Becoming a music teacher could be the most rewarding career move you have ever made. There is nothing more wonderful than watching your student learn how to make their first note or play their first little tune. The excitement and happiness in their faces will brighten up the rest of your day.

Then you get to guide them through the pleasure and pain of becoming a good or great musician. Showing your student not only how to play the music on the page or from ear, but teaching them the art of discipline. Demonstrating how practice does make perfect and what a thrill it is to rehearse a piece of music so that it becomes second nature. How something that seemed impossible at the start becomes easy with work.

The first step to becoming a music teacher is to be highly proficient on one or more instruments, or be a specialist in an area such as composition.

You may not want to get a formal qualification, but you have an amazing musical gift. In this case, you can become a private tutor. You can set up a business from home, or affiliate with a private music school and start teaching.

Before you go down this path, it is a good idea to decide who you would like to teach. Are you interested in teaching beginners or the more advanced? Would you prefer to teach children or adults? This will focus you on what local advertising will work (for example, flyers at the local school). To give yourself the edge over your competitors, it may be an idea to get an accreditation with the local music board which will demonstrate to your potential students your level of excellence on your instrument.

The next path is teaching music in a school. To do this you may need to have a tertiary music qualification or even a Bachelor degree in Education. Each school is different. Often private schools have greater flexibility with who they can recruit and may look at your complete ‘musician’s resume rather than just your teaching and music qualifications.

Teaching music in a classroom can be fun and exciting, but because you are teaching a group, you will need to be patient with the children who don’t pickup the concepts as quickly as others. Classroom music is a great way to introduce children to the love of music, and even if many of your students don’t pursue music in the future, you will provide them with an understanding that will allow them to appreciate music for the rest of their lives.

You can teach specific musical instruments within the school setting. Instrumental teachers have a varied day that often begins with before school ensemble rehearsals, then into teaching individuals through the day, and even running classroom ensembles. Being an instrumental teacher is a great way to meet students of varying ages and musical competence. There is often a requirement to run a number of bands or orchestras, which means that you will need to manage rehearsals out of hours as well as concerts on a regular basis.

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