Anyone have private drum teaching business advice?

I'm trying to figure out if it's possible for myself to start a private drum teaching business.
I have two acoustic drum sets, one E-kit, computers for live streaming and zoom meeting lessons, experience with private lessons, and a one car garage currently being used for typical American consumer junk. I'm on a $0 budget so I've already nixed the idea of sound-proofing my garage, but this could happen in the future if I can save up enough money in the next few years.
Anyone have any tips on how to get started?
Lock out studios around here are about $500 a month, and dirty and sketchy.
I can make room in my shoe box guest house type apartment to set up the V Drums and do Zoom meetings.
Any advice on how to maximize profitability, or how to score students with rich parents? Or any tips at all really? Thanks in advance.

If you're just starting out, I would recommend getting in touch with local music stores that offer lessons or smaller "music schools" that offer private instruction. When you are just starting out, it is good to be "in" with an established place that offers lessons. Remember, in this case, a "music school" could be just a place that offers music lessons that's not affiliated with a music store, but otherwise operates the same.

Yes, the music store or lessons place will charge you a fee for studio rental, but they also help advertise your services and give you referrals for students. Once you become more established through a few years of experience, then you can consider going on your own. You have to think about marketing from the student/parent perspective. If you were the perspective student or parent of a student, would you want to take your son or daughter to an established, "known" entity where other students go, or would you want to go to some strangers garage for lessons?

I have been teaching at a "music school" since 2011. In this case, it's just several rooms in a building that offers lessons to students of all ages and abilities. I am one of about 12 or 13 teachers. To me, that's the best way to go, because you have a partner who will help recruit students and want you to succeed, because if you succeed, so does the school.

Online lessons (which we were all forced to do during the pandemic) are not ideal. It can be done but in person is the far, far better option. Especially starting from scratch as a teacher, I would think jumping right into online lessons would be very difficult. You can use in person lessons as an advantage. If you just did online lessons, what sets you apart from any other drummer on You Tube or Instagram? Not a lot (no offense, this applies to me and a lot of us). But in person, you can see hand position, see bad technique tendencies etc. etc. etc. and have an overall more human interactive experience.

I would also recommend taking a few lessons with a teacher that you respect. See how they do things and see what your own experiences are as an actual student. You can change things based on what you like/don't like about that teachers style, approach etc. They can also give you solid advice on becoming a successful teacher. Just remember one thing: It is NOT a competition. There are multiple drum teachers here in my city (Cincinnati) and we all want each other to succeed and there are plenty of students to go around. Don't go into this thinking "I'm going to steal your current or prospective students". That won't go over well. It's all about working together, being professional and having respect for your fellow teachers. If you go into this venture with that attitude, we ALL win.

Thank you @vyacheslav that all sounds like excellent advice and I will take it to heart. I tried a few music schools around here already, but no one ever called me back, but I try again.

Is there a drum shop in your area? They probably have a bulletin board, and they may even already have referral agreements with other drum teachers.

bongoman said:

Is there a drum shop in your area? They probably have a bulletin board, and they may even already have referral agreements with other drum teachers.

Click to expand...

Yes there is a drum shop kinda near me and yes they do have a bulletin board. Good idea! TY!

if you are going to go on your own right away, a GREAT resource for finding students are the local high school band programs!!!!

that is how I started my current career!!!!!

here in C-bus, there are only 2 or 3 schools who have full time percussion guys like me. The rest are alkways looking for people to take on students. Many will even let you use their facilities. I know at my school, on Monday's and Tuesdays, we have teachers come in to do lessons with some of the wind players. They get pulled out of regular band class do do the lesson.

i would look at smaller programs/schools that probably don't have the huge budgets to have full staffs. I see you are in LA. What specific part are you from? I would imagine there are some mid-size programs out there looking for some outside private lesson help as they build their programs

What’s your educational background? What are you qualified to teach?

I don't know anything getting students and so on, it's works differently here. But I do know teaching stuff and I'm guessing you haven't taught before?

There are method books for teaching music, I would get some of those(and read them) and then some drum books and "deconstruct" the drum books and analyse them. Does the first lessons start with a drumbeat or some snare drum rudiments for example? Also there can be a point on taking some lessons from a teacher you like and online can work for that and ask them how they teach.

Unfortunately I don't know any books about music teaching in english, since my books are in Swedish och Norwegian. But I'm guessing there are music teacherporgrams at universities in other countries? So maybe look up the mandatory books for some of those programs and don't limit yourself to just the US, check Australia, UK, New Zeeland and so on.

Totigerus said:

Any advice on how to maximize profitability, or how to score students with rich parents? Or any tips at all really? Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Not much to add here, except that, if you want to score some students with rich parents, offer lessons in their home; chances are the kid will have a good to great set, you can help them set it up properly and get accustomed to it. I'm by no means rich, but my last drum teacher used to travel to my house for lessons, and it was much more enjoyable and beneficial for me than sitting behind some randomly set up drum kit in a music shop. I've never taught drums, but I did tutor kids in their own homes, and their parents seemed to appreciate that more than having to schlep their kids around. Plus, if the parents stick around during the lessons, they can know how their money is being spent, and may very well tip you extra.

i was thinking about teaching drums. is there any basic beginner tricks that can help them learn fast but will be entertaining for them?

mellanslag said:

So maybe look up the mandatory books for some of those programs and don't limit yourself to just the US, check Australia, UK, New Zeeland and so on.

