Episode 4

Teaching (Part 1)

Today we will help those who have never taught an online lesson with getting started right now. We’ll discuss types of instruction from live, pre-recorded, group/class and one on one.

0:00:01.7 S1: Welcome to the show that explores the methods and strategies on lock in the financial side of your music business with over 40 years combined experience. Here are your host, Chris Webb and Dave tampico

0:00:18.1 S2: To musicians tip chart. Well, we talk about musicians and money, when we take it to the bridge between musicians aspirations and income-producing opportunities. I'm Chris Webb, joined by the proud dog on her, Dave Damon.

0:00:33.1 S1: Chris, thanks for having me once. That's not just my internet going out.

0:00:41.9 S2: We'll talk about that later. Got of the week. The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. William James. And the second one I got today that I found deep down in an article which was actually talking about teaching... It said, It is the supreme art of teachers to awaken joy in Creative Expression and knowledge. That's

0:01:09.2 S1: Albert Einstein, and I like that one. First one, he's got two first names, can trust guy was two first names. Trolling, Albert. Anywhere it's true.

0:01:22.0 S2: Today, we will help those who have never taught and online listen with getting started right now and figuring out ways to make money teaching with everything that they've already got, so we'll get started with that right now.

0:01:39.0 S1: Right after this, today's episode is brought to you by stone cottage studios. To believe that music and visual art is transcending has no borders, represents everyone and has the ability to live the heart and soul, they believe that music has the power to unite and light, motivate and inspire. To cottage studios provides a venue for musicians to reach their fans through video and audio production right here in Boulder, Colorado, check out their interview-based artist sessions, live streaming events and filming and recording projects at stone cottage studios dot com.

0:02:15.2 S2: Welcome back. Alright, everyone, we're here to talk about how you get started teaching lessons online, these lessons, of course, can be a wide umbrella of different type of instruction, anything from teaching guitar, teaching voice, teaching any instrument, but also a song writing or even productivity in different ways within the music industry can be helpful without line lessons, and we're here only to talk about remote because here we are in covid still, hopefully, by the time everyone's listening to this, we're getting out of covid, but I don't think that a lot of the timeline stuff is gonna go anywhere, and I've been doing it for years, as I'm sure you have to, so it's nothing new to us, but I think it's just become more and more valuable. Of course, if you are gonna be in person, of course, we would ask you and remind you that you need to try to stay six feet apart, another way to do it is to be outside if you can, anyway, you can kinda keep following the guidelines and of course, you can be wearing a mask still unless you're singing, that's probably the only one where it's a little hard or playing some sort of mouth flute.

0:03:22.0 S1: Fluting that after this moment will be deleted.

0:03:31.6 S2: So obviously, we're here to talk with me about remote instruction and more teaching. We're gonna break it down into three sections. The first section we're gonna talk about is the promotion and fees. This will be a way if you just kinda get started, so how do you find students... The most common way that I have found them, the word of mouth that I think is still the most powerful way to get started, I've even coached a lot of other students on teaching and help them find other students, and as soon as they put it out there in their world, whether it be to their boss at their day job or to their friends at their church or whoever, next thing I know they of student have a few clients and you know, they're already scheduled within one week. It just seems to happen. It's happened three times now with three different students that I've helped do that, so a lot of times, word of mouth is really not just the concept of people that you are around you already, it's about putting it out into that space so that they're aware that you're doing this so that they would even think of saying, Yeah, I'd be interested, and these days that network was even larger because you're not traveling to one location...

0:04:46.2 S1: Right, I'm a nephew in Florida, that one store. Right.

0:04:51.4 S2: Right. That's funny because I did have a friend who's a nephew in Florida, went on to learn... Actually, they wanted to learn how to use GarageBand. Really? Yeah.

0:05:00.5 S1: But it's another thing. Yeah, anything you can teach to throw out there, so not even less music lessons, but if you're on a project and logic and know the fundamentals and Waterloo, we

0:05:16.0 S2: Were using Zoom and we were screen sharing and I just tell them, do the basics. That was something a lot of people could do too, right? Yeah, another thing that people will do is through a live stream class up, maybe something that's introduction to your style of teaching, people can feel intimidated, they don't know what to expect, especially they've never done an online course of Nestor online instruction. It can be a little strange. And so seeing somebody's live stream or their sample video of what they would teach or how they would teach or what tools they might use during their class, putting that up on YouTube or on a live stream on some other social media platform can really help demystify what their impression of what it might be and make him feel like they... Feel more comfortable to do it.

