How Old Were You When You Started Teaching?, and how did you get into teaching? Options

[upbeat]

Another thread got me thinking about this....

How old were you when you started teaching? Do you remember the first ever lesson you taught? And how did you get into teaching?

I was 17 when I started teaching music. I hadn't really thought about teaching at that stage, in fact I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do careerwise. My piano teacher recommended me to someone out of the blue and it went on from there. Looking back, I'm so glad she did as I absolutely love it and can't imagine doing anything else. I sometimes wonder what other job I'd be doing if it hadn't been for my fantastic piano teacher.

Would love to hear how other teachers started out..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[elliewelly]

I was 17 too. I'd already known for a few years what I wanted to do, so my piano teacher let me teach some of her younger students once in a while and my clarinet teacher took me out on a day's work experience, where I mainly watched her, asked a lot of questions and played a few duets with some other students. I then taught my sister piano for 6 months, but had my first paying pupil when I was 20 and in the final year of my music and psychology degree. I'm now 30 but look and sound younger, so people are stunned when I tell them I started out 13 years ago.

BTW I'm first and foremost a clarinettist, but have also got my saxophone, recorder, flute, piano and theory up to a level where I feel confident teaching (grade 7 up to diploma level in those subjects). With flute and piano, I tell pupils it's not my speciality and that I will only take them up to about grade 5, but that doesn't stop them from coming and I am fully booked at the moment. This year I had a pupil who passed grade 5 piano actually, and although she doesn't have good enough scales or rhythmic ability to tackle grade 6 yet (and I wouldn't feel confident to teach her grade 6 anyway) she has insisted on coming back for another year before she begins university! We now mainly play Queen and contemporary music - her choice.

Although teaching at home (and visiting schools) can sometimes be lonely, and occasionally you get a difficult family, I really do love it and can't imagine myself ever doing anything different. It also combines well with raising a family.

[gazdudeuk]

well i did a few lessons while i was at high school for pocket money when i was 15/16! but started properly when i was 18

[jenny]

Another thread got me thinking about this....

How old were you when you started teaching? Do you remember the first ever lesson you taught? And how did you get into teaching?

I was 17 when I started teaching music. I hadn't really thought about teaching at that stage, in fact I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do careerwise. My piano teacher recommended me to someone out of the blue and it went on from there. Looking back, I'm so glad she did as I absolutely love it and can't imagine doing anything else. I sometimes wonder what other job I'd be doing if it hadn't been for my fantastic piano teacher.

Would love to hear how other teachers started out..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

When I was in my last year at college (so aged 20), my piano teacher had been asked if she had a student who would teach a 3 year old (!!) and she asked me to do it. I'd never taught before and my teacher would offer suggestions and advice in my lessons. It was fun, and interesting, and in the 2nd lesson I realised that the child had perfect pitch. By the way, this was a very long time ago!!

[jacobvaneyck]

Wow well done to all you young starters! I only started at 22 last year, I never had the confidence before then. This was while I was doing my masters and I taught a lovely lady who was returning to playing. I was working on my dipABRSM teaching at the time as well. My first lesson was not an easy ride. I kept repeating myself, feeling inadequate, you get the drift. I got a bit better after that. When I came home last year I quickly found there was a woodwind peri going on maternity leave, and I took her job for a few months, teaching all woodwind (including bassoon, under protest of course!).

Privately I teach clarinet and piano, and now teach saxophone for a county music service. I always question whether I should be teaching sax, flute and piano, as I am self taught on flute and sax but have distinction grade 8 in both, and the last piano exam I did was grade 6 (with distinction). I seem to be doing OK with them, and I believe having the right people skills and general teaching ideas, and ability to explain things etc. is at least as important as being a virtuoso on the instrument. These are things that a young teacher may find more difficult.

[JuicyJen_uk]

I was 16 and I first started teaching my ex boyfriend's sister just because she was doing GCSE music.
Then I taught my friend.
Then my ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend's sister's friend.
Then a boy my mum used to look after when he was a wee baby.
Then my friend's boyfriend.
Then my ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend's sister's friend's mum's friend's son.
Then a woman I used to work with's daughter.
Then the woman I used to work with's next door neighbour and her daughter.
Then the woman I used to work with's niece.

I am now 20, and never looked back.

