Instrument teacher has a day job in an unrelated field

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand - many musicians have day jobs that are not music-related. How else are they supposed to pay the bills? Being a music teacher is not that lucrative.

OP hasn't heard of starving artists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would think that in order to support yourself on teaching music alone, you would have to charge a hefty fee for each lesson. So unless OP is willing to pay top dollar, finding an instructor who doesn't have a day job is going to be tough.

I’m waiting for the trial lesson coming up so I don’t know yet. But she said she charges $60 for a 30minute lesson, so $120/hour. I would be happy to pay more for an artist-instructor but DD is no prodigy and I don’t have any connections to inquire about a professional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand - many musicians have day jobs that are not music-related. How else are they supposed to pay the bills? Being a music teacher is not that lucrative.

OP hasn't heard of starving artists.

I have. I thought classical string musicians gave lessons as a means to support themselves financially. Not the other way around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand - many musicians have day jobs that are not music-related. How else are they supposed to pay the bills? Being a music teacher is not that lucrative.

OP hasn't heard of starving artists.

I have. I thought classical string musicians gave lessons as a means to support themselves financially. Not the other way around.

They could do this to support themselves if you will pay 80,000 for the year and commit to 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand - many musicians have day jobs that are not music-related. How else are they supposed to pay the bills? Being a music teacher is not that lucrative.

OP hasn't heard of starving artists.

I have. I thought classical string musicians gave lessons as a means to support themselves financially. Not the other way around.

They could do this to support themselves if you will pay 80,000 for the year and commit to 10 years.

They need to make 1.2 million dollars a year for 10 years to “support themselves”?? Assuming they have at least 15 students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking at a new instrument teacher for DD. We had a different teacher and just felt it wasn't a good fit culturally: very laidback, not enough focus on technical training, no thought to building performance experience for the kids... I found another teacher who is from a similar cultural and musical background and has a lot of classical training and past experience teaching the instrument. Which is great!

However, this new teacher also has a day job in an unrelated field. I have no idea the hours of this day job and I think it’s sort of a small family business. What say you, DCUM? Is having an instrument teacher with a non-musical day job, ok? DD is still fairly young and has been playing her instrument just under a year.

And the issue is, what exactly?

[Anonymous]

I am very confused about what this teacher is supposed to be doing from 8 to 3:30 every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would think that in order to support yourself on teaching music alone, you would have to charge a hefty fee for each lesson. So unless OP is willing to pay top dollar, finding an instructor who doesn't have a day job is going to be tough.

I’m very ok with a teacher having a day job. Most teachers I have known do. But my question is about the nature of the day job. I’ve never known any serious instrument teachers that have jobs wholly unrelated to music or teaching.