As part of our ongoing making money case study series, here we look at creating an online course around teaching music or a musical instrument (albeit from the point of view of someone who doesn’t play an instrument).
Teaching someone can earn you income on several levels. At the basic level you can earn income from your labor on an hourly or per session basis. At the highest level you can earn residual income from selling courses online as well as earning income through affiliate recommendations inside these courses or through other means such as email marketing to your music student email list.
Depending on your level of investment and the quality of instruction will determine whether you stay at the basic level or get to the top level of income from teaching music or a musical instrument.
Below we go through some of the steps of earning additional income from teaching a musical instrument all the way through to building an online business around teaching a musical instrument or instruments.
Introduction to earning an income from teaching a musical instrument
One on one instruction
In a previous article we’ve talked about the active/passive income pyramid and how the lower part of this pyramid reflects income that is less passive and more active and as you ascend the pyramid the income becomes more passive than active. This can also be seen through teaching a musical instrument. In this case study we will focus on learning acoustic guitar however you can use this approach for any musical instrument or even singing, music production or something else entirely relating to the music industry.
At a basic level it’s easy to earn some extra income if you know how to play a musical instrument, you are relatively competent as a teacher and you have a pool of willing students looking to learn said musical instrument. Figure out the rate you are going to charge (a rate you believe potential students will be happy to pay) and find a way to reach these potential students through advertising (such as through social media, using the local community paper or even putting up flyers in your local supermarket).
Ideally you would teach online or if that is unavailable at the chosen location by your students (looking to avoid any potential liability insurance issues or regulation issues in your jurisdiction). You could teach at your home (check if this is legal in your city/town and if you need any additional certification in your city/town if you are teaching children in your home) or you might be able to rent a small area to teach.
You can start with a low tech approach, essentially offering up your mobile number and get potential students to call or text to book in via your mobile or you can add a little technology and set up a simple website and or use an online booking system such as Timely or Calendly.
If you are lucky enough to be teaching guitar lessons virtually Zoom, Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams are your best video communication options. If you are looking to turn this one-on-one instruction into a more passive online business then it’s probably worth your while to build a strategy or process around your teachings and more importantly look to record (with their permission) and track your students’ lessons and progress.
Building an online business via a course will take significant time and resources so put some planning into this to see if you really want to go down this path. Whilst this can be a lucrative revenue stream if you are successful, there are many people who have invested significant time and resources into these endeavors only to find out they struggled to find students to purchase their online courses.
Level of effort needed to start: Low. Essentially you just need to find customers willing to learn the guitar.
Level of effort needed to find customers: Low/Medium. As mentioned above, flyers, community newspapers, online or through simple word of mouth are easy ways to advertise your music tuition.
Level of technology needed: Low. As mentioned above, all you really need is a phone. You could set up a website and or use an online booking system and payment system. If you are teaching online there are simple video programs such as Zoom that are low cost and easy to use.
Level of costs needed to start: Low, basically all you need is your guitar and maybe invest in some low cost learning materials such as music books.
Ability to scale: Low/Medium. We discussed an extension on this model in group teaching however you will reach a limit of how much you can scale individually.
Group Instruction
This has the basic blueprint from the above one on one instruction example however in this example you are scaling the amount of students you are teaching at the same time. This form of income is slightly higher up the passive income pyramid however even though you are scaling the students you are teaching per session, you are still having to use 100% of your labor to earn this income.
Whereas you might be teaching a young person one-on-one in the above example, in this example you might be teaching a group of school friends at the same time. Depending on where you are teaching from you may need to rent/hire a larger space (if teaching in person) or alternatively you may need to spend more on technology (ie Zoom) if offering group teaching online.
In most cases your costs will likely be a little higher if you were teaching in person as you may need a bigger space to teach a group of people. Alternatively your ideal outcome would be to perform your instruction online through a group video program such as Zoom.
Marketing and finding students is similar to the above example however friends or relations through word of mouth referrals is your best bet to scale your teaching.
This option (like the one-on-one instruction above) can also be started using a low tech approach, only needing a mobile phone for taking bookings. You can use technology for advertising (social media and a website) and for taking bookings such as Timely or Calendly or if you are lucky enough to attract students you can teach in an online setting, online teaching programs include Zoom, Microsoft Teams of Google Hangouts.
As mentioned above, if you are teaching online it might be worth looking at trying to turn this into an online course (discussed later in this article) and in that case look to record your group sessions and track to see what style of teaching or tips seems to get the best student progress from one session to the next.
Again if building an online business and creating a guitar teaching course is what you are looking to expand to then you’ll want to structure your teaching outline and look to build your teaching around a certain amount of lessons or around a certain timeframe, i.e. learn a song within a 4-6 week timeframe.
Also as we touched on above, building a guitar teaching course (or at least a quality well produced course) will take significant time and resources so ask yourself is the juice going to be worth the squeeze in this case. If you are looking to go down the course creation path, map out your ideas, timeframes, marketing ideas etc and approximately how long you think it will take to build your course. We go through this in more detail in the last point of this article.
