Why Most Teachers Don’t Earn A Lot Of Money With Guitar Teaching And How To Be One Of The Few Who Do
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
You probably already know this, but:
Most guitar teachers struggle to earn significant money (6-figures per year) in their guitar teaching business.
But here is the good news:
You (yes you) can become one of the few who do.
How?
For starters, you need to:
- Understand the true reasons why most guitar teachers don’t become successful.
- Learn exactly what to do to attract more guitar students, help them become better guitar players and build a strong reputation throughout your area.
- Actually do the things that make you successful.
And guess what?
In this guitar teaching article you're reading...
I explain to you all 3.
These are the very things I wish someone had told me when I was starting out as a guitar teacher.
Here are the top reasons why most guitar teachers don't earn a lot of money and how you can become the #1 guitar teacher in your area:
Why So Many Fail To Earn Money With Guitar Teaching - Reason #1: Lack Of Guitar Teaching Skills
Many guitar teachers don’t know how to help their guitar students reach their musical goals.
This happens because many teachers have little to no training on how to teach guitar. Most learn to teach through trial and error or by copying other guitar teachers.
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
What do you think happens if you copy the way most teachers teach their guitar students?
Answer: Your guitar students get the same results and you develop the same reputation that most other guitar teachers have.
When you stand out as the best, most skilled teacher in your area, attracting a lot of guitar students becomes easy.
Action step for you: Commit to becoming the best guitar teacher you can be for your guitar students and develop the skills you need to get there.
Why So Many Fail To Earn Money With Guitar Teaching - Reason #2: Believing In Guitar Teaching Myths
Here are the most common myths guitar teachers believe in:
Reality: This strategy may work in the short term, but in the long term it hurts you more than it helps you. Guitar students who are motivated by cheap guitar lessons often don’t stay committed to lessons long term.
Myth #2: “It’s better to promote yourself as a teacher for all styles, ages and skill levels, in order to attract more guitar students”.
Reality: The most serious guitar students seek out expert guitar teachers who specialize in the exact style they want to learn.Myth #3: “It is not worth the effort to advertise your guitar lessons during the summer, because few people look for guitar lessons in the summer.”
Reality: There are guitar students looking for lessons every single month of the year. You can attract a lot of new guitar students during the summer if you do not stop your marketing efforts like most guitar teachers do.
Why So Many Fail To Earn Money With Guitar Teaching - Reason #3: Using Ineffective Guitar Teaching Models
Most guitar teachers earn a lot less than they should because they teach private 1-1 lessons.
Attract More New Guitar StudentsFind out how to become effective
at attracting new guitar students.
Improve Your Guitar Teaching BizDiscover how to make your guitar teaching business more successful.
Earn Good Money Teaching GuitarLearn 11 steps you should take to earn more money teaching guitar.
Here is why this limits your income:
- Your income is always restricted by the amount of hours you can teach.
- Your hourly income is always limited by your hourly lesson rate.
- Guitar Teaching becomes overwhelming, because you have to work a lot of hours just to earn enough money to live on.
Most teachers also spend time doing things they never get paid for, such as: chasing students for late payments, teaching makeup lessons, preparing lesson materials and doing administrative issues.
This leaves you with little time (and energy) to work on improving your guitar teaching skills or do other things to increase your income.
Action step for you: teach your guitar students in groups (at least some of the time). This frees up your schedule, helps your students develop the skills they can only learn in group lessons and allows you to earn more money.
Question: “But Tom Hess, how can group guitar lessons possibly be better than 1-1 lessons? If you were learning to swim, wouldn’t you want the instructor’s 1-1 attention?”
Answer: No.
First, learning guitar and learning to swim are 2 different things. Unlike swimming - a huge part of playing guitar is either playing ‘with’ or playing ‘for’ other people.
So, that already is pretty much an open-and-shut case in favor of learning (and getting comfortable playing) in a group.
But there is more:
Your guitar students’ progress (in both guitar and swimming) doesn’t happen during ‘the lesson’.
It happens through how you practice ‘between’ lessons.
And the only ‘true’ way to make sure your students are ‘able’ to practice correctly between lessons...
Is to give your guitar students a few actual moments to practice without you (i.e. while you observe your other students) and aren’t actively focused on them.
Then - after a few moments - you check back to see how well they’ve stayed on track, give them more feedback and challenge them to practice better.
THAT is how you get a student to TRULY master something.
So, yes - if I wanted to swim well enough to potentially save my life one day...
I’d absolutely want my teacher to train me just like that.
Which leads me to a point that nearly everyone misses about “group lessons”
Like guitar and swimming - the teaching ‘format’ and the teacher’s skill at ‘teaching’ in that format are ALSO 2 different things.
If a guitar teacher doesn’t know how to teach in groups - it doesn’t matter how effective the format is... their students won’t become good players most the time.
So, I say, let’s not blame format... instead, maybe - just get good at it?
Especially because (to state the obvious)
Teaching guitar in groups is ‘also’ VERY lucrative for ‘you’ - the guitar teacher.
So, given that there ARE undeniable benefits to your students from group lessons, ‘and’ to you...
... I’d say it’s your moral obligation to GET good at teaching guitar this way.
Why So Many Fail To Earn Money With Guitar Teaching - Reason #4: Treating Guitar Teaching Like A Job
Most guitar teachers don’t think about teaching guitar as a business - they treat it like a job.
This means they do the work of teaching guitar lessons… but do little to actually grow their guitar teaching business.
At a job, you only make money while you work... you stop getting paid as soon as you stop working.
A business earns you money whether you are there or not. This means your income is not limited by the number of hours you can work. It also means you can help a lot more people become better guitar players.Action step for you: Think of yourself as a business owner and not just a guitar teacher. This mindset shift helps you take the right actions to earn as much money as you want to earn with guitar teaching.
Why So Many Fail To Earn Money With Guitar Teaching - Reason #5: Limiting Beliefs
Many guitar teachers don’t earn a lot of money in their guitar teaching business because they don’t think it’s realistic (for them) to do so.
Truth is: building a successful guitar teaching business is no different than building any other successful business. You have the same income potential as any other business owner.
Action step for you: Use the tips in this article to improve your guitar teaching business, so you earn a lot more money than most guitar teachers.
Want to learn 5 proven ways to get people who contact you to start guitar lessons with you? Download this free guitar teaching eGuide and learn how to have a full schedule all year long, no matter where you live.
Get guitar teacher training and learn how to earn tons of money with your guitar teaching business.
