers who can teaching the fundamentals of music on any instrument!

If you are ready to start your own business and be your own boss with teaching private music lessons in your own studio but not sure how to get started? GET YOUR COPY of my Successful Private Music Studio Policy Templates. Let me make it easy for you! I am giving you the exact same template I use with my wording, and you can customize it to fit your needs! Easy to use with an included video tutorial to help you get it ready to go and get started sooner!

Writing Your Piano Studio Policy: The 5 Sections You NEED To Include

Are you looking to write your New Private Music Studio Policy? Check out the Top 5 things you NEED to have in your studio policy! Remember, your studio policy is your Terms and Agreement between you and your new student.

1) Number of lessons per month and year

Take your lessons from inconsistent to regular with this 1 step! Your students need to know what they are paying for and when they know exactly how many lessons they get each month and how many it equates to a year, then it becomes a commitment for them. It’s the First paragraph in my studio policy.

2) Pricing

Goes right along with how many lessons your students get, now they need to know how much it’s going to cost them. And remember, you are the expert in your field by offering to teach others. That means you should price yourself at a rate that you are comfortable with and that’s also reasonable in your area. The last thing you want to do (speaking from experience here) is undercut yourself and then increase your rates every year to get back up to what you deserve. It doesn’t feel good getting underpaid for what you deserve and it’s a hard thing to increase rates, every year.

3) Missed lessons policy

Missed lessons happen. But they should not be happening all the time. “Missed lessons are not the responsibility of the teacher. Lessons should be a priority for the parent and student.” Excerpt Successful Private Music Lesson Studio Policy Template. Making up lessons not only cuts into your time but also can be difficult especially if you have a family other other obligations. Create a rule on how many missed lessons can happen in the span of 4 months.

4) Terminating lessons

You are running a business, and it’s a business that can be reliably consistent. But, what changes that is when a student quits unexpectedly. You need to create a termination policy that allows enough time for you to fill the slot before that student leaves. Your goal is to decide what your max studio limit is, build your studio to where you have a waiting list, so that when you need to fill a spot, you call your waiting list and offer the new spot starting immediately after the final lesson for the previous student. When you get this timed just right it’s not going to cut into your monthly income.

5) Sign and Date From The Student

And at the end of every policy, have the student and parent sign and date the policy. This way you have a signed copy (contract) with that student and parent that they understand everything before you ever teach the first lesson to the student.

In the end, your studio studio policy should be direct and to the point, so that it leaves nothing to question.

Ready to start building your studio policy? Let me help make it easier for you! Use my Successful Private Music Studio Policy Templates that is already formatted with all 5 of these sections plus more to make sure all your bases are covered! Use the given texts or customize it to fit your needs! Your policy template includes a tutorial video to help you get it filled quickly and ready to hand out!

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Why You Need A Music Studio Policy

Are you ready to take your teaching to the next level and get the respect you deserve? I’ve seen it time and time again, private music teachers with a handful of students but not making a consistent income month to month and the stress of not being respected as a teacher with students canceling lessons last minute, and not valuing their time.

If you are teaching private lessons. YOU HAVE A BUSINESS. You are being requested to do something that you specialize in, and are getting paid for it, but why aren’t you getting the respect of anyone else doing a trade job.

You have to set yourself up as a professional and serious business owner from the start and that comes from having a Private Music Lesson and Studio Policy. It sets the expectations. It sets the tone. It sets the rules that you take your business seriously and that the student should too.

The studio policy is the first item in every “welcome packet” email I send out. Plus I have them print off 2 copies and bring it with them to their very first lesson where I collect a signed copy and file it away in my records and they keep the other.

“But I’ve been teaching lessons already, how do I give a new studio policy to my current students?” Even if you have been teaching for awhile you can still hand out a new studio policy. Let your student know that you have updated the policy and wanted them to go through it. And just like any contract, they need to sign it and you keep one signed copy and they keep the other. You just upped your professionalism.

Lessons should be a priority to you and the students. You are worth it to have the respect you deserve and to be taking seriously and not advantage of. Ready to get your BRAND NEW and Customizable Studio Policy? CLICK HERE to get your copy. I go step by step through your policy in my tutorial video to help you customize it to fit your needs and get it out to your students!