A viable career - Independent Music Teachers Forum - Brief Article

American Music Teacher, Dec, 2001 by Kenneth Lee

I feel a bit like those wonderfully patient radio astronomers who have continued to send their beam out into space and continue to await a reply. By the time you read this, all who have read the October/ November 2001 column will have flooded my e-mail address with their most searing questions as independent music teachers (IMTs), and I will have expeditiously bounced them off our erstwhile Advisory Committee for their thought-provoking answers. But, since the column soliciting your questions hasn't reached you yet at this deadline, I must rely on a question I recently received from a former student.

Kristen, who earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Michigan and a Master's from Manhattan, seeks to establish an independent clarinet studio back in our hometown of Vienna, Virginia.

She asks, "What should I charge?"

Dear Kristen

First, how wonderful it is that you have chosen this career. If you teach well and you can inspire, motivate or cajole meaningful practice from your students, I am certain you will find it both musically and materially gratifying. If your experience is like that of most of the IMTs I know, you will have to develop your studio over a period of years before you will be able to charge what you are probably worth. As a relatively new teacher, you'll have to be careful not to charge so much that prospective students will seek instruction elsewhere. Yet, you'll also have to establish the fact that your credentials entitle you to a professional hourly rate. Do you know what IMTs in the Vienna area are charging? Do you have a feeling for supply and demand in the local area?

Talking about supply and demand, how many of us evaluate the tuition we charge with a little bit of Economics 101? You know that in our economic system, the value of a service is supposed to be determined by consumers bidding for the time of the provider. For many years, many IMTs have artificially depressed their own income by charging not "what the market would bear," but, rather, as little as possible given their economic condition. Many had spouses with "real jobs" to provide a livable income.

Many felt guilty about charging more than they had paid for their own music instruction two, three or even four decades before. Some loved sharing music with others so much that they had trouble charging more than "pin money" rates. Great surgeons, by the way, love their work and seem to have little difficulty charging for it.

But life hangs in the balance, you say. Very well, take golf. The top golf instructors earn two to five times the hourly rate of the top music teachers. But look who is paying the big bucks: the top executives of profitable companies, with plenty of disposable income. Of course, many avid golfers have children who are studying music, but at lower rates than their parents pay for golf lessons.

If we wrestle with increasing rates out of guilt, do we really evaluate all the expenses we incur as independent music teachers? I'm referring to things beyond tunings and voicings, purchasing instruments and recitals. What about self-employment tax? How about health insurance, liability insurance, professional insurance? How about utilities, mortgage payments or rent, and all the other expenses that the not-particularly-charitable Internal Revenue Service considers legitimate expenses of our profession. That is, why are we concerned about our rates being too high, when we should be painfully aware that our actual income is often approximately 50-60% of our receipts--really too low?

In the 1997 MTNA survey, 64.2% of respondents felt it was impossible to support a household on an IMT's income. Perhaps it's time to disprove this belief with a roll-call of IMTs who can and do have sufficient IMT income to "support a household." Perhaps it's time to ask to what degree old stereotypes, assumptions and self-imposed limitations are involved in our rates. My belief is IMTs have much more control over our income than we exercise.

The National Conference in Cincinnati in March will include the Professional Studio Saturday, with sessions focusing on the viability of a professional career as a studio music teacher. The first session will be an in-depth look at income--what we charge and why. The second session will focus on studio policies to pre-empt problems and make the managing of our studios more time-efficient. The third session will focus on use of the home for music teaching--concerns of zoning, licensing and neighborhood associations and what can be done to protect our home studios.

I look forward to your questions for our Advisory Committee. I hope you have planned to attend the National Conference, and you will put Professional Studio Saturday on your agenda. Together, we can establish the fact once and for all that independent music teaching is a viable career option for those with the ability to inspire their students.

--Kenneth Lee, National IMTF Chair,
Vienna, Virginia