Level of effort needed to start: Low. Essentially you just need to find customers willing to learn the guitar in a group setting.
Level of effort needed to find customers: Low/Medium. Ideally you would get word of mouth referrals such as a group of school friends or you can use methods discussed above such as pamphlets or flyers, community newspaper or online/social media.
Level of technology needed: Low. As mentioned above all you really need is a phone. You could set up a website and or use an online booking system and payment system. If you are group teaching online look to use a program such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Hangouts. You may be able to offer your students some education aids to improve their guitar progress or even offer guitar accessories such as a guitar tuner and receive a small commission from the sale of this product.
Level of costs needed to start: Low, again you really only need your guitar, however we suggest you put together a basic curriculum or at least some music books for the students to follow.
Ability to scale: Low/Medium. We discussed an extension on this model in group teaching however you will reach a limit of how much you can scale individually.
Setting up a bricks and mortar guitar teaching school
This scenario would see you look to take on additional instructors to scale either your one-on-one instructions or more ideally your in person group instruction classes. This path is going to cost a lot more money given you will likely have to find a place to teach from.
You will have to pay for instructors (and spend some of your potential student teaching time getting these new teachers to teach your preferred way), likely have increased insurance and other employment costs as well as having to fund additional education aids.
The benefit that this method has compared to a pure online model is that in person instruction (providing the instructor is of high quality) is usually a better learning option than the online one as it is highly personalized to the student. The issue is costs and ability to scale.
The more instructors you need to hire the more your costs rise (admittedly your revenue will also hopefully increase) however your quality of instruction could also drop given the new instructors may not have the teaching ability or attention to detail that your teaching offers.
Depending on the size of the school you are aiming to create, you may need to hire additional admin staff to help run the show. Whilst this style of teaching can be quite lucrative (if you can successfully navigate the growth from one instructor to many instructors whilst maintaining education quality and have plenty of students) we feel that the last option in this article, building an online business and creating a guitar teaching course (discussed in more detail below) is the preferable option.
Creating a hybrid method (in person instruction with an additional learn from home online option) could be beneficial however your pricing would obviously need to be higher and you would be targeting a more affluent section of the community.
Technology spending would likely be needed for booking systems, payment systems and would need to set up a website with a social media presence. If you were building an online music teaching school online you would also have to set up a video communication software such as Zoom, Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams and make sure your computer equipment is up to scratch to handle this.
Depending on how far you are looking to improve your education quality you could look at technology to help track/monitor the performance of your students
Other ways to boost income under this model (either in person or online guitar/music school) could be to expand into teaching other musical instruments (provided you can get the teachers) while you could also look to sell guitars, guitar accessories and other musical instruments either in person or via affiliate sales.
Level of effort needed to start: Medium to High. Substantial resources will need to be invested in securing a location for your school, building sufficient systems to run and grow the school, and training your students and your teachers. You’ll need to invest money in advertising to build up your students and there are other costs such as insurances needed to run your school.
Level of effort needed to find customers: Medium to High. Given the likely additional costs needed for location, additional teachers, systems, etc, you’ll need to have a steady stream of students to fund these costs and help turn a profit. Finding several guitar students is a lot easier than finding hundreds so more effort is obviously needed when setting up a school. Yes you can grow organically (and we’d probably recommend this) however this usually means it will take longer to build a larger revenue producing business.
Level of technology needed: Medium to High. Depending on the size you are looking to start or build your school to, will determine what and how much technology you will need. If you are looking to grow organically then make sure your initial choices will enable you to grow rather than need a complete technology overhaul once you reach a certain size.
You will likely need a CRM/booking system, internal admin, website, social media and potential course creation software when setting up your school.
Alternatively you set set up an online music school (either set up a exchange where you can add potential music teachers and they can get hired through pricing/ratings of which you get a percentage of each tuition) or you teach yourself (then grow organically and employ several people under your banner) for your online school, however we think you’d be better off just building a website and creating courses yourself and if there is demand for your online teaching on an hourly basis then charge an exorbitant amount (to force potential students to your online courses) or they will pay this fee and will be worth it for your financially to spend an hour instructing.
Alternatively if you are that good at online lead generating and you weren’t interested in spending too much time with one on one online instruction you could also refer these potential students to another online instructor however we suggest you try and keep these potential students inside your ecosystem and either teach yourself, hiring instructors or direct them to your online courses (as per point 4 below).
Level of costs needed to start: Medium to High. If you are going to grow organically there are options that will enable your costs to be reasonable and only increase when you grow and build your student numbers.
However you will need to spend a decent amount on technology, space to teach, additional instructors, etc when building a school so make sure you do the sums before you embark on this endeavor and always take a worst case scenario when planning your revenue goals and targets. If you plan for the worst (and your cash reserves/debt levels can handle extended periods of low or irregular income) then your chances for success are significantly higher.
