Updated: Jan 12, 2020
This article is featured in the May, 2017 edition of the VASTA Voice, a publication of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association
Voice teachers are singers, and it’s the rare singer who is business-minded by nature. We’re artists who have eschewed the straight and narrow to dance with our muse.
Most of us started teaching voice because we knew how to sing, and teaching seemed like a better idea than waiting tables. Soon we found that there’s a lot about teaching that we liked.
We like the relationships, and helping others, and sharing in the process of growth and learning.
All the other stuff, though? Not so much.
Being a freelance voice teacher means you have your own studio. You have to market yourself, manage your schedule, keep track of each student’s progress and payments, and set up recitals.
You also have to set your price and policies; two elements of teaching that can be hard to decide and even harder to enforce.
If you teach through an institution the price for your lessons is set by someone else. You may get a little less than you’d like on a per-student