Aside from becoming a concert pianist, another popular way to make a living from your piano-playing skill is by becoming a piano teacher. Flexible work hours, great salary expectations, fun ways to interact with others, and many others are interesting benefits that being a piano teacher brings. Learn more about possible career paths for pianists.

In the real world, it takes more than just a dream and a decision to become a piano teacher. This article is designed to provide you with the necessary information on what it takes to become a successful piano teacher. Continue reading!

The best Piano tutors available

Who is a Piano Teacher

A piano teacher is an instructor who is well-versed in the knowledge of music and playing the piano. With this knowledge, the instructor organizes classes and provides piano lessons for interested students to become skilled piano players. See the skills you need to succeed in this career path.

There's more to becoming a piano player than meets the eye. It takes many years to master the instrument and become a teacher. Since the piano is often regarded as the mother of all musical instruments, beginners under the tutelage of a piano tutor are usually taught basic piano rudiments with lessons that feature general music theory and rudiments, including time signature, rhythm, etc.

What Does a Piano Teacher Do?

Summarily, the role of a piano teacher is to teach the novice student to:

Learn how to play the piano
Interpret music and understand music theory
Encourage them to have (and in some cases, organize) a consistent practice schedule for the budding piano player to hone their skills.
A piano teacher does more than teach others how to play the piano. Source: Pexels

What Are the Qualifications Needed to Become a Piano Teacher in Canada?

Becoming a piano teacher is not a day's job, as such, it takes several weeks of consistent effort working towards it. The skill, requirements, or qualifications that are needed to become a piano teacher can be segmented into three. Each aspect, just as important as the next, requires dedication to achieve them. These three divisions of the qualifications needed to become a piano teacher in Canada include:

Academic Qualifications

Academic qualifications are the most popular requirements employers demand when hiring a piano teacher. This requirement is usually in the form of an academic degree or certification by a music college or institution of learning that recognizes the holder as one knowledgeable in the field of music or, specifically, playing the piano.

In Canada, recognized academic certifications for piano teachers include:

RCM Qualifications: This certification is offered by the Royal Conservatory of Music after the student completes the RCM-standard-based training and passes its pre-requisite examination. The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) also offers piano teacher courses for aspiring piano teachers in Canada, after which you may become an RCM-certified teacher offering piano teaching services according to RCM standards.

This certification also provides the holder with privileged access to fellow RCM-certified teachers and professional development resources that would aid the piano teacher.

Bachelor and Master's degree programs in Music

Most people who want to build a professional career on the piano generally enroll in a Bachelor's program in Music and eventually, pursue a Master's program in music education courses or music studies. Lots of universities in Canada provide this learning opportunity.

Other institutions like the RCM Glenn Gould School provide a more focused learning approach designed to shape the aspiring piano teacher by offering classical music theory and academic studies.

Diploma in Music

A Diploma in Music is an additional certification recognized and recommended for piano teachers. Typically, most Diploma in Music programs do not take longer than 18 months until completion and can be completed either onsite or online (remotely). In addition to other qualifications such as RCM certification, once the diploma in the music program is completed, the aspiring piano teacher is ripe for a professional piano-teaching career.

Skill-based Qualifications

Without sounding cliché, a piano teacher needs to know how to play the piano. Hence, skill-based qualifications focus on the aspiring piano teacher learning how to proficiently play the piano.

Learning how to play the piano is a practical step and can be done independently of an academic background in music. Most academic institutions rely on the assumption that the student has already acquired basic piano-playing skills, at least.

Beginners who want to learn piano-playing skills usually hire a piano tutor near me or enroll in beginner piano lessons or online piano lessons. Most novice piano players begin learning at a young age. However, older individuals can learn how to play the piano as well.

Piano teacher near me — In most situations, your hands-on skills on the piano matter more than certificates. Source: Pexels

After enrolling on piano lessons Calgary or in another city, the aspiring piano teacher will be taught fundamental piano-playing principles including piano introductory lessons, identifying piano keys, and the relevance of piano in music. After which, the student will undergo a series of piano lessons learning about clefs and staves, sharps and flats, melodies and harmonies, pedalling techniques, intervals, hand positioning, etc.

