How Do You Get Started Giving Violin Lessons?

Being able to play the violin (either as a soloist or part of an ensemble) is quite the achievement. The violin, which is often thought of as an instrument for the elite, has a bit of an image problem.

Being a violin teacher is quite different to being a science teacher or an English teacher since you have several jobs to do. You’ll need to have the violin and teaching skills in order to help your students learn to play the instrument.

Regardless of whether students are beginners, intermediate, or experts, they need a teacher who's invested in their learning, passionate about it, and can inspire them.

So, how can you start teaching violin or music lessons? How do you start your job search? Teacher recruitment might seem like a minefield, but over the course of this article, you’ll learn the ropes (or should that be strings?).

Want to give private lessons?

Join the Superprof community and share your knowledge with interested and motivated students.

Create an ad

Teaching Violin without Qualifications

Like all forms of teaching, not just anyone can start a teaching career in music. Often, certain training and certifications are required, but it is possible to teach violin without qualifications.

A good teacher needs to be able to quickly and effectively transfer knowledge to their students. This is what makes the difference between an adequate teacher and an excellent teacher: someone who actually teaches their students.

Despite how important one recruiter might consider certain music qualifications, they don't necessarily give an indication of your teaching skills.

Here are some of the key profiles that people are looking to recruit. If any of them sound like you, you're on the right path to teaching music classes yourself or finding education jobs in schools or music centres.

A Self-Taught Violinist

Learning to play the violin by yourself might seem risky, but there are several advantages. You can learn about music for yourself, however you want to, at your own speed. You can study exactly what you need to know, not waste time on techniques you’ll never use, and put together your own repertoire.

This will help you better address any problems they encounter as well as foreseeing any problems they might encounter further down the line. The problem is that even if you've been playing violin since childhood, without being able to prove your grade, finding new jobs without the help of word of mouth can be tricky.

Being an Excellent Teacher

Teaching skills and adaptability are essential. Each student is different and you’ll need to keep this in mind. A good tutor will understand their students and adapt their teaching methods to help them.

You can’t stick to just one method or the same exercises all the time. You need to work with the student’s learning style and speed. There’s no sure-fire way to teach any given lesson, as there’s one method that works for some and other methods that work for others.

How to Become a Violin Teacher and Start Giving Lessons

It’s all well and good hearing about the various avenues you can pursue your dream career as a violin teacher, but isn’t it rather meaningless if you aren’t equipped with a set of actionable that will allow you to accomplish it?

The most accessible option available to you, irrespective of what qualification you may or may not have to your name is to offer your services as a private violin tutor. 

Students will want to see your experience and the types of violin lessons you offer - whether that's violin teaching for kids, adults, or both. So, having all this information available across a number of channels will allow you to put your service in front of the eyes of students in your area, including violin classes near me, and far beyond!

Another way to get up and running as a private tutor would be to ensure that you provide an excellent service and make that extra effort in preparing for your lessons. While digital channels can certainly act as a catalyst for your growth, word-of-mouth remains the most effective advertising tool.

Teaching Violin in Small Music Centers

If you’ve got the passion and the teaching skills, you can still teach outside of conservatoires (who ask for academic music qualifications) at music centres that’ll be happy to give you a chance.

You’ll be free to teach violin in your own style, be it music theory, reading music, or practicing how to play the instrument, of course! Whether it’s a classical or electric violin, you can help your students improve their skills and learn more about music.

The Rates for Teaching Violin Positions

You can’t deny that the violin is a complex instrument. Learning to play the violin requires a particular set of skills, including a knowledge of music theory. This knowledge comes at a price, regardless of how you learn. So, what are the going rates for a violin tutor?

Violin Lesson Prices by City

When it comes to prices, Los Angeles and New York tend to be the most expensive places to learn in the US. In the Big Apple, the average cost of violin tutorials is $75, while in LA, it's around $70. Of course, this will vary depending on where you are in either city you find yourself.

If you want violin tutorials somewhere like Sacramento, Boston, or Chicago, you can expect to pay around $30 - $40 less per hour. This is definitely an advantage of living outside of these cities that have a higher cost of living. You should also work out your own budget.

City	Average Cost
New York	$75
Sacremento	$33
Los Angeles	$70
Boston	$60
Chicago	$60

Violin Lessons in a Conservatoire

There are plenty of music schools in the country and, as you can imagine, they’re not free. Getting a degree in music can be a costly endeavour. You’re paying for the title from a reputable school of music, after all.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Walford School (@walfordschool)

You’re also paying for expert teachers, quality teaching resources, and structured courses. There’s at least one big music school in almost every big city in the US and abroad. You’ll be spoilt for choice.

The Price of Violin Tutorials in Person or Online

These two are quite similar. In both cases, you’ll have to trust someone that you’ll first meet online. Then, you’ll have to choose whether or not you prefer tutorials over webcam or face-to-face with your tutor.

Before you start applying to every job alert you get to your inbox, you should keep in mind that each type of vacancy is different, some recruitment processes are more complicated than others, and, in terms of salary, some places pay far better than others.

Becoming a Violin Tutor with Superprof

If you ask any violin tutor out there or anyone who tutors an instrument, subject or skill, they’ll likely tell you that the hardest part of their job is finding students to teach.

This is to be expected, though, right? If you are interested in teaching somebody the instrument you love so much, marketing your service and selling yourself to potential students is unlikely to be the side of things you want to spend most of your time.

Thankfully, there’s a solution that will combat this predicament. Superprof is an online tutoring platform that violin tutors turn to in bunches in seek of qualified tutors to mentor them on their journey towards improvement.

All you’ll have to do to get started is sign up with an account and create a professional profile that shows your expertise in violin lessons, along with the rate you intend on charging for hourly tutoring sessions. Your profile should include a professional photo with your instrument and a compelling bio that expresses your teaching passion and experience. 

From here, Supeprof will handle the rest, allowing you to sit back and let students come to you. Supeprof has an expansive user base here in the US and across the world and will put your service in front of students looking for violin lessons close to your location or online.

Sign up to Superprof and kickstart your career as a violin tutor as soon as today. Your next student might come sooner than you thought!