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.....

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.

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

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!!

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.

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.

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!

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.


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 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.

I was 44.

About 16; one of the neighbours asked about my teacher, then if I had done any teaching, then if I'd like to start...

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

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!

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!"

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

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 )

Upbeat - I was refused a bottle of wine in the one-stop shop the other day

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... ), 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.

My situation is a bit different because I trained as a class teacher - so I began teaching at 21. I was a class teacher (Reception to Year 4) for 11 years then took the plunge and went part-time - partly because, although there were aspects of class teaching I loved, there was far more that I didn't love, and partly because I had started teaching at Guildhall on Saturdays and it was just too much to do that on top of full-time class teaching.

The music only very gradually started taking over, and it was only when I got a job in a primary school abou 13 years ago, under the most stupendously wonderful head teacher ever, and I was allowed to just teach only Kodály to all the classes in the school, that I really started honing my skills and I started to feel that I really understood what teaching music was all about.

I first started teaching adults in September 1991 (I'd just done the Kodály Advanced Diploma and the two fearsome old Hungarians who examined us thought I was the best of the bunch that year and so I got asked to start teaching the Elementary Level ). It was quite a baptism of fire as I had no syllabus to help and had not done this level as a year-course myself - it used to take me at least 4 hours to plan and prepare for a 3-hour class...

I have to keep pinching myself when I realise that I've now been teaching for 30 years in total *large gulp * - and I'm still learning how to do this most special of jobs (incidentally, I'm earning a good £15K a year less now than I would be if I was still a class teacher ).

With reference to another thread, if I'm allowed to do that - the average earnings thread - nobody would dispute your worth, no matter what you earn!

I'm 16, and a person from work has asked me to give her daughter some private tutoring in Math... Needless to say I am scared!!

I started teaching when I was 20 going on 21. It was a transitional time between nearly joining London City Ballet, trying to earn enough money waitressing on Saturday evenings to pay for my point shoes (about £10 a week - a lot then) and moving house with my parents. The decision to teach came like a bolt from the blue and was totally unexpected - it was instantly the right thing to do. I gave up ballet - suddenly and without regret. I watched my mother teach some young beginners for a few weeks and I took on my first pupil at 4.00 on a Wednesday afternoon. I was so completely bowled over with the whole thing. I was supervised by my parents (I couldn't have done it all alone). Later I took up ballroom and Latin dancing for fun and did some children's ballet teaching one day a week - so it wasn't all wasted

your 'ex-boyfriend' gave you a lot of work, did he get any incentives for it?

I don't teach music (######, I can barely play) but I do Coach. I starting assisting with the juniors when I was 15 or 16. I ran my first class alone when I was 22 I think and opened a club when I was 25

i started teaching violin when i was about 16.. it was a favour for one of my uncle's friend who opened a small private music school.. i was quite scared as i wasn't that good at my violin.. with only a grade 5..

then i signed up as a piano teacher at a more established private music school when i was 17 and have been teaching there until now!! im about 20 now.. so ive been teaching piano for more than 2 years..

more and more students are coming to me and i feel very accomplished, knowing that ive touched some lives.. as my students progress up the grades, i feel that i need to upgrade myself even more!! i hope to enrol for a music degree course, but do not know where to.. any suggestions??

Formally - ie giving lessons and being paid for it - when I was about 23 I think. Informally, ie helping others on - no idea - many years!

I was 42 and had been having lessons for just over two years! I was forever asking questions of my tutor, and was keen to learn everything. By the time I sat grade 5 in piano and theory, my tutor recommended I start to teach! At first, I thought I didn't know enough, and wouldn't be any good, but I have enjoyed it on the whole!

I was 19 (rather a long time ago now!) & it was my teacher's suggestion. She thought I'd love it & I did. I'd always known I wanted a career in music & was studying it full-time, but hadn't known exactly what path to take. I sson became hooked & have done it ever since.

