musicteacher
Nobody Trains You to Be a Peripatetic Teacher
Being good at your instrument doesn’t automatically prepare you for timetables, parents, invoicing, safeguarding and everything else involved in teaching music in schools. Nobody tells you quite how much there is to learn.
What’s In My Teaching Bag?
Every instrumental teacher has a bag. Or a case. Or, in some unfortunate circumstances, several bags, a carrier bag full of books and an instrument case that keeps falling off their shoulder. Mine is currently a silver aluminium flight case. It’s reasonably sturdy, looks quite professional and gives the impression that I’m transporting something terribly…
When Pupils Start Their Own Bands
There’s something rather wonderful happening with some of my pupils lately. They’re starting bands. Not because I’ve suggested it, or because the school has organised an ensemble. Nobody has decided that collaborative music-making would be beneficial to their personal development. They’ve simply got together with a few friends and decided to start a band. Some…
Teaching Contracts: The Boring Bit That Might Save You a Lot of Trouble
Missed lessons, unpaid invoices and awkward cancellations. A clear teaching agreement can prevent a surprising number of problems. Here’s what to include.
Why Should I Have to Justify My Teaching Rate?
£40 an hour sounds reasonable. But what about preparation, administration, travelling, school holidays and unpaid cancellations? An instrumental teacher’s hourly rate isn’t their hourly wage.
A Simple Lesson Notes Template for Instrumental Music Teachers
I have written a lot of lesson notes over the years. An awful lot. Some have been detailed. Some have been brief. Some have been written in a hurry between lessons, occasionally while trying to remember which pupil I’d just taught. And some, particularly in my early teaching days, were probably not much use to…
Thirty Minutes a Week. What Exactly Are We Supposed to Do With That?
Thirty minutes a week. Just 16.5 hours a year. How much can an instrumental music teacher realistically achieve in that time, and how do we make every lesson count?
A Free Management System for Instrumental Music Teachers
You don’t need specialist teaching software to organise your pupils. You don’t need a subscription. You don’t need a database. And you definitely don’t need to spend a weekend building an elaborate Notion workspace with seventeen different views and a colour-coded dashboard you’ll stop using by Christmas. For a lot of instrumental teachers, Google Drive…
Stop Answering the Same Parent Questions Every September
Every September, the questions begin. What do I need to buy? Which book should we get? What size instrument do they need? Can you recommend a music stand? Where can I buy one? What was the name of that app you mentioned? Which one of these seventeen almost-identical things online is the right one? These…
Do Music Grades Actually Matter?
Music grades are useful. There. That’s probably disappointed half the people who clicked on the title. They’re also nowhere near as important as we sometimes pretend they are. I’ve taught Grade 8 musicians who were absolutely superb. Confident, musical, technically accomplished players who thoroughly deserved the result they achieved. I’ve also taught Grade 8 musicians…