Guitar tutoring

Stevepage

I've been toying with the idea of giving guitar lessons for a few hours or so each week after work to try and earn some more cash. With the idea to maybe push it more to a full time thing. 

Working from home, playing guitars and being my own boss is sounding increasingly better than working for a company that is barely operating as it should be.

Are there any tutors on this board that may have any advise on starting up? Is it still possible to make decent money from it?

Teetonetal

I did it full time for 5 years.

There is almost no daytime work unless you do schools. I worked for Kent music school part time and taught a few schools privately.

You lose a lot of money in school holidays.

Group lessons are great money earners but much harder to teach.

Plan lessons and keep a file. They quickly come round again. The more you have the less you do in the future. Make a study path for students. Know where you are going with them. Set goals and targets.

Think of ways to keep it interesting. I did a lot of recording and composting stuff for lessons I taught at home.

I got together with a local drum teacher  and a vocal teacher. Between us we put on end of term gigs which parents loved. Kids loved and helped with getting material.

Don't cram stuff down people's throats.  Concentrate on small amounts of info and lots of ways to practice it.

Adults often screw you around. Charge a short notice cancellation fee. I did 24 hours or lesson fee had to be payed.

Don't get stuck on trying to play a piece perfectly unless it's a grade. But also don't gloss over.

I never made great money just teaching. It was 2000 to 2005 and in a good year it was 10k. After that I topped up with gigs and studio work. One year I hit 20k and it burnt me out. Gave up completely after that only playing again in 2011

Stevepage

Wow, thanks for that. Maybe I should keep it as something I do after work and weekends instead. 

Teetonetal

That's what I do these days and I enjoy it a whole lot more. The extra cash keeps me in pedals, strings and new music!

In any case you have to start small to get a reputation and see if you like it. IMO

quarky

My son (9) goes to a guitar teacher. From our side, what is really annoying is when the guitar teacher changes appointment times (which he does maybe 1 in 5), and his timekeeping isn't the best. So sometimes the lesson will be cut short. Sure, maybe you can't teach anything in the remaining five/six minutes, but if you are charging for 30 minutes, keep the pupil occupied for 30 minutes.

Finding a school you can spend a day in seems quite important, unless you can do something else during the day.

guitarfishbay

If anyone is considering doing the school thing I'd suggest bass as well as guitar. You probably won't get a lot of bass students relative to guitar but you need to be as versatile as possible.

My band mate teaches guitar, bass, and piano in schools a couple of days a week. He still has a part time office job as well, though music pays considerably more per hour it is based around term time and there's no guarantee how many students he'll get. Being a multi instrumentalist helps a lot in schools.

The singing teachers our singer uses are £40-50 p/h and booked up weeks in advance, I don't think guitar commands the same price and there's probably more competition 

Clarky

I teach but I deliberately don't have many students.. 
I do it as a side thing so that I have time for other stuff [band, movie trailers etc]
more than the money, for me the big thing is seeing them grow..
one of my students came to me 2 years ago and couldn't play anything at all
in his last lesson he played Thin Lizzy: Don't Believe a Word [including the solo] from Live and Dangerous..
he's come so very far.. it makes me smile so much to watch him play..

I use Logic Pro as my main teaching aid. Each student has his own Logic project which contains his specific repertoire and backing tracks.
also, in the Axe-II, each student has his own preset so that I can save the metro's tempo for their warm-up scales

Barney

Iv been teaching part time for years now and thinking of doing full time ....
What i will say is that you cant count on everyone turning up every week.....there can be quite a few cancellations for various reasons....iff your relying on that money it can be a problem...you can do block lessons paid up front that would maybe work ..i dont do this cos i still work so iff they dont turn up there isnt any problem

You could look into working tax credit ...its on the CAB website ..depending on your situation and hours working you can get them that will act as a cushion iff need be ...the are assessed every year...

Iv found that all students are different ...i know there are books like RGT and rockschool ...some this will apply to ...others just want to play a few sings ..others want to be Steve Vai....so to me there isnt a set procedure..each one needs approached differently...

ennspek

Clarky said:

I teach but I deliberately don't have many students.. 
I do it as a side thing so that I have time for other stuff [band, movie trailers etc]
more than the money, for me the big thing is seeing them grow..
one of my students came to me 2 years ago and couldn't play anything at all
in his last lesson he played Thin Lizzy: Don't Believe a Word [including the solo] from Live and Dangerous..
he's come so very far.. it makes me smile so much to watch him play..