Further piano lessons will expose the budding pianist to the essence of regular practice in skilful piano playing, developing creativity, ingenuity, and several other advanced concepts in piano-playing such as scales, chords, chord progressions, utilizing both hands simultaneously while playing, maintaining rhythms, etc.

Conclusive parts of the skill-based learning will help the student understand music notations, sight-read, and develop a unique playing style.

Intrinsic Qualities Required to Become a Piano Teacher

Asides from the academic certifications and ability to play the piano skillfully, becoming a piano teacher also requires certain intrinsic traits which would complement these qualifications. Also, these traits help aspiring piano teachers impart knowledge easily and in a more receptive manner.

The intrinsic qualities required to become a piano teacher include:

Communication skills: Effective piano teachers impart knowledge seamlessly with the right choice of words and the ability to convey an idea understandably. This makes communication an essential prerequisite for aspiring piano teachers.
Patience: As a piano teacher, you will be exposed to several students with varied learning capabilities and paces. It is essential to understand each student's learning capacities and patiently guide them into learning how to play the piano proficiently.
Passion: Passion can be a great driver, especially when the journey of being a piano teacher is frustrating or tiring. This skill helps the aspiring piano teacher through the learning required to become a piano teacher. It also aids the piano teacher with grit and perseverance when teaching others how to play the piano.
Interpersonal skills: With excellent interpersonal skills, a piano teacher can interact with several students, build a friendly rapport and have a likeable personality that fosters learning.
Flexibility: For most independent piano teachers, working with several students can always lead to conflicting learning schedules. Being flexible and accommodating would help the piano teacher navigate through these situations.
Motivational skills: Students tend to feel overwhelmed and unmotivated while learning to play the piano. As such, the piano teacher should be able to motivate and spur the students back to learning in a supportive manner.
Organization skills: Especially for independent piano teachers, records, schedules, and student progress can be hard to keep track of. This is why piano teachers should be able to organize each student's records and schedule practice periods in the simplest ways with organizational skills.

Where Can a Piano Teacher Work?

As a piano teacher, there are myriads of career roles you can take on, including working as a:

Music instructor in a university or music college: With the knowledge of how to play the piano, piano teachers become in demand for universities and music colleges looking for professors or lecturers of music. This career role usually requires a vast knowledge of music theory and classical music. Hence, the academic qualifications of a piano teacher come in handy.

Colleges offering specialized courses in piano-playing also hire piano teachers to take on this role.

Fine arts teacher: Art is a broad area of study, also employs piano teachers to teach art expression, ingenuity, and style through music.
Music specialist teacher: A music specialist teacher provides their knowledge to a younger group of students, generally between kindergarten and grade 7. This stage of learning helps nurture and groom younger students with an interest in music.
Private piano tutor: As a private piano tutor, you can teach a wide variety of students, both rudimentary and advanced lessons in piano playing on demand. This career path is usually preferred by most piano teachers because it involves independence from a contractor or employer. However, it is not without its challenges. Scouting for interested students for private tutelage can be quite demanding, especially for piano teachers just starting their careers. Students often search locally using terms like piano lessons near me, which can help new tutors find clients.

Piano teachers can also take on other roles with their piano-playing knowledge and skills, including:

Music brand influencer: With a vast social media following or online audience, a piano teacher could run ambassador or sponsorship deals with music brands as a source of income.
Online piano instructor: Through social media or internet cloud hosting platforms, piano teachers could work as online piano instructors, offering online piano learning to interested students.

Other career roles for a piano teacher include:

Music and choir directing
Music arranger
Band or music group pianist.
Concert pianist

In retrospect, being a piano teacher is a rewarding career path with limitless potential. However, attaining this height, like every other professional niche, would require dedication, consistent practice, and commitment.

If you become a piano teacher today, see how much you may earn.

Did you like this article? Leave a rating!