Music Teacher

What music teachers make

These are estimates, not official figures: there is no national wage page for private music teachers, because most are self-employed and get counted with other instructors. The math behind them: Long and McQuade, Canada's largest lesson chain, says private lessons average $25 to $31 per half hour, so a teacher with 20 to 25 teaching hours a week over about 40 weeks bills roughly $45,000 to $65,000 before expenses.

What a lesson is worth

Teach at a school and it takes a cut in exchange for finding you students and giving you a room. Teach in your own studio and you keep the whole fee but do your own advertising, billing and scheduling.

A full studio is 20 to 25 students

Most teachers start with three or four students after school and grow by word of mouth. Income is lean in the summer unless you run camps or keep adult students.

What it costs to get there

Your own lessons, for years

$30 to $60 an hour, the real cost of this career

Conservatory exams

A fee for each level, rising as the levels get higher

Music degree or conservatory diploma

$7,000 to $12,000 a year, optional but common

Instrument and teaching space

A decent used piano starts around $3,000

Roughly, all in

$3,000 to $55,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

Nobody requires a credential to teach music privately, so the low end is somebody who already plays, buys a decent used instrument and pays for a few conservatory exam levels. The high end is a four year music degree at 12,000 a year, an instrument, and several more years of your own lessons at 30 to 60 an hour. The genuine cost of this career usually starts in childhood and is spread over a decade of lessons, which no single figure captures. Teaching space, whether a room at home or rented studio time, is the other running expense.

Nobody requires a credential to teach privately. What costs money is getting good enough that parents choose you, and that starts in childhood.

How music teachers get paid

• Private lessons in your own studio

  The highest rate per hour, and you keep all of it.

• Teaching at a music school

  Lower rate, but the school brings the students and handles payment.

• Group classes and summer camps

  More money per hour because you teach several students at once.

• Playing on the side

  Accompanying, church work, weddings and gigs. Most teachers mix teaching with performing.

The path

There is no licence. The path is getting good, then learning how to teach.

1. 1

   Learn your instrument properly

   Childhood onward

   Years of lessons and daily practice, usually working up through graded conservatory exams.

2. 2

   High school

   Grades 9 to 12

   Music and theory courses, plus any band, choir or ensemble you can join.

3. 3

   Pick a credential, or skip it

   0 to 4 years

   A performance diploma such as the ARCT (Associate of the Royal Conservatory), a university music degree, or neither. Private teaching requires none of them.

4. 4

   Learn to teach

   Pedagogy courses teach you how beginners actually learn, what order to introduce skills, and how to keep a 7 year old going.

5. 5

   Build a studio

   2 to 4 years

   First students through family, your old teacher, local schools and community boards. Word of mouth does the rest.

High school courses that help

• Music

  Ensemble playing, sight reading and performing in front of people.

• Music theory or harmony

  You will teach it, so you need it cold.

• English

  Explaining an abstract idea to a child is a language skill.

• Business or accounting

  You will be self-employed, invoicing families and filing your own taxes.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school

0 to 5, you can teach beginners while you study

Admission

An audition, if you choose a diploma or a degree

Total tuition

$0 to $50,000, depending on the path you pick

Paid while training?

Yes, many teachers take their first students in high school

Not regulated

Anyone can advertise music lessons. Because of that, parents look for signals: a conservatory diploma, a music degree, exam results from your students, or membership in a registered teachers' association. The Ontario Registered Music Teachers' Association (ORMTA) asks active members for a music degree or a conservatory associate diploma plus teaching experience. Teaching music in a public school is a different job: that one needs a teaching certificate from your province.

Things that fill a studio

• Students who pass exams well

  Results travel through a parent network faster than any advertisement.

• A second instrument

  Piano plus voice, or guitar plus bass, doubles who can book you.

• Teaching theory

  Theory students often come in groups and need it for their exams.

• Online lessons

  Lets you teach students in other towns and keep them when families move.

Nice-to-haves

• A police check for working with children

  Many schools and parents expect it, and it is cheap.

• A clear cancellation and payment policy

  The difference between a business and an expensive hobby.

• A teaching space that does not annoy anyone

  Neighbours, roommates and family all hear every lesson.

• Patience with beginners

  You will hear the same wrong note for a month before it fixes itself.

A typical day

Mornings are yours: practise, plan lessons, chase invoices, message parents. Teaching starts when school lets out and runs to about 9pm, back to back in half hour and hour blocks. Saturday mornings are usually full. Spring is exam and recital season, which means extra rehearsals and a lot of nervous students.

The honest trade-offs

Work life

Typical hours

20 to 30 teaching hours, mostly late afternoon and evening

Remote work

Common, online lessons are normal now

Physical demand

Low, but hard on hands, back and voice

Unionized

No, almost all teachers are self-employed

Similar paths

• MusicianPlay or sing for money. Almost everyone does it by stacking gigs, teaching and session work together.
• Music TherapistUse music to reach people who talk therapy cannot: dementia wards, autism programs, palliative care. A music degree, a 1,000-hour internship, and a lot of contract work.
• TeacherElementary or high school. A pension, summers off, and a salary grid that doubles over ten years.

Canada exports a grading system

The Royal Conservatory of Music runs a graded exam program used across Canada and the United States, from first levels up to the ARCT (Associate of the Royal Conservatory) diploma. Those exam levels are the common language teachers and parents use.

Over a thousand registered teachers in one province

The Ontario Registered Music Teachers' Association alone has more than 1,000 members, and it is a volunteer-run organization. Most are running small studios out of their own homes.

The price is set locally, not nationally

Lesson rates move with the city, the instrument and the teacher's experience. The same half hour can cost $25 in a small town and well over $40 in downtown Toronto or Vancouver.

Teaching pays the bills for performers

Most working musicians in Canada teach as well as perform. Lessons pay a steady amount every week, which is exactly what gig income does not.