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You have to be passionate if you want to teach and teaching’s no walk in the park. You have to be patient with your students who mightn’t always be paying attention or invested in what you have to say. Additionally, you know how bad violins can sound when they're played wrongly.
However, what’s better than turning your passion into your job and helping others to learn how to play the violin or fiddle?
More and more people are dedicating their lives to teaching music. Guitar, piano, and even the violin are amongst some of the most popular instruments to learn. In fact, after the guitar, the violin is the most popular string instrument to learn.
In any case, there are plenty of places ready to welcome you as a violin or music teacher. Whether in conservatoires, music schools, or working as a private tutor, you’re spoilt for choice. Find the one that works for you and get people playing the violin.
Private lessons at home, group classes, teaching musicology, you need the right skills and you’ll need to work tirelessly on them.
Violin Teacher Jobs: Teaching in a Conservatoire
When talking about music, it’s hard to ignore the famous conservatoires. If you hang out with musicians, you’ll probably know someone who studied at one of them.
Why not teach there?
The conservatoires in the UK generally function as universities and offer degrees for the same fees you’d expect for degrees at any other university.They offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees as well as music classes. Here are a few examples:
- Royal Academy of Music (London)
- Leeds College of Music
- Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
- Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow)
They’re much bigger than the music schools you’d find in a smaller town or village. They offer courses covering:
- Introductions to music
- Music theory and how to read music
- Traditional music
- History of music
- Practice and rehearsal
- Scales and arpeggios
- Playing in an orchestra, ensemble, or string quartet.
- Singing lessons
For all types of instruments including:
- Classical guitar
- Cello
- Violin
- Saxophone
- Harmonica
- Harp
- Violoncello
- Flute
But how can you teach in these institutions?
The first thing you’ll have to do is get some qualifications similar to those taught at your typical school of music. A passion for music and being able to play your musical instrument well is essential if you want to teach in a internationally recognised conservatoire.
Everyone knows that music is something that can be taught as long as you have the ear for it. If you’re not a musical prodigy but rather a mere mortal, the best thing you can do is to study and practise for a number of years until you reach the required skill level. You’ll soon see why this training is so important.
Of course, practising isn’t the only important thing when it comes to becoming a violin teacher. You’ll also need to be familiar with the history of the instrument and a master of music theory.
A conservatoire will require that you be both a talented and skilled musician and a quality teacher. You should know that conservatoires have strict hiring policies.
You’ll certainly need to be educated to a higher level than the subjects you’ll be teaching, of course, and you’ll also be expected to have teaching skills and experience. Without these qualities, you’ll find it hard to get a job in a conservatoire.
Violin Teacher Jobs: Teaching in a Music Centre
As we said before, in addition to the conservatoires, there are also local music schools and centres. They offer music classes rather than academic degrees.
Join the discussion: can you teach the violin without any credentials?
Just like when working at a conservatoire, you’ll be expected to have been trained beyond the level you’re wanting to teach. The main difference is that with music centres, you won’t always require purely academic experience.
Remember that a teacher in a music school isn’t exactly the same as a teacher in a conservatoire. The students in a music centre will often be less demanding than those in a conservatoire. In fact, a lot of them will be learning music for fun rather than as a career.
In this case, you’ll be expected to show them the joy of playing music so that you have fewer dropouts. So have fun! While you’re teaching them music theory one lesson, you can be teaching them the songs they want to learn another. Games can be really useful for helping students have fun while they learn.
In these cases, the cost of violin lessons vary depending on the type of tuition.
Become a Violin Tutor in a School
You can also teach music in a school. While the recorder is taught in most primary schools around the country, there are schools offering a more holistic music education including violin playing, voice lessons, and ethnomusicology.
In fact, secondary school students can do music GCSEs and A Levels with almost any instrument or singing. With 5 years of obligatory schooling and 2 of sixth form, students have plenty of time to master their instrument. As we said earlier, a number of them are choosing to learn the violin.
Regardless of your students’ level, learning the violin requires a significant investment of both yours and your student’s time. However, if you’re as passionate about teaching music as you are the violin, it might be a worthwhile career.
If you want to teach in a national secondary school, you’ll need to have a degree in or related to your given subject as well as the PGCE. You can also opt for a Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree which while usually for primary school teacher, is available for secondary teachers in certain universities. You’ll also be expected to pass police criminal record checks (the DBS).
Groups and Workshops for Finding Violin Teacher Jobs
Aside from conservatoires and music centres, there are also other organisations that can help you become a violin teacher. Associations, in particular.
For these associations, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, they encourage every violinist to meet certain teaching standards and your membership will go a long way to helping convince students that your lessons are worth your rates.
They also offer courses and qualifications to prove your abilities and technique.
Of course, this isn’t a one-way street and you’ll be expected to consistently provide quality instruction and pay them. The costs of joining these associations can vary and are generally between £50 and £100 per year. Of course, there are perks that comes with being member, too.
Violin Teaching Positions: Private Tutorials
If you’re still studying or waiting for that first job in teaching, becoming a private violin tutor could be a really good choice for you.
A lot of people nowadays want to learn to play an instrument without investing a lot of money or having to attend tonnes of lessons throughout the week. These are the people who tend to hire private tutors either at home or for online teaching jobs.
Whether at home or in small groups at the tutors house, flexibility is key when giving private tutorials. By visiting a tutoring platform such as Superprof, the student can peruse potential tutors before choosing the teacher that works for them.
There’s no minimum requirement for teaching private violin tutorials. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve specialised in classical music or rock music, students who are interested in what you’re teaching will give you a call and if you provide quality lessons, they'll keep coming back.
You should also consider telling your friends on social networks such as Facebook that you’re providing private tutorials.
As a private tutor, you can really help students who are struggling or need to progress quickly. Whether you’re teaching them to improvise, play jazz, classical, or any other style of music, your knowledge will be a of huge benefit to your students.
Furthermore, as a tutor, you can choose the rates for your tutorials. Prices for tutors start at around £10 to £15 per hour. How you teach your students and what you focus on (positioning, fingering, reading sheet music, etc.) is up to you.
You could offer taster lessons to beginners at a discounted rate since for the first few lessons you'll be showing them the basics like tuning their violin strings, bowing technique, posture, and performing basic notes in order to play beginner pieces like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star before building building their repertoire.
Most violin teachers offer a discount for block bookings, too, since when you learn to play the violin, you probably won't become a virtuoso overnight and will require instruction over a longer period of time.
Violin Jobs: Training in Music Therapy
Music therapy is exactly what it sounds like, using music as a method to accomplish certain goals.
It’s often used in retirement homes, hospitals, and workshops. It’s proven to help those with autism and depression.
In terms of teaching, you can interact with patients in different ways:
- Listening to music
- Teaching them to play the violin
Music therapy has become a really useful tool for helping patients. It helps them to externalise their feelings in a non-verbal way.
How can you become a music therapist?
In order to become a music therapist, you’ll need to:
- Complete an HCPC-approved postgraduate course in music therapy.
- Register with the HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) after completing said course.
It’s up to you to choose the career that works for you!
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