0:06:11.7 S1: There's great examples of that too, if jam base or true fire where you could find any... You don't know where to start, just YouTube and find your style and your niche and how you wanna present yourself.

0:06:27.4 S2: When you do decide to do it, you do kinda have to pick your platform. I think that most people are using ZOOM now. Did you just say due to

0:06:37.0 S1: A... No, I believe you did. It's probably already deleted. None of this get in there.

0:06:48.4 S2: Zoom has been, for me, the most powerful of all the options, so I would recommend that that's the place to start, but of course, you do have to have an account if you're gonna use it for over a certain amount of time, but it does have the easiest method of sharing screens, which it really is a helpful tool, and we'll talk a little bit more about that later, but it has a lot of the other easily accessible tools that makes it more effective for them to see it visually, and I also find that it actually helps give opportunity for pre-recorded videos and stuff too, that you can share over Zoom and display a pre-recorded audio, which I use as assignments, so that's another thing that's really easy to do the Zoom and people do it out in face time. It's a little more cumbersome that they do...

0:07:44.7 S1: Google meets is another one that I've used for, which makes it easier for scheduling as well. Yeah, scheduling.

0:07:53.8 S2: Alright, so the next thing we can talk about a little bit is how you charge... I think a lot of questions that people have about taking lessons on mine is what's the appropriate amount of money and how long should a lesson B... And I think that this is always one of those answers where it's... The answer is it depends. Right, but most commonly, lessons, a range from 20 minutes to 75 minutes is pretty much where I stick with it, at least myself, and it depends on the level of experience the student has and their age group, I don't really teach beginner anything anymore, but when I did it was short because... I mean, otherwise, it just turns into babysitting, do you measure them as they walk in, like... I

0:08:47.9 S1: Don't think the one at least I talk

0:08:51.3 S2: To come to my lesson in a 15-minute lesson actually is pretty effective for a little kid who's five or six years old at that level, whenever... 'cause I do help some other students who are becoming teachers and basically doing exactly this, and so I do recommend that they start teaching beginners first, because the first thing you have to learn is patient, teaching little kids is definitely the place to find out what level of patients you have... But also it gives you that kind of short, concise mixture of giving them very basic information, the little skills for their little hands, but also making sure they have fun, that's... In teaching, that is such a critical part of making someone remember what you're saying is making it actually entertaining, so... Yeah, I recommend that if it's something you've never done before, that teaching a beginner and if not just a beginning, but also young kids is a good way to get started on it and... Short episodes of 20 to 30 minutes of the most. And as you gain more of a specialized area, whether it be a singer, song writer, or hip-hop or whatever it is that your specialty is, that's when you start raising the time length because you can focus in on things more and as the person you're teaching is more advanced too, they're gonna have more of an attention span towards talking about rhyme schemes and very nuanced different parts of the vocal cords, and those kind of very specific things that a lot of people...

0:10:41.6 S2: Other people don't give a crap about... And they don't wanna talk about it very long. Right, the rule of charging somebody from me... Now, Dave, you can give you two cents on this, but I kinda go with the rule that 1 per one minute has been a pretty good guideline, my rates are higher than that now, but I feel like that has been a good guideline that... Make sure that your time is worth something that you can give a little energy into even outside of it, because sometimes you find yourself preparing for it, that takes some time out of your day too, so it has to be something that's worth doing for you for a

0:11:21.8 S1: 30-minute lesson, it's 30. But I think with what... I don't know how you do it with Zoom and meetings, but it'll be like a 20-minute lesson or 25-minute lesson. So it would be 2-30 for 20 minutes because you're switching from one meeting to another meeting to another meeting, getting things set up, and it moves like that, especially if you block them off in a four-hour block, so I think that would... I completely agree with you that a dollar a minute, but I think with set up and things going slow, if they're there on time, all that you give yourself just that little buffer zone to say, I follow your guidelines of 20-minute lessons, but I think 30 bucks a half hour is definitely in part with everyone out, especially in the cities, if you go more Altera areas, prices go down just because of what the cost of living is in certain places in the United States or anywhere in the world. So I think as long as you stick to what that's worth... You're good.

