Becoming a teacher and passing on your skills to the next generation of musicians is a laudable aim and is a million miles away from the maxim:
‘Those who can do, those who can’t teach’
There are many fine players who are also fine teachers, and many duff teachers who also cannot play.
Your first consideration should be what kind of teaching you would like to do and the entry requirements:
Classroom Music
Becoming a school teacher and specialising in music at either primary (Reception, Key Stages 1&2) or secondary (Key Stages 3,4 and post-16) has a few routes which include:
Undergraduate Degree followed by a Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE)
Undergraduate Degree with QTS (Qualified Teacher Status)
Teach First – a programme for ‘exceptional graduates’
GTP – Graduate Teacher Programme – on-the-job training for graduates
SCITT – School-Centered Initial Teacher Training – similar to GTP
Either way, the path usually includes time studying your specialism followed by theoretical and practical study of teaching skills. It can take between 1 and 4 years depending on your previous level of qualifications and can be most rewarding.
Case Study
Matt was a graduate from the Birmingham Conservatoire and toyed with several alternatives before attending a PGCE course. Matt says that the most important thing to consider is that classroom teaching is absolutely the thing you want to do before attempting it. He also recommends contacting a local school to gain some informal observation experience. Certainly some courses value this very highly and can be a good thing to have on your CV.
Instrumental Music
Local Education Authorities (LEA’s) have music services that will provide instrument lessons for school children in groups as well as ensemble opportunities. They tend to have two types of teacher, the full time salaried position and the sessional or part time teacher. Either way, there are frequent opportunities for musicians to gain employment as a teacher of their instrument. These roles differ in the level of formal qualifications required and usually focus on relevant experience and performance at interview. Some posts offer the opportunity to train for a PGCE on a part time basis as part of the job.
Case Study
Dave graduated from Huddersfield Uni. and started working in Northamptonshire as an instrumental teacher. He started a course of teacher training with the Open University based around his job but was unable to complete it due to health problems. Dave is now working full-time in the Black Country and is planning on restarting his teacher training soon in a similar PGCE course structured around his job. Dave’s advice is simple: enthusiasm and a love for your subject are the essential things that you require to succeed and have a fulfilling career.
Community Music
Prisons, hospitals, day centres and many other community venues provide opportunities for musicians to share skills in a workshop or project setting. Becoming a community musician can be one of the most rewarding activities and there are many fine professionals who keep themselves grounded in reality by undertaking this type of work. The work can also be interdisciplinary seeing you work on projects with theatre practitioners and graphic artists in a collaborative setting.
Case Study
Abi works as a community musician with an organisation called Sound It Out (http:// www.sounditout.co.uk/) She has worked on many projects and is currently working on a one-to-one basis with people on a songwriting activity. Abi says that working as a community musician is less about delivery of information and more about collaborating and working alongside individuals and helping them to achieve their potential.
Private Teaching
Private teaching usually follows the formula of working at home or at a pupils home, usually on a 1-2-1 basis with children and adults working towards developing a new skill or an exam or audition. Although it is a fact of life in teaching, private tuition brings home more than any other way that each pupil has unique needs, goals and abilities. The benefits of this work involve a greater degree of control over the working time, however time needs to be spent on planning, invoicing and keeping accurate records. More so than classroom and instrumental teaching, the private teacher needs to be disciplined at planning and reviewing work with pupils to maintain a professional service – this is a central part of the job of the employed teacher but is often forgotten when working privately.
Other considerations include obtaining Public Liability Insurance which will protect you and members of the public in case of accidents. Members of the Musicians’ Union and the Incorporated Society of Musicians enjoy PLI cover as part of their membership. Using contracts with pupils to ensure that lessons are booked and that basic conditions of work and payment are set out clearly and in a businesslike manner are also essential. Trying to recover money from a pupil that has reneged on an agreement without a contract is next to impossible.
Finding the work
Classroom and Instrumental opportunities are often advertised in the Times Educational Supplement (TES) which has a specific jobs website http://www.tes.co.uk/ and is also published every week on a Friday. It also contains informative articles on teaching.
Local authority newspapers also have job sections that will include some teaching opportunities, although they are probably duplicated in the TES.
Sending on-spec. CV’s actually works. Lodging a polite and personal letter with a relevant CV with the right person at a music service can lead to your details being kept on file and to being called for interview when an opportunity arises.
Advertising works, at least in its traditional form. If you are teaching piano, pick your market carefully by finding the post office windows in areas of town where you think there will be the most customers. Can you offer something extra like songwriting lessons? Sell yourself well. Public libraries usually have display boards where they will allow you to display a business card as do music shops and rehearsal rooms.
Online solutions exist for advertising your teacher services, however they are populated mostly be teachers and not pupils and I have yet to see any evidence that they are an effective way of gaining a portfolio of pupils.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly is the combination of reputation and word of mouth. All my pupils have been referred by colleagues and friends who are aware that I teach and what I offer to pupils. Simply making it known to colleagues and friends that you teach guitar, saxophone or songwriting can be worth more than a paid advert in the Yellow Pages.