colleagues, too. When Twin Flames asked
Watts to put together the rest of the tour-
ing band to back them up, Watts enlisted
Troy Huizinga on lead guitar and Mike
Giamberardino on bass. So again, teaching
begat valuable professional opportunities.
But what makes a good teacher, and
how does one balance teaching with be-
ing a professional musician?
“It can be challenging, for sure. You
have to be okay working a lot because you
might have a week where you have two
or three gigs, plus you’re teaching three
or four days. So, it’s kind of busy, but if you
can manage your stress level and figure
that out, it totally can work,” says Teri Park-
er, the owner of the Annex Academy of
Music in Toronto. She says the majority of
her dozen or so teachers are also gigging
musicians and that the studio environment
offers them a lot of advantages compared to
private home-based lessons.
“All the teachers at my studio do about
two or three days a week, so it’s not full-
time; it’s just a couple days to help supple-
ment their income and then they’ve got
all those other days to gig. So, I think most
people are finding an okay balance and
then if a gig falls on a day they teach, then
the nice thing with working in a studio is
that there is a big enough pool of teachers
that 90 per cent of the time we can each
cover everybody’s shift,” Parker explains.
Teaching privately, which usually
entails running lessons out of one’s own
home or going to students’ homes, can
be much more laborious. The big upside,
though, is getting paid more per hour. The
downside, obviously, is all the admin work
and hassle that comes with being a one-
person business – finding students, invoic-
ing, collecting fees, and enforcing policies,
like telling parents they still need to pay
for that lesson their child missed.
Like any job, teaching isn’t for every-
TERI PARKER
JAY WATTS
one. Prospective music teachers don’t just
need the musical skills and knowledge;
they also need the right personality. “If
you want to get into teaching, you have
to be able to commit to a schedule and
[behave] in a professional manner. After
that, it’s just a matter of making sure that
you have a deep well of patience because
you’re going to have some students who
are super excited to work with you, and
you’re going to have some who just don’t
want to put in the work… It can be really
frustrating sometimes as an instructor to
try to get students to put in the work, but
you can’t throw your sticks on the ground
and yell and scream at the student or
throw a chair like the guy in Whiplash.
It doesn’t work like that, so patience is a
really huge asset.”
Those considering teaching are ad-
vised to do their research and apply to
multiple studios in their
area to find the right fit.
Many, like Parker’s Annex
Academy, prefer teachers
to have a music degree or
be working towards one,
though previous teaching
experience isn’t manda-
tory. Also, different lesson
studios will have different
policies and programs.
“Some schools are very
firm with their subbing
out and some schools are
more flexible. So, if some-
body is applying for a job,
they should make sure to
find out how flexible they
are. If they don’t have too many gigs, then
a more rigid school might be OK, but if
they know they want to be able to gig
and do things, they need to make sure
that their boss is going to be okay with
subbing out. I’ve heard of schools that go
both ways,” notes Parker.
Schools will also vary in terms of how
much flexibility instructors have in what
they teach and how they structure their
lessons. Also, most studios will have an-
nual commitments for teachers like exams
and recitals, so make sure that is sorted
out before taking the job.
Overall, Watts and Parker are both em-
phatic that, for the right musicians, teach-
ing can be a wonderful job that perfectly
complements one’s music career.
“Absolutely, I would recommend it.
It’s a great way to be able to make some
decent money doing what you love,” says
Watts. “And it will improve your own play-
ing. It doesn’t matter which instrument
that you’re teaching; it will force you to
analyze the way that you play.”
“I have definitely met or played with
musicians who do not like teaching, but I
think for the majority of people, it’s a really
good way to balance their incomes and
balance their careers,” adds Parker. “Some
people really enjoy teaching and get a lot
of satisfaction out of it. Then, the hourly
income, even at a studio or out of your
own home, is a lot higher than a coffee
shop job or something.”
Michael Raine is the Senior Editor
of Canadian Musician
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 11