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Tempo is high for music teachers

By Suzanne Monson
Special to The Seattle Times

	LAURIE MATANICH Pam Robertson instructs her piano student, 12-year-old Kali Shilvock of Lake Forest Park, at her Bothell home. "When my kids were really small, and I was teaching them all these little things, I realized 'I'm a teacher,' " Robertson said.
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Barely a decade ago, the private music teacher started her lessons with just four students. Today, the Kenmore woman's business has risen tenfold.

Robertson must schedule Christmas recitals at a local retirement center in two halves to accommodate her full roster — and she still has a waiting list of potential students.

It's a refrain that Phyllis Pieffer, the president of the Music Teachers National Association, has been hearing for years: Private music education is striking the right career chord for local instrument instructors.

Many of the thousands of local public- and private-school students blowing horns, beating drums, bowing violins and tickling keyboards for upcoming holiday concerts take private lessons to enhance their skills.

"Washington is a very strong state for music instruction," says Pieffer, who lives in Aberdeen and has been teaching piano in various parts of the country for 27 years. Of the national association's 24,000 members who teach music in private settings, 1,000 live in Washington, she says.

"And I would say that every one of those 1,000 teachers likely has a waiting list of students they can't fit into their schedules," Pieffer adds.

The sound of music teaching For more information about teaching music, contact: Music Teachers National Association: 513-421-1420, 888-512-5278 or www.mtna.org Washington Music Educators Association: 425-771-7859, 800-324-WMEA or visit www.wmea.org Washington State Music Teachers Association: www.geocities.com/washingtonmusic

Pieffer herself knew she was in tune with the demands of local music students when she moved from Denver to Washington five years ago — and within months had a waiting list of potential students.

"Most teachers are limited by the number of hours we can teach, because most young students are available only after school, in the early evenings or before school begins," says Pieffer.

Still, she says, "On the average, a private teacher will have 20 to 40 students, depending on how part- or full-time they want to be ... but there are many who do teach 30, 40, 50 students, and those who offer group instruction for four to possibly as many as 12 at a time."

Demand for private music instruction, believes Bruce Caldwell, executive manager for the Washington State Music Teachers Association, is an extension of the popularity of school bands and orchestras throughout the region.

Parents who want their students to perform in some of the Puget Sound's competition-level music groups often seek out lessons outside of school.

Though not the hotbed for music-education employment that teachers find in the Midwest and Texas, where marching bands are "ingrained in their tradition," says Caldwell, "Washington is way ahead in jazz education."

Bands from Seattle's Garfield and Roosevelt high schools each have won the prestigious Essentially Ellington jazz festival in New York City in the past few years; musicians from Edmonds Woodway High School also were finalists there.

An increase in the number of retirees interested in learning an instrument and a rise in the number of home-schooled students — many of whom can take lessons during typical school hours — "also has opened up more opportunity for the independent teacher," says Pieffer.

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Opportunity and salary rates, she adds, are greater in "larger metropolitan areas, in Seattle and the whole I-5 corridor, than they would be in outlying small towns and rural areas."

Since many independent music teachers charge $20 to more than $100 hourly, Pieffer calculates the typical salary for an instructor teaching at 10 months a year for at least 20 students to be $15,000 to $50,000 annually.

"Those opportunities are there, even in tight economic times," says Caldwell. "Once you have that skill, it's there forever. Music is for life."

Performing in a church regularly, conducting a choir or participating in community activities and civic organizations "... create an instant network," says Pieffer. "But the primary way you can advertise is by word of mouth, because people want their child to study with somebody who has produced good students."

That's part of the secret of Robertson's success. What started as classes for just four students in her basement 11 years ago has grown, through referrals, to more than 40 pianists in a studio that she and her husband added to their home several years ago.

The key to teaching music in a private setting, Robertson believes, is more than being skilled at playing an instrument. It's a love of teaching, she says.

"When my kids were really small, and I was teaching them all these little things, I realized 'I'm a teacher. There's something here.' "

Beyond that desire to work with children, says Pieffer, independent instructors "have to know what kind of students you have. Some children are not visual learners. Some learn by ear. Others learn by feeling and touching. There are a number of approaches to learning music. It's necessary to decide as a teacher what approach you like to use."

"You need variety in everything," Robertson says. "Music itself is so varied. There are so many rhythm patterns, harmonies, melodies. It's wide open. And you need variety so kids don't get bored."

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company