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Music teachers give music lessons to people of all ages and abilities.
You could work: freelance / self-employed; managing your own hours
Depending on where you work, in your day-to-day duties you could:
You could work at a college, at a university, from home or at a school.
You can get into this job through:
Most music teachers begin with a degree in music.
To teach music in a primary school, you could train to teach all subjects, and develop a subject specialism in music.
To work as a secondary school music teacher, you could train to teach music as a single subject or combine it with teaching another subject.
To teach in a music college, conservatoire or university you may also need to gain a postgraduate music qualification, have a recognised profile as a performer and have teaching experience.
When you apply for a music degree or postgraduate course, you'll usually be asked to attend an audition. You may be expected to have at least Grade 6 on a main instrument.
You'll usually need:
You'll need a level 3 qualification or higher in music, if you want to be a music lecturer in a further education college.
You would also need a further education teaching qualification that is relevant to the level of teaching responsibility you would have in your job.
You'll usually need:
You may be able to start by doing a postgraduate teaching apprenticeship, if you have a relevant degree and want to teach 3 to 19 year olds.
To do this apprenticeship, you'll need:
You may be able to work as a private music teacher with or without qualifications, if you've got exceptional musical ability. A teaching qualification would also be helpful though not essential.
Many musicians combine performance and music teaching as a career.
You could take training accredited by professional bodies, like the Level 4 Certificate for Music Educators, offered by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) and Trinity College London.
The certificate course is aimed at people who are new to teaching music to children, and covers the purpose of music education and promotes best practice. It has been developed for:
Other options include training like the Instrumental Teaching Diploma offered by Rock School.
You'll need to:
You can search for jobs in schools through the Teaching Vacancies service.
You can find out more about becoming a music teacher from:Get Into Teaching; Incorporated Society of Musicians; Musicians' Union
As a qualified and experienced music teacher in a school, you could become head of the music department.
You could also become an advisory teacher, or inspector employed by a local education authority or independent agency.