[Dulciana]

Here entereth the geriatric starter.
I only started teaching at the age of about 32. I'd been teaching my own oldest child, who did very well very quickly, and a couple of friends asked me to teach their children too. It just snowballed from there. I'd given up my 'day job' on having babies, and somehow ended up with a night job instead!

[upbeat]

I'm now 30 but look and sound younger, so people are stunned when I tell them I started out 13 years ago.

That happens to me as well (coincidentally I'm 30 too!)

It will be interesting to see if other teachers also started at a young age, as all those who have replied so far started in the late teens.

Although teaching at home (and visiting schools) can sometimes be lonely, and occasionally you get a difficult family, I really do love it and can't imagine myself ever doing anything different.

That's true and is one downside to the job. This forum is great though - its good to have somewhere to go for teaching advice/help etc...

I've kept records of all my pupils - the dates they started and finished, pieces they played as well as exam results and reports etc. I've also got audio recordings of most of them. In years to come, I shall have a wonderful archive of material, and I'm glad that I've kept records right from the beginning. In the past 7 years, I've had something like 55 different pupils, starting with just the 1, then 2, and now 28.

I've kept records too. It's lovely to look back at them sometimes, particularly when you've taught a pupil for several years and you can see how they have progressed.

[sbhoa]

I was 44.

[SuzyMac]

About 16; one of the neighbours asked about my teacher, then if I had done any teaching, then if I'd like to start... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Lone Ranger]

I must have been about 23 and had just embarked on my career as an English teacher when (as many of the above postings have testified) I was asked to fill in by a neighbour for her grand-daughter whose teacher had had to discontinued because of age and failing health. When I got married a few years later and moved away I lost the two pupils I then had and there was a gap of some 15 years and I have been gradually building up - still in a part-time capacity since then.

LR

[boogiecat]

I was 17 when I started to fill in at a music school. I had been on severaly courses re teaching up until then as opportunities arose through my music centre and other things. Got really lucky and was offered full time at 20 and went back there. Nice not having to build up students!

[ad_libitum]

I was 24. I knew I wanted to do it, so I went to my old piano teacher for advice and he told me to go for it.

Then he phoned a few weeks later and said "why haven't you got that ad in the paper yet?!" , and I said "I'm scared!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Once I had my first couple of pupils and realised I could actually do the job, I was glad I hadn't chickened out!

My very first pupil is still with me, and happily working for grade 2 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/party1.gif)

[elliewelly]

Neil, I feel the same way about some of my instruments too, but I am upfront about what qualifications I have and people are fine about it. They seem happy about my teaching qualification and don't tend to worry about my lack of piano exams (I was a late starter). For the record, I have grade 8 theory, clarinet, saxophone, recorder, grade 7 flute and grade 6 piano. My best grade 8 was my saxophone (141), way better than my clarinet (117 many years ago) which is actually my best instrument.

Oh yeah, I forgot!! I just did my Dip on clarinet didn't I?! (don't think I passed (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif) )

Upbeat - I was refused a bottle of wine in the one-stop shop the other day (IMG:style_emoticons/default/huh.gif)

[anacrusis]

I was forty.

Someone phoned me out of the blue, saying she'd been to a music shop in Bristol (recorder players will know which one!) and had asked there if the proprietor knew of anyone who might be able to teach her in Edinburgh. (Edinburgh being right next door to Bristol......not.) He knew from the repertoire I'd been buying from him at what approximate level I was playing, and my name was mentioned, as well as another two.

I told my caller that I'd never taught music before, though had supervised my kids' practice, and do have a very educational aspect to my job as a GP. I tried to find her a teacher, but couldn't - my own was fully committed (having to teach me, for starters... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) ), and the other suggestions had also drawn a blank. I was persuaded to give teaching a go, arranged a consultation lesson, established what my pupil could do, and what she wanted out of lessons, and have been teaching her for the last two years. I did take advice, read about the subject, and reflected also on the teaching I have had, and on the teaching I've observed my kids having, and have tried to take the best out of that, and avoid the worst I've seen - tailoring that also to my mature student, I hope. She is making progress, and we both enjoy her lessons too. These are the circumstances under which I am happy to try teaching - I'd steer clear of teaching kids whose parents want them to do a grade a year, because I feel neither equipped to deliver that, nor prepared to take on such pressure.