Teaching, Any advice or viewpoints most welcome Options

[LittleAnna]

Hello

I am 15 and will soon be taking my grade 7 flute and grade 6 theory. For a while now I have been thinking about teaching flute, informally, i.e. not doing graded exams, but simply starting beginners off to roughly grade 3 or 4 standard. A few family friends asked me a couple of months ago if I would be interested but I wasn't quite sure whether to accept or not. Both they and I realise that I would not be able to teach anywhere above grade 4 max at the moment as I am only grade 6/7 standard. I feel I would like to accept but don't want to if I will hold them back in their playing! Has anyone else had any similar experiences or does anyone have any advice? Any replies will be gratefully appreciated!!!

Thank You!!!!!
Anna :D

[sbhoa]

Have you spoken to your teacher about it.
If you have the support and encouragement from there then go for it.
That way you will fell more relaxed about asking advise when yuo need it too.

[maggiemay]

Hello Anna,

If it's any help, I started teaching (just friends' children at first) when I was 15 or 16.

You can make it clear that you only feel able to teach beginners / elementary.

If it gets to the point when you feel you might be holding them back, you can recommend that they change to someone more experienced. If friends have asked you, they must feel confident that you could do it. Start with one or two, and see how it goes.

Maggie

[kornflakes]

Teachers are students too, you should perservere with your own studies. Work towards grade 8, it can be done with hard work and persistance. You may even go on to do a teaching diploma if you find you enjoy teaching. Good luck!

[LittleAnna]

Thank you everyone your advice was really helpful, I think I will speak to my teacher about it, and youre all right, as long as I say I don't feel I can take them past a certain grade, then there needn't b a problem.

Thanks for replying - you have set my mind at rest.

Anna

[dcmbarton]

I started teaching when I was 17 and roughly gd 6/7. Like you, I was asked by friends who had children who wanted to learn. I started off as intending to do this just as a sideline, but 3 years on I now have 12 pupils. We all have to start somewhere. I did my gd 8 last year.
David

[samwise]

When I was around 16/17 I decided to start teaching very beginners, and I was about the same standard as you. Like people have suggested already and you yourself realise, then I suggested then I would train them to a certain grade and then pass them on to a more experienced teacher. At one point I had 10 pupils but I had to cut back because of studying etc.

I learned so much from that experience - I learned that when a kid says 'ooh I've done loads of practice' then it's obvious to tell when they're full of BS and they haven't been near a piano in their life. One of my students also had no sense of rhythm, tonality, she wouldn't learn the notes or practice, so I scraped her through Grade 2 (she had pushy parent syndrome) and I told her things wouldn't work. But those early teaching days were good fun, and I found I was a combination of my three previous teachers...it's great to pass on your own experiences.

Now I teach music in a secondary school full time, and I wish I had more time to teach 1-2-1.