How to become a singing teacher

Confidence in yourself, your ability and your craft is the main key to getting yourself started. I volunteered in a Primary School for a couple of months before starting to teach, purely so I could make sure I was able to 'teach' as it were.

I then networked with a local recording studio, and managed to get advertising work there as the resident vocal coach. Soon I found myself getting interest from bands who were using the facilities, and so I was helping improve vocals, and had my own room within the studio.

Business cards, word of mouth, any sort of networking and being pushy really helps. Best to also have a singing grade qualification under your belt to. People may ask for it, and it makes you feel so much more confident when you can reply saying you have one. Think about what you as an inidividual can offer to your students too, what is your speciality? I specialise in musical theatre, and so hold cocnerts regularly for all my students to give them a chance to perform and put what they ahve learnt into practise.

It is a good idea also to try and shadow a singing teacher and adapt some of their teaching styles to your own. Take notes! They will come in handy later.

Always plan your lessons. I have a notebook which I plan each lesson for each student, set Learning Objectives for each lesson, and longer term goals for each month or term...what do you hope the student will achieve? Have they shown some improvement, albeit not perfect, where to start from next term? I also have an awards system for my students, and they all have little homework diaries and I set weekly homework tasks, just so I know they always have the new methods I have taught them in mind.