By Kevin Tuck

Music teachers are not the most wealthy people on the planet. Its unfortunate, but true that the person who teaches violin probably earns less than the person who delivers your mail or collects your garbage.

Why does that happen? Well music teachers are a very loyal, very careful bunch, and they do it for the love and enjoyment of a satisfying career - at least in part! Because they don't want to overstretch the amount of time that they can teach, and because they are always very generous when it comes to giving refunds or crediting lessons they always end up earning less than most other professionals.

This article doesn't intend to argue about the dollar amounts that teachers should be paid, but hopefully it can provide a few alternatives that might help them to earn a little more.

Lets start by thinking about a few simple things that you could do as a private music teacher to earn more dollars:

Look at packaging your lessons in a different way. Can students pay you on a monthly, rather than weekly basis? Can you offer specialized services at an increased rate? What about offering a group theory lesson as well as their private time?

Why not offer to sell their books and tutors in addition to their lessons? You can purchase reprint rights to a music theory book (or write it yourself) and print it off for the students at an extra charge. You can also purchase books in bulk from the internet and charge the students for it. I'm sure that for saving the inconvenience of going to the store the parents will not mind spending a few more dollars with you.

Is it possible for you to start a home based business? Parents and students in your music studio will be very interested in a little multi-level marketing type business. These are easy to start with very little money and can be lots of fun. You can sell vitamin supplements, children's books or even greeting cards. Parents in your music school will be interested in these services if they know you offer them - why would they buy their vitamins from elsewhere if they can get them at the same time as the music lessons? The parents really want to support you. I'm not suggesting you join one of these businesses to sign up everyone else you know as a distributor - just start selling one or two products.

Retaining your students is one of the most important factors for music teachers. To keep your income high it is necessary to fill every spot in your teaching timetable. The single best way that I know to do this is to make your music lessons FUN! Once you do this simple thing the students will be there eagerly week after week, and never want to stop! It isn't that hard to start wearing a smile, calling activities "games" and adding little five minute game time segments at the end of every lesson.

I hope that these ideas give you some insights and help to earn a few more dollars as a private music teacher.

Kevin Tuck is an ex music teacher who has worked both in Schools and in private music studios. He is now an editor for the Fun Music company, who make both music theory books with reprint rights and educational music games for music lessons.

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