Going off topic a bit here, but just wanted to share this with you all. I have a lovely 10 year old piano student (just done Grade 2) who works really hard and is eager to learn about so many things and has already decided that she wants to be a music teahcer when she grows up. I felt so thrilled when she told me! Also, I recently spoke to her dad (he's decided to have piano lessons too) and he said that "she lives to play the piano".

Sometimes I feel like a talking fingering chart in Orchestra!!

I began in a very similar way to you, Dulciana, though I was a bit younger when I started teaching (28). I'd fully intended to go back to work soon after having my first child at 23, but when it came down to it I just couldn't bear the thought, and we decided that despite the loss of income I would stay as a full-time mum with them for their first few years.

After I began teaching my own children and it became obvious that they were doing well, I was absolutely inundated with parents of my children's friends asking me to teach theirs too. At first I taught only piano, but gradually took on more and more recorder students (many of my pupils do both with me), and now recorder teaching forms the greater proportion of my work. Over the last couple of years I have started to gather clarinet pupils as well. It all makes for a very nice variety of repertoire in the lessons.

I also found that it was an ideal job to combine with having the children at home, and gradually upped my hours as they got more independent. I really enjoy teaching and can't think of any other job I would prefer!

Hooray - so there IS another teacher of electronic organ/keyboard on the forum

I started teaching at 19 whilst working at Boosey & Hawkes in London. They were having to farm their organ/piano customers out to a music school in Finchley (Lillian Eden - anyone remember her?) until I was appointed as Demonstrator/in-house teacher.......that was in the early 70's

Would have been while I was at uni, so I'd have been...umm...twenty-one. My first pupil was a grade 5-ish standard clarinettist. A very conscientious pupil, and a good introduction to instrumental tuition for me.

I was 38.

Kind people on this forum had been encouraging me to consider teaching for a few months, and I had been replying that I didn't feel ready, didn't think I knew enough.....

And then Andante-in-C proposed the Grade 1 challenge. And to my surprise (and hers, I think) I found myself offering her a swap of singing lessons for recorder lessons.....

The first lesson has to be the scariest thing I've ever done. However, having a pupil who's a superb musician and far more experienced teacher than me has been incredibly helpful as I've developed ideas and she's given me feedback on what I'm doing

I also had a local friend from my choir who was desperate for singing lessons, but was long term unemployed so couldn't afford them. So I offered her the opportunity to be my "guinea pig" for starting to teach in return for however much she felt she could afford. This worked so well that her confidence rocketed, she found a job and no longer had time for lessons

I think I was about 19/20. Done on quite on an informal basis. A great expereince for when I took to it more seriously later. My first lesson was quite scary but you soon learn a few tips for being more at ease!!

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences of how you started teaching. It's been really interesting reading them all


How lovely, to know you have instilled such a love of music in your pupil. This is what makes teaching so rewarding for me, when you can see how much pleasure and enjoyment learning music brings to others.

I started last year (aged 20) when I was in my final year at uni. A friend of mine had too many pupils at different schools so she handed over all the kids she was teaching at one primary school to me. It was a great opportunity! Unfortunately all but one were in Year 6 so they've moved up to secondary school. Their parents want them to continue with me but unless I can find somewhere outside school to teach them (the secondary school is refusing to answer messages) I think I might lose them.. plus my source of extra money to get me through my postgraduate degree! It would be a shame because I've really enjoyed teaching them. Much more than I expected!

I was about 38!

I started teaching more or less by accident. My son's violin teacher was leaving, and there was no-one else on the island to take over from her with spaces to spare, so she asked me if I would take on some of her young and eager pupils who would otherwise just be abandoned. Eight years on, I'm still doing it, and people still keep coming back. Guess I must be doing something right!

Oh, now I think of it, one has not come back. This is because he is very promising, and has been offered a bursary by a Music School on the mainland. BUT one of the conditions attached is that he must be taught by someone with professional performance experience (which I don't have). So, having got him to where he is (including the title of Western Isles Primary Young Musician of the Year) I now have to hand him over to someone else!

I guess that's life!

