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For those of you that give private lessons, what is your price per hour? I know that "Joe" tuba player can charge $100 and the next "Joe" can charge $50 but is there a standard or common price among private instructors?

Tim

trseaman wrote:For those of you that give private lessons, what is your price per hour? I know that "Joe" tuba player can charge $100 and the next "Joe" can charge $50 but is there a standard or common price among private instructors?

Tim

depends on location and who you are

[quote]Here in Oregon, my instructor charges 35.00 bucks for around 30-45 minutes of his time. But I find it a bargain, "even if he doubles at every other brasswind and is not solely a tuba player.

Is your teacher Dr.John Richards?

I take lessons in NE...so that equals cheap lessons. The guy I take lessons from charges $20 per hour (dirt cheap), but he's leaving for Virginia...The guy I take 'bone lessons from charges $30 per hour...After going to the $20 an hour guy to the $30 an hour guy, I sorta scoffed at it...but whatever. I might start going to someone who charges $35 an hour, but he's amazing...subbed in the Chicago Symphony at one time...

I charge $20/hour, and I am an freshman in college teaching middle school students. The most I've ever payed is double that. Now I am getting lessons through school, so the money comes from a scholarship.

I have between 40-50 private students in Lewisville and Flower Mound, which are suburbs of Dallas, more or less. I drive 15-20 miles there and back three times a week, plus driving between the five schools.

The school district gives me a choice of charging $13 for a 22-minute lesson or $16 for a 30-minute lesson. It would be less if I didn't have a bachelor's degree (and I don't get anything extra for having a master's degree.) The district sets the rates, and we aren't allowed to change them. We didn't get a raise this year.

Does anyone else get told what to charge? (Other than districts in DFW - I think our situations are all pretty similar.)

- Jamie

Some of us are just trying to make a little extra cash

Although this might seem like I'm making a smart-assed remark, I'm not. Many cities have places where you can sell blood plasma twice per week. You lay around and watch a movie or read for about an hour with a needle in your arm and get paid rather well for it. I don't need the cash any more and don't have the time, but I still have my "tracks" from when I used to do it.

Selling plasma is different than donating blood. They either filter or centrifuge the blood to separate the red cells from the protein. They keep the protein and put the red cells back into you. Your body regenerates the proteins in about 48 hours. So you can sell twice per week.

Private teaching can be a very good business with a lot of flexibility if you have the right skills. I currently teach 40 kids in the Chicago area and it takes a lot of patience, organization, and energy.

I have to first point out that Bloke is directing his comments to a specific group of people...i.e. those who teach privately OUTSIDE of their "day job". His ideas would be very difficult to apply to those who teach privately as their main income. The most I can demand from parents is that they pay per month. If I demanded that all of my 40 students pay me up front for a whole semester, I would have a hard time charging what I do and having the same numbers. Some of these parents pay roughly $100 a month as it is (and some have two children taking lessons from me). I do take gas prices and district processing fees into consideration.

In Chicago, the fees are set by what the "going rate" seems to be. It also depends on your resume. I charge slightly more than some others but when I send out my resume with the lesson rate, parents don't blink an eye. Know what you're worth and be able to tell others why in a brief resume....ONLY IF THEY ASK. Don't be like some in our business who are nothing but shameless self-promoters, being eventually found out and blacklisted.

The Dallas area seems to be its own breed with a good and bad side. The good side is that your getting paid is somewhat "district controlled" (I realize this is to a small extent). Here, I can get screwed by parents who don't pay. Contracts only do so much as $40-50 is hardly enough to go to court over. The bad side of the Dallas situation is that the pay amount is also district controlled, meaning that better players such as Jamie get the same rate as some newly graduated guy with less than half the resume she does.

Here is some advice for those interested in private teaching.
1) FIND OUT WHAT THE GOING RATE IS in the area and charge a similar rate based on your qualifications. Severly undercutting may increase your numbers but will quickly put you on a blacklist. Severely overcharging will put you in a bind to produce instant results. This can be tricky with parents who feel their kid is "very talented".
2) GET A BASIC CONTRACT which states: Your name and contact info, the child's name, the lesson time and day, lessn rate and expectation of prompt payment, rescheduling details, what is expected as far as the student being prepared, and a place for a parent signature and their contact information. This gives you some basic security. Don't get in the habit of teaching with payment promises.
3) LEARN GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS and how to network with the band directors. Again, please don't feel the need to give your entire resume to everyone if a simple "I got a BM from [insert] and a MM from [insert]" will do. You must also communicate with the parents. Remember that they are paying for a service and it would be a good idea to update them on the "why?" part of it. (They may be non-musicians.) Also, you should have a BRIEF one page resume to give to band directors. They are busy people and don't have a lot of time to scan through your 10 page essay on why you want to teach and what groups you played with in college. You may have to do an interview and give a free lesson with the band director present before you're asked to teach at the school.

