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If you are a pianist and have been playing for a while, you may have considered teaching private piano lessons to make some extra cash.
After all, why not make some income from a side hustle you enjoy?
Sharing this talent and skill with aspiring young students, while also supporting yourself financially is a pretty encouraging thought.
So If you are interested in becoming a successful piano teacher for private or online courses then I have some great tips for you to get started!
How many years of experience you should have before teaching
When deciding to be a music teacher, you may be wondering “How many years experience should I have?”
Honestly, this depends on multiple factors, from years of experience, to your own piano skills, and prior teaching experiences.
When I taught piano lessons in high school for a short time to help me save up some extra cash for college, I had several years of experience as a pianist. But, I had no prior teaching experience, and it did not negatively impact my teaching.
After all, everyone has to start somewhere right?
Even though I had no prior teaching experience, I used my own piano skills, and the teaching style of my piano instructor, as well as every other music teacher I ever had.
So even if it is your first time teaching anything, or just your first time teaching piano lessons, it doesn’t really matter how many years of experience you have. There are really no formal requirements if you’re providing your own services.
But of course, the more experience you have, the more you will be able to bring to the table when you start taking on your first students.
My musical experience includes 4-5 years of private piano lessons (1 lesson every week), 2 years of violin in a school orchestra, and 6 years with the clarinet in a school band. So this experience has definitely provided me a leg up when I started teaching a couple of students.
But I also want you to know that it has been over 6 years from the time I stopped taking private piano lessons, to the time that I started giving lessons.
And when I started teaching piano students, I did not feel qualified. Like, at all!
I definitely struggled with imposter syndrome, especially when it came to creating a lesson plan. And, even though I had years of experience in music, I didn’t feel like I was giving enough to my students.
But you have to remember that it has taken you years to learn, grow, and master your own musical instrument. So when it comes to being a good teacher, the same thing applies. Your students will need time as well.
I would recommend having at least a year of musical experience with an instrument before you start teaching students. But, if you are a quick learner and you believe you have a natural talent, then you might consider asking an interested friend if they could be your ‘guinea pig’.
Let them know you haven’t had any prior teaching experience, and that you are willing to offer a lower price in the beginning. After a period of time when you become more confident as a piano instructor, you can start to charge a higher rate.
When I started teaching private piano lessons to a couple of students, I only charged $10 for a 30-minute session. This can be a good starting place for you. Or you may choose to start at $15 for a 30-minute session. You can even go a little higher if you’d like.
Just make sure that you’re not charging more than your competitors (if you have any).
Teaching skills you will need to be a good music teacher
While we are talking about your prior teaching experience, whatever teaching skills you have will be beneficial for you to be a good music teacher.
But if you don’t have much experience, you can still rely on your interpersonal skills.
Between all of the skills needed for listening, problem-solving, speaking, verbal and non-verbal communication, and more, you will be able to figure out what you need to do for your student to succeed.
So, in order to be a successful teacher, listen to your students. Meet them where they are at. If they are a beginner, find out how much they know.
Ask them “What kind of music genres do you like?”, “do you know any genres?”.
If they have no idea what you are talking about, then chances are, you will need to start from scratch.
I recommend using the Bastien Piano Basics book series. This set actually comes with 4 books and runs around $32 for the set. [Theory, Performance, Technique, and Piano (mostly just sheet music)]
The Bastien Piano Basics actually has 5 skill levels in their series. So as your student progresses, you can progress them through this book series as well. The series includes easy-to-follow lessons where you learn a little bit at a time, so you won’t be overwhelmed.
If your student is intermediate or more advance, then you are probably more familiar with other music books that you have found helpful in your journey as well. A good series for intermediate to advanced would be Schirmer’s Library of Musical Classics.
Schirmer’s Library of Musical Classics is a book set that I found helpful for really targeting my technique. Which was definitely something I struggled with. Schirmer’s Library also offers books for specific classical composers.
But if you’re starting off, you might want to stick with the scales and finger exercises. And if you want to write on the pages of the sheet music between multiple students, you may want to photocopy a particular song for each student. This way they can write down their own notes and thoughts as well.
Just don’t sell the photocopies! Check your book or sheet music’s copyright, to be safe.
Private piano teachers will typically develop their own collection of music books and sheet music. So, as you start taking on more students, you will begin collecting your favorite pieces.
Which teaching style you should use
You should use your own teaching style. But, that doesn’t mean your style can’t be a combination of every teaching style you enjoyed as a student.
And, you can even change your teaching style to match each one of your students. In some cases, you may need to.
Everyone has a different learning experience.
Think back on the last time that you learned something new. Did you read it, hear it, see it? How long did it take for you to fully understand the concept and use it in your daily life?
Consider these questions as you start to develop your teaching style.
If one of your students takes several weeks to figure out a single page of beginner-level music, you might need to ask if they feel they are struggling. If your student says yes, ask them if they can tell you why.
If they can’t, use your interpersonal skills to figure out what they are struggling with specifically. Is it the fingering, the tempo, the rhythm, or something else?
If your intermediate student is truckin’ through some of your tougher pieces, then they probably aren’t being challenged enough.
Or if they should be doing better but seem disinterested, or aren’t practicing their assigned homework, ask them if there are some songs they’d like to start working on instead.
And speaking of homework, make sure you are assigning your students a little bit of homework each week. It shouldn’t be overwhelming, but it also shouldn’t be too easy either.
