You know teaching is going to be a part of your life, but you don’t know how to find the student to start your practice process. There is no need to be aggressive in your search for students, as the demand for teachers in most regions far exceeds the availability. Distilled below are the four things you must do TODAY to connect with your first student.

1. Register for the SAA, set up a profile

A resource often not taken advantage of by new and old teachers alike, the Suzuki Association of the Americas website is a gold mine of information. The first step is to sign up for a membership which allows you to register for training courses, receive a monthly journal publication, but most importantly to set up a profile as a teacher on their database. Even without any teaching experience or training, you can list yourself as available to the area and post your contact information and biography. To add credibility to your profile link to a personal website or videos of prior performances.

2. Email a Suzuki teacher to observe

This is the beginning of your network building. The Suzuki community in your city is tight knit, which can make it hard to break into but an exceedingly strong resource once you are involved. Thankfully due to Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy on sharing, Suzuki teachers are committed to sharing their ideas with others and being open to observation. Select one teacher from the SAA member directory to contact and request an observation within the next week.

3. Contact local middle school and elementary orchestra teachers

Who are the elementary and middle school orchestra directors in your area? Send an email to every single one of them saying you are available to teach lessons. You aren’t the only person to do this, but it only takes one student to start your teaching career.

4. Tell your peers who teach that you are taking students

Because the demand for violin teachers is high, many of your teaching friends turn away students due to a full load. Just as you share gigs, teachers share students. Make sure that your friends know today that you are available to teach so they will refer families to your care. Text, call, pull them aside in the hallway, and knock on their practice rooms because today is the day you are going to connect with your first student.

Think of these as the first steps in your outward facing commitment to teaching. Once people know you are available, someone will approach you for your services. I recommend two more steps TODAY so that you are prepared to speak intelligently about what you are able to offer as a new teacher.

5. Order Nurtured by Love and Teaching From the Balance Point

These books are the foundation for how I operate as a Suzuki teacher. Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy speaks through the pages of Nurtured by Love. Though it can be mystical and ideal, the language points our efforts as teachers far beyond the professional push to survive. Teaching from the Balance Point is Ed Kreitman’s foundational book capturing twenty years of experience. He covers everything from philosophy on music to details of posture to his theory on note learning.

6. Do your first observation

Chances are while you read this, hundreds of observable lessons and group classes are occurring in your region. Did any of the teachers you contacted have lessons to observe? Go observe them today! And if not, seek out resources online of quality violin teaching. Just as your playing is guided by the reference recordings you use, your teaching instincts will be guided by the teaching you observe.

Ed Kreitman has a series of observation videos you can subscribe to.
I have my own collection of Real Violin Lessons for you to watch as well.

Tomorrow I will discuss the mindset of teaching.

You don’t think you are ready to start teaching. You have learned about the revered Suzuki method, you see students playing at levels at certain ages that you didn’t know was possible, you are part of a rich Suzuki community with older teachers, younger teachers and anywhere in between. You know that your professional career will require you to teach, but you have not taken a step towards this very big, complicated, and elusive target.

You probably have been avoiding teaching because you don’t think you have the expertise to start. Not only are you a student of violin still, but you have never taken a class on pedagogy, you don’t have a curriculum sequence in your head, you have never communicated with a parent by email, and don’t have the years and years of experience that guides the great teachers in your area.

That doesn’t matter.

Today is the day you must take you first step towards teaching, because the fact is that you will never feel like an expert. Teachers always have more to learn. You don’t teach because you are a teacher, you are a teacher because you teach (bold). You only become an excellent teacher by teaching a lot, auditing yourself, and improving your skills lesson by lesson.

Think of it this way: Would you not pick up new instrument because you don’t have experience with it? No, because picking it up as an amateur is the first step to excellence.

The fact that you aren’t a beginner on your instrument anymore qualifies you to start the work of teaching. You have already carved yourself a path from beginner to proficient, and now it’s time to turn around and become the guide for a young student to follow your path. The words, systems, and planning it takes to guide that student will develop as you teach more and more. But the tragedy is in waiting. If you wait, you will never become a teacher, because in order to become an excellent teacher you must practice daily.

So start. Invest in this moment, take the leap to make yourself available to students, because today is the first day of many enriching learning experiences for you, but more importantly for your new students.

The beginning of the summer marked two years in my teaching career. In the summer of 2014 I began teaching with Monarch Suzuki Academy, received Suzuki Book 1 training with Dr. Laurie Scott and Book 2 training with Dr. Sue Baer, and also took on new students with UT String Project.

What is the saying? Zero to sixty in 3.5?

I wasn’t overwhelmed, but my brain, body and senses went into overdrive. I was aware that the first few lessons of my first summer of my first year of teaching were crucial to my professional teaching for a few reasons…

– I STARTED teaching (the hardest step of them all)
– My habits, formed on a clean slate, were much easier to direct than to change after years of experience
– My reputation, and therefore referrals, often come from the first impression I formed two years ago

The success I have experienced in two years of teaching can be traced back to the mindfulness I used to guide my first year of work.

In the following days I will provide you with a step by step guide to move from zero to studio. I’ll identify the insights, actions, tools, and references in an organized sequence that will lead you to success. I tackle difficult questions such as why we teach in the first place, is it okay to feel nervous before your first lesson, and what it means to teach when your ultimate goal is performance.

Day 1 – Start Teaching Violin: You Aren’t Going to Think You Are Ready
Day 2 – Do These TODAY to Start Teaching Violin
Day 3 – The Violin Teacher’s Mindset
Day 4 – Research, Network, and Immerse Yourself Through Observation
Day 5 – Set Systems for Yourself, the Professional
Day 6 – Set Systems for Your Violin Students
Day 7 – Conquer Fear Before Your First Violin Lesson
Day 8 – Where Are You Going? Working at the Frontier of Teaching Violin

This seven day guide is designed for violinists who want to start teaching but haven’t, teachers who started teaching but don’t feel they set a reliable foundation for themselves, and for the performing artist who doesn’t think teaching will be a part of their lives (spoiler alert: it will).

Each day is a capsule of crucial, relevant information from someone who is just around the bend. I invite you to join me in the journey from student to teacher today.