The completely free in-depth guide to opening a music teacher practice!

Welcome to Music Studio Success!

Hi! I’m Matt.

If you’re reading this book it’s a safe bet to assume you want to start a teaching studio. If I’m right about this, Congratulations! You’ve chosen a great line of work, and I think I can help.

This book was inspired in part by the many phone-calls and e-mails I’ve received from new teachers asking advice on how to get their teaching practices started. Of course I’m glad to help, and often I even get a free coffee in return – or maybe even a dinner! Unfortunately you aren’t buying me dinner, but you’re going to get more out of this book than I could ever offer you in an hour or two, and probably at a far cheaper price.

Is this book only for musicians? No way.

I’m a pianist myself, but you can use what you learn here regardless of your trade, from yoga to golf to scuba diving, just a few tweaks and adjustments and you’re set. Most of what’s here, in other words, can be applied to anyone who teaches clients for money.

Before we dive in: a little bit about myself and why I wrote this book.

Like many of you, I was fresh out of college with some prestigious degrees and an impressive pedigree of teachers under my belt. (I also had an impressive amount of debt under my belt but we don’t need to talk about that!) A degree in music is tough – a lot more than some people assume. You’ve probably experienced something similar. Besides the occasional college party, earning my degrees took a lot of dedication, and grit; nerve-wracking auditions to music programs, endless hours of practice, honing my craft, and a lot of stress and hard work.

So you can imagine my surprise when I entered the real world: no one gives a damn.

For one thing, there are thousands of other musicians who worked just as hard as I did. I might be a special little snowflake it’s true, but there are lots of other snowflakes out there. For another thing, everyone in this world is busy doing *their* own thing, and probably not too keen on giving up their hard-earned money or time just to reward me for my two degrees.

The truth–likely why you’re reading this book–is this: While some schools provide awesome pedagogy and music-business classes, the the vast majority of music students are training for solo careers that simply don’t exist. We spend lots of time perfecting our art, but precious little figuring out how to survive.

Don’t get me wrong: Your art is your passion and it’s important that you train to be your best at it. I get that. As artists, we *are* our art form in a deep and fundamental way. But we all have to be realistic about how we’ll put food on the table. If your art is deeply important to you, like mine is to me, then your mission is to find a way to continue practicing it even when you aren’t living in the insulated world that higher-education provides.

Short of a University position, most artists make a living in one of three ways: teaching, freelancing, or waiting tables–that is to say, switching careers.

Sadly, most of us are convinced we have to take the last option if we want any steady employment. YIKES!

This isn’t so. I and the many other teachers of the world are proof.

You see, when you leave school, you might be down about not getting a job. For sure, the market seems saturated. In many ways, school insulates us from what’s really required to make ends meet, and when we’re out of it and feeling the pressure of having to pay bills, get groceries, and pay off debt, we can feel quite rushed to “get a real job.” Well here’s my message about that: Be happy you don’t have a “real job” – you probably wouldn’t like one anyway. I pity those people who got business degrees and are now slaving away at a 9-5 office job every day . . . with some take-home work on the evenings and weekends to boot. Sure they have a “job” but I’ll let them have it. They can take their long commute, bosses and office politics, unreasonable deadlines, and everything else. I guess someone has to do it.

So let’s reframe everything and I’ll tell you how lucky you are to be a jobless artist! You didn’t buy into the system of “Go to College and Start Climbing the Corporate Ladder.” You have a skill you can use to build your own business around the lifestyle you want. You get to continue working in the field you love, make an excellent income, inspire many others, live where you want, make your own schedule, and have ample free time for your art.

Here’s another thought: That corporate system you’re feeling pressured to join probably won’t exist much longer anyway. The days of being able to commit to one company your whole life and retire safely are long gone. So what’s more, not only are you a lucky jobless artist, you’re a privileged member of the new economy! The secret is learning how to leverage your unique skills so that you can offer people in your community something they value. And for those of you reading this book, believe it or not, a lot of people value information on your particular art or skill.

Now that I’ve built you up a bit, how do you get there? That’s what the rest of this book is about. In essence, starting a teaching studio requires that you know exactly what you have to offer, know how to market that to your community in an effective way, and learn how to continually improve on the process of running a well-managed studio.

Through a lot of trial and error I’ve learned how to make a teaching studio run. I can’t do the work for you, but I can give you a nice push! That’s what this book is for. I can save you months and years of frustration and dead-ends. Most of the advice here is not groundbreaking or new. All experienced teachers have learned many of these things by trial and error. I’m simply writing what I wish someone had told me at the beginning of the process.

So without further ado . . . let’s get started.

Happy teaching!

-Matt