Posted by Joe S. on February 12, 2000 at 18:47:52:
In Reply to: Pros-I really need this info! posted by Name Withheld on February 12, 2000 at 15:19:04:
I would like to bring some negative things to your attention about teaching lessons. I am NOT the Ghost of Lessons Past, but I feel as though you are owed a view of the worst of it, as I'm sure that you already have a concept of the best of it:
The main thing that prompted me to achieve a high level of ability was my boredom with not being a great player, and impatience (not with myself, but with the passage of time) to wait very long to acquire high levels of skills. These things drove me to work hard to "catch" my tuba skills "up" to my borderline-pro classic guitar skills, as I was phasing out the heavy guitar practicing and phasing in the heavy tuba practicing at age 17. Lessons, frankly, made little difference in my progress, as I always worked on far more than I was assigned in lessons (but I DID prepare my lessons!), and spent a lot of time rooting around for recordings from which to glean concepts of sound.
Most of the students that I work with do NOT have this drive. A teacher can "inspire" and "insist" but cannot "install". It is easy to build up a large studio (which I have always avoided), but one spends more than 2/3 of their time teaching (statistically, I.M.O.) a bunch of "bumblebees", unless one has worked very hard to set themselves up with a great situation, such as Mr. Zerkel, others like him, and some of the conservatory instructors have done, where there are enough students to choose from that the "bumblebees" can be sent "Thanks just the same." letters.
Working with sloths is NOT rewarding to me, and I find it to be disheartening when I realize that a student is a non-achieving sloth with no drive. I don't have a lot of trouble providing for my family (thank God and his very good sense of humor towards me), so I don't have to tolerate disheartening students. However, if private instruction represented a significant part of my income, I would HAVE to tolerate them, to some extent. Do some soul-searching and realize that private instruction is not always the ideal per the model. Sitting through bad lessons, where the income from those lessons is badly needed, can be mental torture.
Bad students, in freelance private instruction, are the equivalent of a bad boss at a regular day job, I.M.O. Now that I have stated a lot of negatives, try to balance these negatives with a lot of positives and you will probably have an accurate picture of a heavy schedule of private instruction.
I realize that I didn't address the money issues, but my understanding is that you currently are NOT starving. Therefore, the REAL issue is not IF you can make enough money but rather HOW (unless, of course, I misunderstood).