Teaching music is the wild, wild west in terms of training and accreditation. Personally I find this both beautiful and frustrating.
Literally the only thing you have to do to start teaching music is hop on the internet and declare “I teach music!”. I’ll be honest, this lack of system has benefited me greatly as I took a non-traditional career path to becoming a music teacher but it makes things really confusing for prospective students! How do you choose a teacher? What’s the best way to separate the yahoos from the good apples? What should you look for? How do you know if they know what they are doing? It’s even more confusing if you are a beginner looking for your first music teacher. How are you supposed to know what you don’t know? It an overwhelming world filled with great teachers, average teacher and unfrounately egregiously bad teachers. I once got a student whose previous teacher wrote a note in her book that said “Play the right notes”. This little girl was 5 years old. OBVIOUSLY if she knew how to play the correct notes she would! It actually enrages me that there are unskilled people out there causing people to think that they don’t have the capacity to learn music when in reality they are bad teachers. So with that in mind, here are some tips on finding a good teacher:
These tips apply to all instruments from voice to violin to piano.
No. 1 - Understand that being a fantastic performer/musician is a different skill than being a good teacher. There are some fantastic musicians who are also great teachers and others who are terrible. Likewise there are musicians that are very average who are phenomenal teachers. For example, there are some voice teachers who will have students come in and just sing through songs every week without any support with vocal technique. In my opinion this is a very expensive form of personal karaoke. A good teacher or vocal coach should be there to help you improve your singing technique and musicianship, not just help you learn songs. A good teacher won’t just say “sing or play louder”, they will help you understand the mechanics or how to grow sound with good tone and control. They will give you support on developing your musicianship skills. I would not choose a teacher based on their performing credentials, I would always choose one by asking about their teaching experience/philosophies.
No. 2 - Ask them about their training and teaching philosophies and make sure it aligns with your desires. Do they teach classical technique? Jazz Piano? Are they only interested in taking on students who are working towards conservatory degrees or do they like to teach beginners and karaoke singers too? Do they use a specific pedagogy(teaching technique) or program? What is their philosophy about teaching in general? What are their expectations about students’ practice habits? For example, I love to work with teenagers and adults. When I get requests for younger children I usually refer them to my many talented colleagues who work with younger kids.
No. 3 - Ask for references. A good voice or piano teacher will happily give you references. Ask those references what they learned while working with the teacher and what their goals were. This honestly can be one of the best ways to choose a teacher. Ask them what they liked about the teacher, what they learned from them and what their personality is like and make sure that all that sounds like it’s a good fit for what you want to do as well. Ask them what if anything they didn’t like about their teacher or wished was different.
I hope this is helpful information! If you are looking for a voice teacher or piano teacher in Sacramento I recommend myself (duh!) but I have lots of great colleagues to recommend too. If you are looking to grow your vocal skills but don’t currently have the funds to invest in private or group lessons I suggest checking out your local community college or community center. My local community college Sacramento City College has an https://www.scc.losrios.edu/choir/ so don’t miss out, there are opportunities everywhere!