I was a classroom teacher for about 11 years (mot music.... and secondary).
Then when I was 38, there was a school that needed a clarinet teacher and couldn't get one. Another teacher who taught there kept on at me.... and persuaded me to give it a go. She told me I was better than no teacher .I was quite nervous... as although I have taught, I had never taught an instrument... and I haven't had lessons in the clarinet since I was at university. I was (and still am) learning the piano .... and my children were (and still are) having music lessons that I have sat in on... so I suppose I had a good idea about how to teach an instrument.
I had 3 pupils at first... a beginner and 2 who had already been playing a bit. I loved it. My classroom experience meant I knew how to break down things to explain them to children. I found it a delight to teach 1:1. I have been worried that I'm not good enough to teach... but my pupils have made good progress and have done well in exams (in the last batch... I had 3 distinctions and 1 merit!!!) so i am gaining in confidence.
I have leaned so much 'on the job'. I have had to analyse technique a lot to work out how to describe to someone how to do something to a child.
I have friends who are instrumental teachers... and i ask their advice a lot.
I have just sent of my application for 'Teaching Music Effectively" course in London.... and next year I intend to do my CT ABRSM. I have 10 pupils now.... 6 in school and 4 out of school. My highest standard pupil just got distinction in her Grade 3.... At the moment I don't feel confident taking pupils beyond Grade 5... and I want to ensure I am ready for this pupil so that I can continue teaching her all the way through!!!!

Started my youngest pupil today (just 8... but quite big). She was lovely and giggled all lesson!!!!

I love it!!!! I am so glad I got into teaching the clarinet!!!!

I think I was about 7 I lined up all my teddies (I didn't play with dolls) on the piano and taught them The Snake Dance. My Donkey could also play scales with his hooves!

But to a human.. when I was about 17/18 I think. A couple of piano pupils and a clarinet, but I didn't present for exams and tbh I was moving around too much to take on permanent pupils, it was more 'coaching' really.

About 18 or so. I had just left the army as musician and didnt have a clue what to do next, and a friend from our church said thier daughter wanted to learn the flute, so I taught her for about a year or so until she decided it wasnt for her. At the same time I started teaching her, I got onto the instrumental teaching course in Aberdeen and thats where I still am, still teaching, earning more and teaching more instruments.

I love my council job - for the benefits, not really the horrible teenage boys!

I started when I was about 23 - 2 children from a large family who were in the church choir - lessons were free to encourage them to stay in the choir (and I couldn't guarantee that I could teach them anything anyway!)

Then a gap, and 2 more pupils when I was about 25 and had embarked on a secondary science teaching career (having decided that I was cut out for teaching ).

Then properly when I was about 34 and decided that I wasn't cut out to be a full time mum - I've had piano pupils ever since

I unofficially started teaching when I started sixth form. I helped out with various classroom and instrumental lessons in school and often gave the pupils who were 'friends' lessons in my free time. I officially started teaching privately when I was 18 and at university, that has continued and now, at 20, I have a peripatetic woodwind job and do teach a few more private students too.

Only just seen this...

Kind of a bummer - but on the other hand, wow, that's some vindication of your ability to imbue confidence!!

I was 16 --- she was my boyfriend's little sister.

I'm 27, just started teaching, my first pupil this Friday!!

I've wanted to teach for years but I had to work full time for a while before I could jump ship and go it alone.

No regrets so far, can't wait to get stuck in!!

I'm sure you don't need it but good luck on Friday.

I feel fairly confident, but I will probably need some luck aswell!! Thanks!!

18 and it was accidental and I'm 22 now. At first I was intended to have a lesson, but then the owner of the music school auditioned me and told me to teach instead of learn.

My first day of teaching was a group lesson. I was just being trained for one time and supervised one time. The rest was on my own! I was scared, but excited. I think there's a reason behind all of that coz I'm not a music graduated student, but my main job is teaching now.

I enriched my knowledge by exchanging experience with my cousin who is a teacher also, my mom who is a vocal teacher, and colleagues. This forum helps as well.