Tips on How to Get Students - my second most viewed blog post

I've been driving around in this:

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strangely no new students :(
 
Great article @tstrahle.

A lot of great tips that I never thought of. Also when I decide to get back in the game on teaching again, I have some general knowledge of the new techniques needed for marketing. When will I do this? As I get closer towards retirement from Corporate America this is when I plan to hit the ground again. For now, the focus is just playing out.

I know about the journey of starting all over as I moved to LA in 1989. I had a few students to start with but was looking for a place to teach out of rather than the apartment. Sadly I wasn't willing to compromise with a few of the stores I spoke to as they charged $18 per hour and I would only get half. When I left Hawaii, I was charging $22 an hour and all of my lessons were 30 minutes lessons. There I taught out of a music store and had a little cube that I rented for $60 a month. I would also help the students with gear purchases if they needed anything. This helped the owner with sales and keep our relationship a win-win setup.
 
Modern Saint said:
Great article @tstrahle.

A lot of great tips that I never thought of. Also when I decide to get back in the game on teaching again, I have some general knowledge of the new techniques needed for marketing. When will I do this? As I get closer towards retirement from Corporate America this is when I plan to hit the ground again. For now, the focus is just playing out.

I know about the journey of starting all over as I moved to LA in 1989. I had a few students to start with but was looking for a place to teach out of rather than the apartment. Sadly I wasn't willing to compromise with a few of the stores I spoke to as they charged $18 per hour and I would only get half. When I left Hawaii, I was charging $22 an hour and all of my lessons were 30 minutes lessons. There I taught out of a music store and had a little cube that I rented for $60 a month. I would also help the students with gear purchases if they needed anything. This helped the owner with sales and keep our relationship a win-win setup.
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Totally get that. Since moving to LA in '83 I've always taught out of my apartment. I had taught at a store back in Indianapolis. They charged $7 per half hour and I got $4.50 of that, so $9 an hour which at the time was triple minimum wage. So I felt I was doing well. Once here I charged $10 an hour. I got a buck more and my students saved four. But this was at home as I could find a store that needed a teacher. I went to 15, then 20, 30, 40, 50 , 60 and finally 70 before I stopped teaching to concentrate on writing. Occasionally an actor or artist will want a lesson. Now I'm charging $150 per hour on the rare instance I teach a lesson.
 
tstrahle said:
Totally get that. Since moving to LA in '83 I've always taught out of my apartment. I had taught at a store back in Indianapolis. They charged $7 per half hour and I got $4.50 of that, so $9 an hour which at the time was triple minimum wage. So I felt I was doing well. Once here I charged $10 an hour. I got a buck more and my students saved four. But this was at home as I could find a store that needed a teacher. I went to 15, then 20, 30, 40, 50 , 60 and finally 70 before I stopped teaching to concentrate on writing. Occasionally an actor or artist will want a lesson. Now I'm charging $150 per hour on the rare instance I teach a lesson.
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You earned it Tom! Kudos to you!

My rate has gone up when I am asked. All from playing out as well as my musical education - nice to have paper that backs me up. I almost had a part-time teaching spot last year. Didn't pay much but it was a nice way to get back into it. As for me in Hawaii, I was up to about 22-24 students, playing 6 days (5 nights and 1 afternoon) a week in Waikiki and finishing up my undergrad in music. Had I stayed and not relocated, I know that numbers would have grown as I was getting a good rep. I needed to stretch though and things didn't go the way I wanted them to but that is okay.

As for the apartment to house, I couldn't subject my GF (now wife) to the incoming/outgoing traffic.
 
I'm in the rare situation where I've had to turn away some students, simply because I don't have enough prime time slots for them. I really need to start offering some more FaceTime/Skype lessons during other nights when I'm not at LMA.
 
I have received probably 5 different offers for me to teach guitar for money. I have always turned them down and recommended someone/thing else depending on the student.

Yeah - I can play guitar, but my technique sucks (ask Mark :embarrassed: ) and my knowledge about how to best teach music for the long term enjoyment of the student and their instrumental success is something that a professional teacher is best at doing. I'm a hack player cobbling together pieces of this and that. I respect the instrument too much to not steer students to the pros.
 
bsman said:
"It started when a teacher at my Jr. High saw me carrying a guitar case and asked if would teach her son how to play. She offered to pick me up at my house, teach her son, take me home and pay me $5! Sure I told her. That was the beginning..."

Anybody else think that this article starts out like a Penthouse Forum letter?

:embarrassed:hmy:
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Haha, one track mind. I was 15. That would've been a crazy letter.
 
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