0:12:25.4 S2: Yeah, especially when you're starting out. If you have no experience with my students that I have never taught anybody else, I tell them the first lesson should be free because they're doing you a favor, it's the first lesson you've ever taught, you're both nervous, so it really is probably good for both of you to do that, but even if it is a brand new student and you've been teaching for years, maybe your first one is for you just to see if you're a good fit with each other, you know, I personally... And this is probably also because I've gotten older, I don't wanna work with somebody that's not really excited about doing it, it's like I have to make sure that they match me too, because I really work best with somebody who's pushing me, so that sometimes I can do that find out from the first lesson whether or not it's a good fit at that you have to do that for free, but at least go into that first... The expectation that this may be a one-time

0:13:21.0 S1: Thing. Throwing that out there too, also makes them wanna show up for that lesson, for that free lesson to see if it's gonna work, and if you're saying, Hey, let's see if this is a good fit, 'cause then you're putting that person on the spot as well. I would never admit that it was your first lesson, that this... My first lens that I'm teaching, but go into it and say, Hey, this is kind of like an interview for both of us.

0:13:44.0 S2: Yeah, and I think that some people will click easier, and that's just a matter of finding enough people to care it with, and there's really a million ways that you can reach out social media again, we'll talk about social media probably every episode that we ever do, because it's become the easiest way to be an entrepreneur, especially as an artist, so so easy for you just to keep putting it out there that you do this and that you can make a nice little ad and just throw it up there and just let people know this is something I do and throw that on your website, I have it on my website as one of my little pages that just says If you are interested in... I can do it no matter from wherever you are in the world. We can do it.

0:14:27.8 S1: Well, let's talk about how you have it listed on your website, so do you list your rates... Do not literate.

0:14:34.2 S2: I do not list my rates on the website, and that's because honestly, some people need something that's gonna take me more preparation than others, I wanna be able to match what they want, and if they're asking for something where I'm gonna have to spend an hour of preparing the right stuff for their lesson, then I'm gonna charge them more for that, but that's what they want, right.

0:14:56.3 S1: It's also a way to connect with that person that wants you as their teacher rather than someone that's going around with price shopping for the lowest rate that they could find...

0:15:06.7 S2: Right, there'll always be those people that they can find it, you can go to Guitar Center and get a half an hour or less and drop in like group... Yeah, yeah, the Walmart of education for guitar players, but there's nothing wrong with that, but I did work at Kantar Center for three years, and they do an offering lessons at the time.

0:15:28.5 S1: Yeah.

0:15:30.0 S2: It's kind of a newer thing.

0:15:32.4 S1: But no one would have wanted me behind accessories, like what... Knowing your instrument and being able to teach an instrument are two unique skills, I think, so

0:15:43.4 S2: It may not be a bad place if somebody's out there and thinking about lessons and you want to just see what it's like, that might be a good way to go, but that's not what we're here talking about, where you're talking about how people can get help making money using what they've already... Got it. This is the idea that you will be a beginner if you're listening to this episode, you were thinking about teaching and you're thinking, How can I do that with everything that I've already got, 'cause the idea that's nice about this is you don't need anything else than not you've already got... Right, and that's been kind of consistent. Everything we've talked about so far, but aside from paying per lesson, which is the most common way to go, I have a few students that teach that pay me per month, and I get that upfront, which is nice, and if we miss one... We just roll that over to the next month, but it's nice sometimes if some people are really in need of the money up front, that is something that's happening. People need to pay their rent. At the beginning of the month, they can get their students to pay for four ahead of time.

0:16:45.4 S1: And many people show up more than the one off, and they would pay each week, so... It's a commitment.

0:16:52.3 S2: Yeah, it's a way of putting that commitment in there, and I actually... I actually have two students that pay me per

0:17:00.4 S1: Quarter, and I like that we were doing a dollar a minute.

0:17:04.8 S2: Right, for every three months day, and I like that because it keeps it... So that we don't even talk about the money. You know what I mean? We just are able to completely forget about the money every and just... And I build them so they get an invoice and they just gave me the ven on, venison pays me with a check in the mail, but I love that, that it takes that away, that element out of conversation and makes it all about music when I show up all we do is music, it's none of the financial part of it, and that actually allows that space to be Marist and comfortable. So that's something to consider too. Of course, you gotta build up some trust first in order to kinda get to that point where your client's willing to do something like that. The last one I'd say is tax benefits, these are obviously things that are more long-term, but I just wanted to mention that as we approach the end of the year and tax season comes, obviously shortly after the New Year, we've all been working from home, probably in some capacity or another, but this is definitely a legitimate way to create a lot of write-off SAN taxes and all the equipment and all the space that you use in the Wi-Fi and a million other things, which will probably dedicate a podcast too, but it is something to think about, it's a way of not necessarily getting money right away, but it will immediately in your 2021 taxes save some money for what you did right now, how soon do you think we'll get hard or that after this podcast releases...

