The Business of Music

Anyone that has ever taught music has had something similar to the following experience:

You walk into your local music store, past the band and string instruments, guitars, keyboards, drums, and pianos.  Down the fluorescent-lit hallway lined with uncomfortable chairs.  On your left and right, you see plain doors with small windows and know that you have found musical hell: your own holding cell to teach music in for the next four hours.  These rooms are small, impersonal, and lack anything that says: this is an environment for mentoring, musicianship, and education to take place.

Teaching lessons at a music store happens in several different ways:

1. You’re hired as an independent contractor.  You teach in your cell, usually not on your main instrument – unless it’s flute, violin, or piano – and take home usually less than half of what students are being charged to study with you.
2. You rent space at a music store. No one helps you find students, you have to collect your own payments from parents, and you have to pay for your allotted room time, whether you have students or not.
3. You don’t teach at a music store – you teach at a high school/middle school/private school.  You’re not allowed to charge a fraction of what a lesson would cost anywhere else in town, and you have no guarantee who is going to show up from week to week.

Anyone reading this that isn’t a musician may think, why in the hell would someone do this to make money?  Well, for some, this is the best game in town: it’s better than waiting tables and more steady that freelance work.  I have experiences all three, and have been music store free for almost four years and have a thriving private studio.

Word of mouth is the best way to get any business, especially when teaching privately.  However, when you’re teaching at a music store, when you are recommended as a great teacher, it doesn’t mean that your work will be reflected in more pay or even more students…it really just means more business for the music store.  This is fine, and may seem very cynical on my part, but music stores are a business and they will exploit any musical trend out there to make money.  The goal is not musical achievement or recognition for having an excelling band or orchestra as a part of their musical outreach: it’s to have parents sign on the dotted line that they will pay for a SEMESTER of lessons.

So how do you break free of the music store grip?

Start small but cast a wide net.  It takes about two years to build a healthy private studio.

For Saturday: Teaching Private Lessons: Cutting out the Middle Man – Part II