Hey ! Young guitar teacher needs advice !! =D

[metalmonster]

Hi ! i'm david .

I'm french , i'm 22 ...

and i give guitar lessons . My main style is metal , of course , but rock , funk & blues as well as other musical genres ...

I started to grow a little business with guitar lessons .
You know , pay the bills , buy some gear , food , clothes , cigarettes & condoms .
And it started to work pretty fine ...

Then , i moved in the south of france . And now , i have kind of a hard time getting new students .

What should i do to get students ? Put flyers in stores , put posters on the walls , use my website

David Faure , Guitariste pro et professeur de guitare a Montpellier
and myspace page :
David "rusty fingers" Kay on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
[you can already add me on myspace ]

(sorry , it's in french . I must try to do an english/fr version one day) , myspace , facebook ... do you get ideas ? i'm a bit out of ideas right now ...

But , i have to get students and run that mo*** business . And i better getting those students fast if i don't want to be in trouble .

So , would you help me to get students ? any advice will be really appreciated and i'll gladly answer .
Advice on how to get students . How to get myself a solid reputation ...


Now for another question .

I'm a guitarist . I'm a beatmaker too (and i have an upcoming drum&bass album) , and i play the piano prettyyyy well .

So . Any ideas of ways to make money out of those talents ?

Studio recordings ? Playing in a pro band ? [how to find this "pro band" ] , or ... ?? any idea , even the most stupid one may help me .

Thank you for the answers . I'm going nuts right now because i'm really working hard for better days ... and still , i'm broke . And really , this pisses me off , so help me fix this .

I promise you'll be rewarded as soon as i make decent money .
You'll get some free guitar picks , just ask me and i'll send some as soon as i earn enough to pay my bills , see my girl (gotta take the train to see her) and keep some money . Pretty cool , isn't it ?

If you don't want to tell on a forum what are your business secrets , this is fine . Send me a private message

 

[quasarwaves]

i always just put adds in local papers, and spread by word of mouth. business cards could do the trick as well.

 

[jymellis]

make a dummy myspace account for a promotion company. add some friends to it including your own band. then promote the fuck out of it

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

Offer to teach people how to do D&B as well, it's pretty big and I'm sure there won't be a shortage of kids wanting to learn how to do it.

 

[quasarwaves]

offer a free first lesson. parents will like that. i've done that a couple times.

 

[ittoa666]

offer a free first lesson. parents will like that. i've done that a couple times.

No one wants to pay for a trial.

 

[AvantGuardian]

Giving a free first lesson is good. Business cards are a super cheap way to look professional - parents like that. Your website looks nice, which will give people a good impression of you. I don't know if they use craigslist in France, but whatever online classifieds are most popular should be a good source of business. When I was teaching for a living, a lot of my business early on came from ads I posted on craigslist. Once I got several good students, I started to get a lot of referrals and before I knew it, I had more students than I could handle. I had to start turning away potential students because I didn't have the time (I was in college at the time and only willing to teach about 15 hours a week max).

Good luck man! I think the key is to do what you can to act professional and serious, particularly around the parents of your students since they are generally the ones writing you the checks.

 

[Joeywilson]

the fact that you call yourself "rusty fingers" might be warding some people off.

I'm 17 and i make 80% of my income from teaching (Graduated high school early to work before university next year). I think the trick is all in knowing people, thats how i've gotten all of my students. Talk to people. I actually make okay money, i'm not rolling in it but im young and i love what i do. I think a big part of me managing to get more students is because I charge about 5 dollars less than most studios/teachers do. It also doesn't hurt to be overly polite.

And big +1 to what avantguardian said, business cards are good. Chances are they will get around.

 

[ShamanS]

Do online skype lessons

 

[Marmaduke]

Hey, I haven't personally done any teaching myself but my parents are both music teachers
I would say don't just look for private students, join teaching unions or whatever they have in france and try to find work in schools or other places that can guarantee you work (albeit it usually at a slightly lower rate of pay than private teaching). It's also really really important to know people and make sure that any students you do have currently will want to recommend you to their friends and family. I'm sorry to have to say it but both for my parents and for other people that I have known who have gone into music teaching, it takes a long time to build up a constant supply of work. You will gradually build up a reputation as you go along and it does take a lot of work but that's the only way to do it.

Oh and parents do like their children to do grade exams because then they can have a nice shiny certificate to let them feel like their money is being well spent. The only problem is that the kids hate exams, then again some exam boards are a lot more fun than others haha.

Good luck to you and I hope that you can find work in music, don't give up!

 

[metalmonster]

thanks a lot for the answers !

i am now running with 6 students each week . Kinda nice .

And am planning on making it big , a little at a time . rock on \o/

 

[metalmonster]

and i do computer music and piano lessons as well . Since i'm a pianist , too (have graduated in some music school ... ) and 'cause i know how to mix some stuff on a computer to make some techno , D&B and such .

i think there is a shortage for good electronic music teachers . I'll try to get more students for this

 

[stryker1800]

I agree with marmaduke, try and get in with a school or guitar store that offers lessons. If you're new at the store and they don't know you well try and hang out around where the parents would come in asking about lessons, parents like that they get to meet the teacher when inquiring about lessons, and if you're standing there they're likely to throw that particular student your way.

Also if you don't already do this with younger students offer to let their parents sit in on the lesson.

 

[metalmonster]

already doin' that \o/

didn't worked , really .

But my internet marketing plan does work

i think i can try to post in the local papers , throw an AD for a couple months , just to try

and buy myself some business cards ! flyers are crap , but businesscards are pro ...I'll ask my students to recommend me to their friends too

let's make it big

 

[SAWitall]

you can always network with local music shops, when parents find there kids lessons they either head to the local store or look it up on a phonebook. website flyers posters...this is your business, any potential income stream is really important enough to not do it. multiply and diversify, your assets that is! branching out as many options as you can think of is a good idea.