Click to expand...

If you go that route, there maybe somewhat of a cultural difference on how to teach a beginner. I study music teaching(with drums as one of my specializations) and as part of the curriculum here we looked at different books from different countries and some really old books and some new ones. Quelle surprise, there where difference from a Swedish book from the 1960's, a newer book and a book from 2000 from Switzerland.

SkullDrummer said:

i was thinking about teaching drums. is there any basic beginner tricks that can help them learn fast but will be entertaining for them?

Click to expand...

I know of several things that usually work:
1. Find something that they enjoy playing, it can be a song and it doesn't have to be exactly as it is on the record. At some point it's just somewhat of a more fun metronome and that works to.

2. Some students like to have an challenge, but how the challenge needs to be hard/easy enough. Fore some students it can be a good challenge to play 8 bars in a row or maybe get somewhat fluent at a rudiment.

3. It needs to be somewhat easy to practice, that's a tricky one. Because there is stuff there that you can't control, maybe they can't play drums after 18:00 because there little sister needs to get to sleep or whatever. My friend that plays trumpet noted that if the trumpet was in the bag, he tended to play less, because then he needed to pack it uo before playing, sounds stupid, but I can make a difference.

toddbishop said:

What’s your educational background? What are you qualified to teach?

Click to expand...

I don't have a college degree, but I was formally trained in public schools, magnet schools, and had private lessons between ages 10-16.
I also taught drums while this was happening, but this was when I was a teen still living at home. Kids from the neighborhood would just knock on my parent's door and ask for drum lessons. Now I live in a shoe box guest house with nowhere to play.

mellanslag said:

I'm guessing you haven't taught before?

Click to expand...

I taught before yes. But this was when I was a teen still living at home. Kids from the neighborhood would just knock on my parent's door and ask for drum lessons. Now I live in a shoe box guest house with nowhere to play. I was taught, and I taught my students from Stick Control, and a few other books I forget the names of.
Side note, I would love to work my way through, and possibly teach through The Encyclopedia Of Double Bass Drumming (2000) The video of the book is really been inspiring me lately.

beatdat said:

Not much to add here, except that, if you want to score some students with rich parents, offer lessons in their home; chances are the kid will have a good to great set, you can help them set it up properly and get accustomed to it. I'm by no means rich, but my last drum teacher used to travel to my house for lessons, and it was much more enjoyable and beneficial for me than sitting behind some randomly set up drum kit in a music shop. I've never taught drums, but I did tutor kids in their own homes, and their parents seemed to appreciate that more than having to schlep their kids around. Plus, if the parents stick around during the lessons, they can know how their money is being spent, and may very well tip you extra.

Click to expand...

Yes this is how I was taught in my teen years. Mark Bistany, way before he joined Puddle Of Mudd, would drive to my dad's house and give me an hour lesson every weekend. He would only charge $20 and he would always stay longer like 2, maybe 2 and a half hours. Nicest guy ever too.

Totigerus said:

I don't have a college degree, but I was formally trained in public schools, magnet schools, and had private lessons between ages 10-16.
I also taught drums while this was happening, but this was when I was a teen still living at home. Kids from the neighborhood would just knock on my parent's door and ask for drum lessons. Now I live in a shoe box guest house with nowhere to play.

Click to expand...

And your professional career since then?

Totigerus said:

I was taught, and I taught my students from Stick Control, and a few other books I forget the names of.

Click to expand...

What to teach is a fairly major concern, if you plan on starting a teaching business. I’d say that should be your single concern at this stage.

In talking about teaching new drummers who are new(not really talking about prepping students for a college audition)

Don't be afraid to determine that you hate teaching...the worst teachers are those that don't like doing it.

Teaching is as much motivation as it is information.

Be careful with the business side...get the taxation squared away...the world is full of people that started businesses and did not set aside the correct amount for taxes...an expert can help structure things so your bracket is not pushed up high...and things like 'what is deductible from my taxes' are wise to nail down so you can maximize it. ...and, small businesses in the USA are great ways to manage your tax burden.

If no one knows you are there, you wont have any customers. Seems obvious but kills so many startups in the service industry.

TL;DR - treat it like a business...so get yourself educated about running a business.

If you want to be able to prep students for college, seek out existing teachers that do this and hire them for consult...chances are you might not know what is needed for a student to go into the post-secondary education system...and it might be that you want to focus on presenting the very basics then referring the student out once that is accomplished.

toddbishop said:

And your professional career since then?

Click to expand...

I've been in 41 bands. I've performed roughly 800-1000 shows. I made a few records back before home studios became affordable. I toured the western US, some parts of the east coast, and England. I've also written about 300 songs, but I never got anything placed or published.

SkullDrummer said:

i was thinking about teaching drums. is there any basic beginner tricks that can help them learn fast but will be entertaining for them?

Click to expand...

Since you are experiencing noise issues with the neighbors, how would it even work to be teaching others? Remind us again how long you yourself have been playing drums?

Otto said:

...the worst teachers are those that don't like doing it.

Click to expand...

Practically half the threads in the Off Topic section have posts from teachers going off about how much they despise their students.