0:18:44.2 S2: Is that many people are paying attention to us? I think we do one. Right. That's why I always pay for the service of my accountant to review things before they get submitted... Absolutely

0:18:56.1 S1: Not H and R Block

0:18:57.5 S2: Right now. Nothing wrong with them now, but let's just talk about some of the tools within teaching, a lot of them are ones we probably already use in our regular life anyways as a musician, so these things are not gonna be new to us, but they are definitely helpful in the teaching situation, everybody probably has your phone or tablet or a computer, whatever you have, I suggest that you have two things accessible, I know that kind of sounds ridiculous, but I feel like there's nobody... At least these musicians go, that doesn't have a phone and a tablet at least, because a lot of times when we're playing our shows, we use the music on a tablet anyway, so the reason I think it's important to have two is because one can be the screen, and the other can be all of the music or all of the notes, a lot of times I use a program, define music, I'm one of my devices and I'll be emailing that or texting that to my student while we're on the zoom, and so it keeps you from having to keep your fingers all over the screen while you're talking to each other, and it makes it a little bit more flowing, and it's good to have back up to if something goes wrong with one of them, you can still connect with that student.

0:20:09.1 S2: Yeah, which brings up the next point of... Good internet connection.

0:20:15.7 S1: Everyone, I just got rained by Chris before we started, he's like, You hard-wired in... It wasn't hard-wired. And first, I wasn't sure what he was talking about. Next episode, he has asked that I take a drill and go through the ceiling of a bottom floor, run accord up to the bathroom, over the toilet, into the music room and across my desk. But he makes a good point because if you wanna show up, especially and you're making a living and taking someone's time to teach them something, you want everything to run smoothly, and you don't want to have to worry about your internet going out or your wireless... I'm having a problem, so being hard-wired into your wireless is a good idea and making sure you have a strong connection

0:21:03.4 S2: To being too far from me router is another easy way to try to minimize that if you can't hardware in, but it certainly is better to me, you can't plug your phone into you into your modem, I know, but you can be closer and good lighting is the last factor that if they can't see you... I don't know, there's a lot of really cheap lighting out there now that is just fine, you know, it doesn't need to be something that's expensive, it just needs to be right enough in the room that they can see your fingers if you're playing guitar or... They can see your mouth if you're doing shapes with singing, so there's just a lot of things about lighting that make it harder to get an effective lesson then when you're using your iPhone, it should be on something that keeps it still... I know that that might seem obvious, but I've seen a lot of lessons where people are holding their device or they're trying to lean it up on something and everyone's about it, and they need the bigger back-up, if you don't want those distractions... Right, yeah, the less distractions and definitely the better, and if you're gonna be playing piano or something, having it in a position in which you can switch to be able to show the keyboard, those kind of things are other things to think about that.

0:22:23.4 S2: And it is another reason why two devices can be helpful if that gets to more of the advanced staff of where you use like OBS to use two separate devices for cameras, one can point to your instrument and the other to your face, which really isn't that complicated to do, but we'll probably save that for when we're talking about gear a little bit farther, so music material is something that I feel like, Boy, there's just too much out there now, and everybody has their own favorite, and even my students, everybody's kinda got in a different direction. So I'm not really gonna say there's anyone that I recommend more than others, even though I use pretty much Ultimate guitar only at least for finding material of other people's work, they're all shared sites now, but they also have, I think one of those for piano too, and I like that you can edit the music when you find the errors, which you're guaranteed to find 'cause it's user share and you can make those edits and save your own drafts of it. I like that, I like that you can then print it out, which some people still need, also you can email it or text the music over to anybody else.

0:23:43.4 S2: I feel like that's made things a whole lot easier when you're teaching remotely.

0:23:48.5 S1: Also easy to transpose to if you need to apply.

0:23:53.3 S2: Yeah, that is so huge. Man, I do that all the time, and I just think about how hard that used to be, you have to do that in your head, as I just put everything in the kid now... That's your singing key.

0:24:08.9 S1: Yeah, it feels good for reason... Yeah, like meal would be like a game

0:24:15.3 S2: At the dental Swift, right? Only in a kit doesn't see... Pretty much as you used to. Another one, Sangster is popular. I have a few students, that's what they use, I find it a little bit more cumbersome, but they think that it's the easiest one and it's got the most visually pleasing is what they say, and then there's a guitar tab, which is with two Ps... All of the teaser actually kind Bellefonte, so look for them in the notes around the blog, for piano, I use Cardiff mostly, it gets a little bit different with piano music obey, because you actually usually wanna actually see the notes, and I actually read the sheet music opposed to guitar and tab. And then for voice, I use a kind of combo of both Cory and ultimate guitar. Another thing that I have collections of our YouTube warm-up videos that I've saved in a file that I often send the students depending on whether the male or female voices, and then if there are higher lower voices within this, I also use some voice warm-up apps there's a lot of those out there, and most of them do charge you for them, but it's nice when you can find one that you can customize a voice warm-up, and then just open up your app and run through your warm-up that's custom, kind of saved for you, so those are all tools that kinda make easier so that you can give your some homework basically, and you can help them build their own kind of warm-ups and exercises, if you have an Alexa or like a Google Voice in your house to...

