Teaching private music lessons can be an extremely rewarding practice for any musician. Whether you are doing it to supplement your income, for fun, or for a new experience, it is important to understand that in order to be successful, you need to have and maintain a steady flow of students. The question is how do these students find you. The following tips should get you started in your student recruitment process.

Decide Who You Want to Recruit

Have an idea about what ages, locations, experience levels, and what types of goals, you wish your students to have. These criteria can help you narrow down who you need to advertise to and try to recruit.

Reach Out to Local Schools

Music teachers have a large audience of eager students who want to learn and make music. Creating a relationship with music teachers means that you will also have a connection to all of their students. By offering to help at events, concerts, or even a class, it is likely that this teacher will give your name to parents of students who are really serious about what they do.

Advertise Online

Websites like Craigslist are completely free and commonly used for things just like this. You will be able to repost your advertisement weekly or biweekly. This gets your name out often and seen by people who may be searching the web for your type of service.

Post on Social Media

If you share that you are giving lessons and would love new students, a friend or family member could see this, and give your name to someone they know who is looking for what you are offering. This will get people talking, and will give them the knowledge that you are doing this. Now it will be fresh in their mind if anything comes up regarding the subject.

Discount for Referrals

Everyone loves a discount, sale, or deal, so why not use this to your advantage to get more students. Offer new students a buy two get one free lessons plan and offer whoever referred the new student a 50% off their next lesson. This will keep your current students referring you, which should hopefully make your student base larger. You can also tell local music teachers that if any of their students come to you they will get discounted lessons. By offering discounts, people are more likely to stick around, and also try to get their friends to join.

Build Relationships With Music Stores

Parents will often turn to the store where the instrument was purchases to ask for lessons. Many stores have lesson rooms for use or rent as well, making it convenient for both you and the student.

Conclusion

It’s all about how you get your name out there and build your reputation. Once you get a solid base of students you can begin to experiment with what is the best way to recruit and keep students coming back.  

Sources:

http://musiclessonsresource.com/for-teachers-how-to-recruit-students-for-private-music-lessons

http://blog.musicteachershelper.com/attract-new-students/

http://www.bigwhizbang.com/music-teaching/where-to-find-new-music-students/

http://www.brighthub.com/office/career-planning/articles/29742.aspx