Many people had more time to devote to their hobbies during the Covid pandemic – but online lessons can pose challenges, especially when learning an instrument. “It can be very difficult if they don’t have good broadband and Zoom keeps glitching,” says Simon Devlin of Become a Music Teacher.
“If the camera isn’t placed in the right aspect, it's really difficult to see what you need to see - and imagine what it's like for a drum teacher, who has to show the feet and hands... and speak over the top of the drums as well,” he explains, adding that his website has information about building an online drum-teaching studio with multiple cameras.
Become a Music Teacher is an umbrella brand covering My Guitar Lessons, My Piano Lessons, My Singing Lessons and My Drum Lessons. The business began 15 years ago when Mr Devlin set up as a guitar teacher. “I’d got a good marketing and technology background, so I built a website and worked out a business infrastructure,” he explains.
“Soon I had other guitar teachers coming to me saying, 'What are you doing? You're more expensive than us, you've not been teaching as long, and you've got loads of pupils.’ So I took what I'd done for myself, built it into a package and sold that package to them.”
The other instruments followed, with the service expanding to deliver online training courses for tutors. "We help musicians become music teachers, train them up and get them marketing so they get students,” Mr Devlin says. “We teach them about how to run a business and then keep up with them to make sure they feel comfortable in doing it.”
The next stage is to sell the franchise overseas. “I’m working on the master licence so what I'm doing here, people can do in other countries,” he says. “There's a lot of musicians who'd love to work within the music business. This gives them an opportunity to do that.”
For more information see www.becomeamusicteacher.com
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here