startin to teach.

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startin to teach.

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Stu

Posts: 2528
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

startin to teach.

so i finally have a potential proper student. I've taught friends for free or in exchange for somethin. But my best mates boss is buyin his son a guitar for xmas and wants me to teach him. I haven't spoken to him directly but i'm assumin he doesnt want to learn flamenco, so ill be teaching him basic chords, prob pop and rock stuff. My question is.... What should i charge? I pay 30 an hour for my flamenco lessons but understand its more specialised. So what have people paid or charged in the past? Whats a good goin rate for regular guitar lessons? I'm in england but any currency will do i can work it out etc. Stu

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 14:48:02

hassurbanipal

Posts: 191
Joined: Jul. 14 2006
From: belgium

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

hey stu,

I'm a very cheap teacher and only charge about 12 € but this is a minimum I suspect. Most people I know charge about 15 to 20 € for an hour.....

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 15:32:38

Posts: 20
Joined: May 13 2007
From: Warsaw, Poland

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

My teacher charges my ~14euro for a 1 hour flamenco lesson. I also know a guy who charges ~20e/hour, which is still not very expensive, considering how difficult it is to find a flamenco teacher around here (Warsaw, Poland).

Hope this helps.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 15:38:12

mrMagenta

Posts: 942
Joined: Oct. 25 2006
From: Sweden

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

wow, kg's prices would be considered ridiculously low here in sweden.

1 hour for 32euro is probably the low price point for a professional teacher here, and it is the same kind of prices for any sort of music lessons it seems.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 19:05:16

Bogdan1980

Posts: 370
Joined: May 23 2007
From: Frederick, MD

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

Shoot, I always heard the Europe was pricy. I have a teacher in US, chrages 30 bucks for an hour. 32 euros is what about 40 bucks or more? I know, not everyone can teach and is a GOOD teacher but to get good results you have to do about 1 lesson a week or so, maybe more? Ends up being expensive!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 20:22:12

koella

Posts: 2194
Joined: Sep. 10 2005
From: holland

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

You can't compare per country.

Lessons here are between 25E and 35E.

More relevant is: a private carpenter or plummer here charges 40E. My bookkeeper charges 45E for simple type work ( his assistant does that ). For the more sophisticated stuff he charges 70E. A car repaircentre charges 90E.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 21:51:34

Stu

Posts: 2528
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to koella)

@koella, you're right man. was just excited about getting a student.
I'm hoping English people come up with prices really. Still its kinda interesting to see how cheap flamenco lessons are in Poland. 14E? thats like £10!!! jeez.

thanks for replying fellas

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 5 2007 23:59:28

mrMagenta

Posts: 942
Joined: Oct. 25 2006
From: Sweden

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

yeah, the figure i gave is for professionals/specialists. if people would come to me for lessons, i would ask them to pay for dinner and share a glass of sherry.. or if they are skilled guitarists/musicians/flutists etc have them teach me something in return.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 1:23:07

HemeolaMan

Posts: 1514
Joined: Jul. 13 2007
From: Chicago

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

haha you gotta be kidding me, i taught in a guitar store, they told us to charge at least 40-50 bucks an hour as a starting wage.

you can get at least 25 usd for a 30 mintute lesson.

my professor charges about 65 an hour or more.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 1:23:12

Adam

Posts: 1156
Joined: Dec. 6 2006
From: Hamilton, ON

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

Yeah, we get screwed over in the States

Not sure why, things seem cheaper out there. I pay $50 an hour for lessons with my teacher, who's one of the best around, and it's pretty tough to find flamenco/classical lessons any cheaper. Then again, in Spain it's very cheap (because it's so abundant I'm sure) - Emilio Maya charges 20 euros an hour which is an amazing rate...even considering the horrible exchange rate!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 2:28:01

gato

Posts: 322
Joined: Jun. 9 2007

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

That's the thing, $15 to $25 for lessons is the usual around here in the music stores. But if it's for a friend, you start them out with free lessons so you can teach basic stuff. I tought a beginner and would not charge, I figured it was a tax problem to keep track without really getting into it and keeping books with out the needed volume of students. That way if he doesn't take hold of the lessons after all he could just quit. But if I were to teach I would definitely have all of the materials and that just doesn't pan out without the numbers in students and in time for preparation of materials. It's not worth it to charge sometimes. The solution? Put yourself out there, and get the students and figure out the overhead and costs, or don't charge and utilize the single student experiance for the future....consider it a gift, and learn as much as you can about teaching as a learning experiance for yourself.