I use Logic Pro as my main teaching aid. Each student has his own Logic project which contains his specific repertoire and backing tracks.
also, in the Axe-II, each student has his own preset so that I can save the metro's tempo for their warm-up scales

Would you be my teacher please?

Clarky

ennspek said:

Clarky said:

I teach but I deliberately don't have many students.. 
I do it as a side thing so that I have time for other stuff [band, movie trailers etc]
more than the money, for me the big thing is seeing them grow..
one of my students came to me 2 years ago and couldn't play anything at all
in his last lesson he played Thin Lizzy: Don't Believe a Word [including the solo] from Live and Dangerous..
he's come so very far.. it makes me smile so much to watch him play..

I use Logic Pro as my main teaching aid. Each student has his own Logic project which contains his specific repertoire and backing tracks.
also, in the Axe-II, each student has his own preset so that I can save the metro's tempo for their warm-up scales

Would you be my teacher please?

pm me and we'll have a chat...

Bucket

I teach a couple of days a week in the evenings - strictly private, I've no interest in doing schools at all. My dad did for a while and found it soul-destroying - half the kids were just there to get out of maths for half an hour.

For a while I only had two regular students, although it's rather snowballed in only the last couple of weeks and now I'm looking at possibly four or five regulars. I'd quite like to keep building it up, especially as I'm graduating soon and will need to be bringing in as much money as possible - ideally from music, of course.

Think about your rates - I tend to charge £30 an hour, which in some cases is split between two pupils - younger kids who can only really manage half an hour each before they lose focus completely. I charge less for mates and fellow students though - £20, which is less than I'd like but is a much more attractive price, of course. When I started out, I charged £25, which I felt was fairer given my inexperience. There's one student I still teach from that period, and I still honour my initial rate for her.

If you're prepared to travel then great - lots of students prefer it. I don't teach anyone from home, come to think of it - I drive to my students, especially as most of them are back in Buckinghamshire where I lived until recently, rather than London where I live now.

@Teetonetal's advice is great. I've been screwed about by one parent in particular a couple of times - but then she's also my most regular employer for lessons, and I've had a function gig from her as well. I don't even particularly enjoy teaching her kids - they aren't progressing especially fast, their attention span wanders like all hell, they're clearly not interested and don't apply themselves. You might find this with younger kids whose parents are pushing them into it - I do the best I can with them, but it can be a little disheartening sometimes. Sounds cynical, but I need the money and she's happy to keep paying me - I wish the kids would work harder on it, and I stress the importance of practising, but they're clearly not that fussed. What can you do...

Based on what I remember of your playing, I would strongly consider having some lessons from you myself when I have time.

57Deluxe

* You will never get a bankable steady flow of students as they find all manner of reasons not to practice and put the pressure back on you to the point where they give up.

* Advertising is tricky as 'Free Ad' vendors don't allow free insertion for 'services' - ie Gumtree etc

* There will be tens and tens of 'Professionally Qualified' tutors saturating your area ie every man and his dog! So is a lottery if they come to you.

* Do not be tempted to offer half hour lessons - by the time they turned up/tuned up/discussed reasons whey they not got time to practice, will be time to go... ie - you will be judged as not making any significant improvement in their ability!

* Offer them chances to look into their music styles - even if it is Sweet Child 'O Mine on their old Dad's Woolworths acoustic!

* you may spend an hour with them but to that be ready to add to that  an hour working up the lesson and an hour following-up the lesson with support material

* Be prepared for 'no shows' right up to the last minute!

* Get no thanks for all your effort and commitment to getting them further up the line!

* It wears your gear out!

* Get a good website sorted but it will be at least 5/6 years before GOOGLE ranks it


BUT - Upside though - You HAVE to knuckle down and get to grips with stuff you too find excuses not to play properly!

Good luck!

quarky

What about lessons via Skype? Has anyone any experience with offering/receiving lessons that way?

57Deluxe

/\ Rob Chapman does - ask him....