0:26:05.9 S2: They have apps on that as well, so you can just ask her, 'cause she's back then, I'm not gonna say her name, but do vocal warm-ups in C vocal warm-ups and... And it's something that's easy to do. It's right there and keep your students practicing, and she's always listening after you figured out what material you're gonna be using and which tools you're gonna sin to teach, it's good to have a plan on how to approach your lessons, so we thought we'd give you some kind of tips that we've used over the years, and hopefully some of these will give you some confidence to be willing to put yourself out there, because I do think it's hard, especially if you've never taught before, to feel like you have anything to offer... You feel like you're unqualified, and that's just simply not true. If you are good at your instrument and you're passionate about it, then you can teach other people, there just needs to be that energy, and then just being able to figure out how to show them what they wanna learn, here's some tips, just kind of things to keep in mind, one would be to find a space with no outside noise or distractions, and often that's in my basement in my closet.

0:27:25.4 S1: I just...

0:27:27.0 S2: I'm not there right now, but it does sort of look like I'm saying this, look a month, but that's not where I'm at.

0:27:32.9 S1: I have recorded vocals in that closet...

0:27:35.3 S2: It's true, you have pretty lesson, especially in your first lesson, but I pretty much do this once a month, I request any new material that my students might be learning, if it's their first lesson, you might wanna ask for anything that they've learned in the past, this will just get all of their stuff together and they can just email that to you so that you can kinda see what they've learned already, it gives you a better understanding of where they're at, and obviously, if they're learning some advanced baton and you really only play Coldplay, then you're not a good fit. So this also tells you where they're at and what they're gonna wanna be learning.

0:28:15.7 S1: One thing about the pre-lesson... No, I found when I was teaching a lot, a lot of students would just kinda mesh together in my brain after you're doing it for six hours straight, four days a week, and I started to take some time to just really know what was coming up that day, and be prepared for each student, and it's important to be present, and if you do that pre-lesson for yourself, just to make sure that you're on the same page and know who's coming in next, and they're important to you, you have a relationship and let them know that by being prepared for each lesson...

0:28:55.4 S2: Yeah, and having that list of goals that you check in on with them and you kind of measure those goals, one thing that I like to do in order to be able to do that is take a video of them playing on the first lesson, which sometimes feels kind of cruel because they don't know how to play it all... I remember I've done that, but even with the students that I take now, we just video a quick, maybe one minute of them perform something that they have been working on, and so that we just log that and then once you get a few months in, it keeps on both of your minds that you're gonna have some to compare, and so then you watch that video three months later when you make the new one, and you can put them side by side and kinda see what's changed, and you've really been able to then target what you've been working on...

0:29:48.5 S1: I think that also helps with these online lessons that the last few minutes of each lesson, you can hit the record on like a Zoom meeting and go over what the next lesson is going to be, show them, so then they couldn't have something to visually look back at which when we were teaching in brick and mortar that it wasn't something we did so often...

0:30:10.0 S2: Yeah, well, and that helps you also find their goals and there's skill desires and what they really wanna be able to do as they're improving, and I often will record their lessons, if we're really actually just practicing some of the songs we're talking about something specific will record the whole lesson, it's a valuable thing for a lot of people to be able to review, 'cause some of them will be like, I left, and then 10 minutes later, I forgot what you meant by my notes, and they'll be looking at their notes and they'll be like, I don't know remember what were they meant? So having it recorded can be good for that... Well, if you wanna connect with us, even if you have other questions about teaching, we're happy to help, you can find... Is that musicians tip jar dot com? Also at musicians tip jar at gmail.

0:31:03.3 S1: As always, thanks for joining us, saying Remember, there's already enough for everyone, you just need to know how to go out there and get it till next time on behalf of Chris web and myself, Dave Camp, and please stay safe. They helped help each other as no one loose musicians did. Nothing on this show should be considered a specific, personal or professional advice, please consult an appropriate tax, legal business or financial professional for individualized advice. Individual results are not guaranteed, and oldest car strategies have the potential for profit or loss, those are operating on behalf of musicals temperature or else, the exclusive LAS