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How to make a living in music - Teaching -
Part 1
by Keith
Kehrer
Most of us musicians started
out writing and playing music for the love of it. At some point you may
decide that maybe you should make back all the money you and your parents
have spent on your career and actually make a living doing what you love.
Most books and articles on making a living focus on that very elusive record
deal, playing gigs, selling CD’s and all the other things you can do in a
band or as a solo artist. Granted, those are good ways to make a living but
as you probably know by now, they are not always that consistent.
All those skills and equipment you acquired writing and recording songs,
booking gigs and tours, talking on the phone to music business people,
networking, designing CD covers and running your band web site can be
applied to other areas of the music industry and help you make a living
while you pursue your rock star dreams. You might even decide that you want
to pursue one of them instead.
What I want to do in this series is to get you thinking about what you can
do with your talents and make a living being a musician. You may even be
able to quit your 3 day jobs and concentrate on music full time. Wouldn’t
that be something?
Teaching
We will start with the most common way to make money in music besides
playing and recording. This is a pretty obvious one, but, there are a lot of
ways to approach this. I am going to break it down into 5 sections.
Where do you find students?
How do you reel them in?
How do you teach well and keep them coming back?
How much do you charge?
Alternate ways to make money from your knowledge and skill.
Where do you find students?
First you need to decide who you want to teach. Do you want to teach just
children? Just adults? Senior citizens? Teenagers and young adults? You may
want to teach everyone. All these groups of people will find out about you
in different ways.
Children
Obviously, you start with the parents since they are the ones with the money
and will be paying for the lessons. Where do you find these parents? Well,
almost anywhere you find children; schools, churches, music stores, parks,
malls, toy stores. Parents do read flyers on bulletin boards, newspapers and
magazines and they do talk to other parents. Parents will even first look in
the yellow pages for teachers. It is even easier if you are a parent
yourself because us parents tend to gravitate towards other parents. They
understand the agony of bringing up children and are a good source of
students (their children) and referrals (their friend’s children). But, if
you don’t have children but have a knack with kids then you just need to
make friends with parents and teachers. If you happen to be a choir director
in a church, you are already seen as an expert and gain students very easy.
Before and after school programs are good places to connect with parents and
children as well.
Adults
If you are teaching a child, don’t be afraid to ask their parents if they
want lessons. You can find adult students in the same places you find child
students. I have met a lot of adults who harbor the desire to bring out
their inner rock star. They may have taken music lessons or were in band or
choir when they were younger and dropped music for more adult things. You
can run ads in newspapers and entertainment newspapers as well as the yellow
pages. Don’t be afraid to tell people you work with or are friendly with
about what you do. People are very interested in music and the fact that you
are a musician will perk their interest. Even if they are not interested,
they will probably know someone who is. Word of mouth and referrals will
always be your best ways to let people know about what you do. Everyone
trusts their friends so you won’t have to go as far to prove yourself. You
should always have your elevator speech prepared and cards handy.
Senior Citizens
Most (though not all) senior citizens are retired and have a lot of time on
their hands. They will be taking classes and going on trips and trying to do
all the things that they wanted to do, but, were too busy to do when they
were younger. Their children are gone but their inner child is not. Though I
have had success with ads in newspapers, most of my senior students came
through being involved in church choirs, community organizations and just
being friendly and telling people what you do. Not all senior citizens are
cranky. Like most people, they are absolutely interested in music and the
arts and love to hear about what you do. Flyers at senior and community
centers will work and again yellow pages ads can bring in interested
parties. Word of mouth is still your best tool.
Teenagers and young adults
For the longest time, most of my clients were in bands or wanted to be in
bands. Going to see a band perform live and introducing yourself is a good
thing. Be careful not to imply that the lead singer sucks though. All us
singers have big egos and will not take kindly to that kind of criticism.
Most of my teen and young adult students came through running ads in arts
and entertainment newspapers and music stores. As you gain more students you
will find that you will gather a group of people around you that love what
you do and refer people to you.
Other ways to let people know what you do
You should always strive to be amazing and to teach well. You want to help
your students become better as your most successful students will be your
best advertising. If you have a guitar or vocal student who is playing in a
band, always go out and support them. When things go well, they will be
happy to introduce you as their teacher. Another thing you can do is put on
a recital or a showcase for your students. They will invite parents and
peers and everyone can see your work in action.
Hopefully I gave you some good ideas of where to find students and how to
market a music teaching business. Not everyone is good at teaching or wants
to do it, but, it is a great way to create extra income while you are
working on the rest of your musical career. Another benefit of teaching is
that you will be learning your craft better. There are a lot of resources
for music teachers in books and on the internet. I will post a list of them
at the end of this series.
Next time I will be discussing how to reel in paying students once they find
you, teaching better, setting up your prices, running your teaching business
and alternate ways to make money using your knowledge and talent.
Keep up the good work. Live long and prosper.
I welcome feedback and questions so feel free to email me at:
kkehrer@msn.com.
Keith Kehrer
Kamakaze Music
From a classical music education
to playing in Phoenix-area bands to studio production to composing for the
award-winning film Standalone, New Jersey-bred film score composer
Keith Kehrer brings a variety of experiences to his work. Recently Keith sat
down with our Ed-in-Chief to discuss how it all came together.
How to make a
living in music - Teaching - Part 2
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