Gary

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 2:34:24

HemeolaMan

Posts: 1514
Joined: Jul. 13 2007
From: Chicago

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to gato)

gar bear lol

i agree

i taught 3 students for free, and it helped me develop a curriculum as much as it helped them learn to play

i even have a whole bunch of lesson plans, outlines and charts/pieces on the computer all neatly typed and stuff lol

thats a realyl good idea. but, i think in this case, it is best to charge. when you cross into the realm of free, its best to do it with peoople you know. in this case you are workign for your friends boss. maintain some sort of ground, if you don't charge he's likely to get pushy.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 3:20:16

Bogdan1980

Posts: 370
Joined: May 23 2007
From: Frederick, MD

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

Yeah I actually had a choice, one was $30 an hour 40 minutes away, the other was actually German immigrant $50 an hour 1 hour away. I went with the first one.
That's classical, flamenco is impossible to find in small town USA, there is one not far but they say he's very "by the way". He shows you nonchalantly and you imitate, which is fine if that's for free but to pay money for that?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 3:26:16

gato

Posts: 322
Joined: Jun. 9 2007

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Stu)

I know that the laws vary from Country to Country, but there are a few rules to go by when hanging up a shingle:

1. Don't raketeer

2. Get a buisness liscense to cover the legalaties concerning business activities

3. Be insured

4. Keep books

5. Pay all taxes

6. Be aware of laws concerning business in your area including tax laws

7. Keep books (and pay taxes) on all payroll

Gary

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 6 2007 3:32:29

Jasmine_27

Posts: 67
Joined: Mar. 26 2007
From: Tokyo

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to HemeolaMan)

Here in Tokyo, teachers can charge up the wazoo, but I pay about $45.00 per lesson and consider that fair for a beginner. However, Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities to live in and minimum wage is about $9.00 an hour. When setting prices, I'd first consider what I have to offer rather than what the market will bear. Unless I had extensive teaching experience (and possibly professional training and credentials), I might initially charge near the bottom of the scale or offer a sliding scale based on the student's income. After all, we're not all IT programmers and union-scale tradesmen, and students who have true desire and limited income are just as deserving of proper training as the more well-heeled among us.

From the student's perspective, for me the main determinant when choosing a teacher is not primarily the price. Though price is a factor, it's not always indicative of the teacher's ability, and that is my main concern. I've unfortunately endured my share of incompetent and uncaring teachers who were just in it for the bucks, and it was a waste of time and effort to study with them, as they had no clue how to help me improve.

So my main criteria is not how well THEY can play, but how well they can teach ME to play, assuming I practice correctly and diligently every day. I've finally been lucky enough to find a teacher who is worth his weight in gold. He's patient, intelligent, talented and extremely good at analyzing how to improve my playing, and just as important, he's teaching me to develop the same skills myself.

If you'd like the low-down on teaching philosophy and approach, you may be interested in checking out Jamie Andreas' Guitar Principles. He has a real commitment to seeing his students improve and has some innovative teaching techniques and approaches to offer both teachers and students. I found his website when I "fired" my cello teacher and it really opened my eyes to a new approach to learning how to play. My current teacher uses some of these techniques, too, and it really works in combination with other methods. (This is not a crass commercial plug, by the way. I'm just passing on information I've benefitted from as a beginning flamenco guitar students). Cheers!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 19 2007 9:04:35

Pimientito

Posts: 2481
Joined: Jul. 30 2007
From: Marbella

RE: startin to teach. (in reply to Adam)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ramparts
Then again, in Spain it's very cheap (because it's so abundant I'm sure) - Emilio Maya charges 20 euros an hour which is an amazing rate...even considering the horrible exchange rate!

The exchange rate is really hard on The US right now. I hope some of you guys are still going to make it to cordoba and sanlucar this summer. 20 euros an hour is cheap in one way if you compare the level that you might get out of Spain but a bar worker here might only earn 6 or 7 euros per hour. Wages are poor here and although you can get the odd tourist, you need to rely on regular students...and as you say, there is no shortage of good guitarists here.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 19 2007 21:03:18