If there was a song or a lesson that they struggled with during their session, assign that as homework for the next week.
That way they will be able to master each lesson, or song before they move on to the next. This will also encourage better technique and better overall performance. Plus, it’ll be satisfying for both of you to know they are showing improvements.
A fun way for you to not only show off your own piano skills is to play a tougher piece for them before they start working on it. This will inspire, encourage and help to guide your students.
It should be a piece that you have mastered yourself, but that they are also interested in attempting as well.
This was something my piano instructor did during our private piano lessons. Before I played a piece from her music collection, she would play it for me the first day I was to start working on it.
Doing this allowed me to hear the song before I tried to play it. It gave me a chance to follow along with the sheet music as I listened. It allowed me to hear the emotion, see the technique, and understand the different challenges of that song.
Deciding to teach private lessons, or online lessons
Deciding whether you want to teach private piano lessons or online lessons depends on several things.
The first thing you want to ask yourself is, do I have the resources to teach online, or is it best to teach private lessons?
If you have a laptop or computer, a quality camera or phone camera, and access to the internet, then chances are you can probably run online lessons with no problem.
However, this is totally up to you. Doing online lessons may allow you to earn more income depending on how you have set up your school.
You can choose to open up a Facebook group with a paid membership and have weekly video lessons. You can add weekly live sessions for extra help for your students with Q&A.
There are also tons of options for online teaching platforms like Teachable, where you can add specific lessons, documents, videos, and more.
Using platforms like this would allow you to create a program, and sell access to it over a period of time or with a paid membership. This method would be much more passive and you could provide online lessons to your students to complete at their own pace.
A teaching platform will also allow you to teach a much larger group of students and a larger demographic of students than you would have otherwise.
Plus, with an online platform, you can create individual lessons for your students to complete at their own pace.
While these individual lessons won’t be as personalized as private piano lessons, you should still be able to teach students of all ages.
Pricing, working hours, and getting your first student
So I’m sure this is the part that you are most excited about. Getting paid!
Getting your first students can be a little nerve-racking, but is also super exciting.
Whether you are teaching private piano lessons, or online lessons, having your first student means you are getting paid.
Chances are, you are not likely going to be teaching full time. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t be able to make a full-time income. Especially if you decide to start teaching online lessons.
With online lessons, there really is not much of a limit to how many students you can have. But, depending on the teaching platform you have chosen, there may be a restriction on the number of students you can have.
Though I doubt you’ll ever exceed that limit due to most platforms having the ability to scale up, allowing you to have more students and offer more services.
If you choose to provide private piano lessons, chances are you will be working part-time hours as it will take you some time to grow your student numbers.
When it comes to determining what you will charge your students all depends on you. If you teach private piano lessons you can pretty much charge whatever you feel your time is worth. You may even have the option to negotiate prices, you can charge a monthly fee or a lesson-by-lesson fee.
If you charge monthly fees, this can guarantee you get paid, regardless of whether or not your student shows up every session. This also incentivizes the students to show up every week.
Choosing to charge your students per session is a more student-friendly method of payment, but may not always guarantee you get paid every week.
When it comes to pricing yourself online, this will first and foremost depend on the platform you are using.
If you are using a free platform like a Facebook group with a paid membership, you may be able to reap almost all profit, minus any fees that Facebook may charge for payment processing.
If you are using a different teaching platform with a monthly fee, you will need to have enough students to be able to break even. So once you have published your courses, immediately start marketing to bring students in.
If you are using a paid platform, I recommend charging a monthly fee to your students. This ensures that you can still pay to maintain your teaching platform’s service, and you get paid monthly, not in random large lump sums.
Plus, when it comes to learning an instrument, there is always something new to learn, and always progress to be made.
So once your student has completed a beginner-level course, they can switch from the beginner level and start lessons in your intermediate courses. And so on!
Plus you can even include specific courses for different areas of music too! If you want to teach lessons about specific genres like classical music you can. You could even have a course specifically about the music from harry potter if you wanted!
If you want to teach lessons about specific decades, styles, and more, you absolutely can!
With online teaching, there really isn’t much limit to what you can offer to your students. Except, for direct one-on-one guidance. Here is where you can choose to offer a free VIP Facebook group for additional private lessons to your students (perhaps at an additional cost, or included in their membership).
If you choose to offer additional lessons in a private Facebook group, make sure you are clear with what you are providing and when. Ensure that lesson times are clear and concise because when you offer online lessons you are going to have students from different time zones.
Now when it comes to actually getting your first student, if you are choosing to offer private lessons, word of mouth is one of the easiest and quickest ways to find a potential student.
You can also post on your Facebook profile, check local Facebook groups, and reach out to friends and family to search for a potential student. There is also the option to post your services in local shops, with their permission of course.
When it comes to finding students for your online courses, this is a whole other game. You can leverage any social media platforms you want, you can use ads, and market in Facebook groups, Instagram, Pinterest, and more.
You may not have as many interested potential students in an online service, so trying different methods of marketing your courses, and sticking with what is working will be your best bet. But, this all depends on how well you are displaying your offer.
You can use mockups to show off your lessons, give potential students a sneak peek at your courses, and encourage more interaction on your offer.
If you need some mockups to get you started on your online marketing, you can sign up to get these 6 free mockups sent to your email.