I've learned some of this the hard way but luckily it never burned me too bad. Good Luck.

-James (who likes Bloke's idea of PayPal for lessons and wonders if/hopes parents would go for this)

the elephant wrote:$50 per hour and $30 per half hour. No splitting of time with others, no half hours, etc.

Why quote $30 per half hour, then say no half hours?

I earn a significant portion of my income by teaching private lessons, most of the rest comes from performing. I have a couple dozen students at a local store, and teach a handful at my home. The students at the store pay $20 per half hour, directly to the store, of which I only receive $13.50. Not much, but it's nice to have someone else do all the recruiting and bookkeeping for me. And it is the going rate around here for lessons at a music store from a degreed, performing professional. At home I get $30 for an hour long lesson.

Now here's the thing, and please don't take this personally Rob, but it was your post that made me think of it... if someone is charging significantly less than the going rate, and presumably providing just as good a service, it may be hurting the other local teachers' chances of filling up their schedules. Especially when someone is just doing it for a few extra $$, versus someone who is trying to make a living that way.

You certainly have a right to charge whatever you want, even give them away if you think it's appropriate to your current situation, but please consider what it might be doing (and probably really isn't affecting it at all, I'm just venting a little, don't pay any attention) to the local economy. I see it all the time in the clubs here, the going rate for a local rock or blues band is $100 per man per show. That is, small clubs will pay $300 for a trio, and usually fork over $400 for a quartet. Guys like me rely on that $$$ to pay the bills. Guys that have a day job, and just play for fun, but go out and book their 5 piece group for $200 plus free beer are making it tough for me to get even a trio gig @$300 bucks. Plus, those weekend warriors play a lot more Skynyrd tunes than the groups I play with. Why should the Bar Manager pay us more, when they can get a bigger group for less?

less... less... Oh yeah, we were talking about lessons! Sorry I got sidetracked, and like I said please don't take it personally, it's just FOOD for thought.

MF

If you are charging less per hour than you are paid for your "day" job, you might as well be teaching for free.

Bloke,

This is not true if your day job is a set number of hours per day (say or a set salary. Anything else you earn on top of that is gravy.

I have a pretty good situation in the DFW area. I teach in a district like everyone one else who sets the rates for lessons at $16.00, but I charge a set rate every month of $68.00 except for Dec. where I just charge half. I am lucky because the head honcho BD's love me for some reason and do not care that I charge that way, and neither do the parents, I have had no complaints. I do have extra masterclasses for all-region and solo and ensemble and if there is a school holiday I open it up to anyone who wants and extra lesson at my house which saves gas money and not charge whether or not they have 4 or 5 weeks in the month. It is true if you are professional and personable to the kids, parents and directors you can make more money, and keep a good retention rate every year, last year I had 65 or so students and this year I had 50 returning, plus new beginners and others to finally end up at 70.....I'm not home very often though but it pays the bills.

Hi Rob,
First of all, never apologise to Bloke!

Now, let me apologise for "calling you out" in my post, $12 sounds like the perfect rate for your situation, and you're not doing anything I myself haven't done in the not-so-distant past. Especially the extra work on your part done for the most desrving students. I've got two students, brothers, that have been with me for 4 and 5 years; you better believe they've gotten a few extra hours from me over the years. I re-read your post and realised that I was mainly responding to your net of $9, and forgetting that you charged the student $12.

I'm just rushing around today getting ready for TUSAB-TEC, and probably shouldn't be on TubeNet in the first place. Gotta grab some food and hit the road.

Mike

Mattheus wrote:

I wish!! Richards only teaches those who have reached their full potential, and wish to hit the highest level. I myself am just a novice, and sadly will never see the day he tutors me.

Do you mean "novice", as in "beginner", or as in "dilettante"? The former you can't help; the latter is your choice. If you are the beginner who wants to start hitting levels, then git yer face on and earn it! You'll like it!

bloke wrote:The NAME is bloke.

He is SO sensitive!!!

Thanks to all that have replied... It's all very interesting information!

Here’s another question about school districts. Do you find them receptive to outside instructors? Are they helpful with referring potential students?


Tim