Ability to scale: Medium to High. If you pull off a successful guitar/music school in one town or city then there is no reason why you can’t scale this model and roll it out into other towns or cities. Again if this is you, take the organic approach and grow within your means however if you have success with one school (as well as the appetite to grow) then why not look to expand.
You’d like to take on additional management help when looking to expand however test the waters, plan around a worse case scenario then go out and build your music empire.
Building a course around music or teaching how to learn a musical instrument
Now we come to our preferred option on this list. Ideally this is the level you would look to get to as it is the most passive form of income (at least after your initial work to build your course and sales funnel) in this case study however it is also the option that will likely take the most time to build in the short term as well as take up the most of your resources in the short term.
Again as mentioned earlier we have no experience in teaching in this area nor do we know how to play a musical instrument however below are some suggestions and what we might do to build an online guitar teaching course/online business (simple and basic ideas and suggestions).
1. Build a plan and map out what goals you wish to achieve
What is your monetary aim with this online course? Do you want to earn a couple of hundred dollars a month or are you looking to make something in the thousands?
How much time do you have to invest in building a course? How much money can you invest? What technology do you have access to to build this course?
Write all this down and temper your hopes and plans particularly if you have little time, money or technology to embark on this endeavor. The great thing about modern technology is that it is reasonably cheap so as long as you have access to a computer with a camera or laptop with inbuilt camera, you are most of the way there to build your course.
Sure there are video recording software, graphic design and course platforms that you will need to invest in however the cost isn’t that high and there is no reason you can’t be up and running with your own course within a few months.
Don’t be afraid to set big goals however make sure there is a touch of reality to these and more importantly you build strong systems and procedures around these to make sure you can achieve these goals rather than dream about these goals.
Also don’t get too caught up on creating the perfect course. Yes you want your course to be good and yes you want it looking professional however if you are obsessing over every little thing and this is stopping you from finishing the course and then selling the course you need to reassess this.
Create a course that looks good but remember this is going to be revised over time. You will get feedback on your course to make changes and adjustments and it can always be improved. Set an approximate time frame to create your course then take action and get to work creating your course.
2. Create a Curriculum/Course Outline
Obviously you need to be able to play an instrument well and also have an ability to pass on this knowledge to others before embarking on your course. Be honest with your level of competence and if you feel you are capable enough to teach a course then go with it.
When building your course, we’d look at mapping out on paper the journey to learning the guitar starting with understanding the guitar and its makeup, learning about strings, types of chords, etc. Break this journey into modules and then map out your module finishing with a goal for the student to complete before embarking on the next module.
If you are currently (or were a previous) guitar instructor how did you approach your lessons? Were there any specific techniques that got results quicker or worked better than others? Do you remember how you were taught (if you learnt from an instructor)? If you are still teaching, maybe use these students as course guinea pigs and test these draft modules/course outline on them and get feedback.
Using this feedback, figure out what works, what doesn’t, what you learnt from the students, what they appear to like and dislike, what they took onboard quickly, what they struggled with then review these results, refine your modules and start building your course.
A very rough draft example of a course outline over 6 modules plus a bonus module (from a non guitar player) could be as follows:
Course name examples: Ideas such as How to learn the guitar in 6 weeks or Play your favorite song like a pro in 60 days
Lesson One
What the course will aim to achieve
What level of commitment will be needed
Go through the types of guitars and any nuances to learn
Famous or popular guitarists to listen to or songs to listen to (either electric or acoustic)
Lesson Two
Basics of selecting your guitar, (or other instruments)
Guitar accessories, picks, amps, foot pedals, tuner, guitar strap, etc
How to hold a guitar, hand positioning, tips to get used to, etc
How to tune a guitar
Lesson Three
Talk about how the guitar works and creates sound, design of a guitar, ie strut, strings, chords, different songs to make, etc
Basic chord selection and best way to learn and practice these
List all the songs that can be played with the most basic chords
First song to learn with the basic chords
Lesson Four
Next chords to learn, revisit basic chords and tips on how to join both lots of chords into practise and song
Tips to learn the chords and tips to make these chords stick in your mind
Examples of songs that can now be played with the new chords and the basic chords
New song for the student to learn that has both the beginner chords and the new chords from this module
Lesson Five
Rest of the chords
Combining new chords to the previous chords
Tips to remember all these chords
Example of songs that cover all the chords covered so far
Lesson Six (Final Lesson)
Putting it all together
Practicing the main song that the person wanted to learn
Final tips to leave the student with
*Potential Bonus module (if applicable)
How to read music to play with your guitar
Basic info on how to record music using computer, software, best microphone, etc (set up affiliate links for people to buy your recommended equipment). This bonus module could act as an introduction to other course you could record such as recording music, sampling music, learning other instruments, etc
Also when completing your course outline give thought to how you will record each module such as camera angles/lighting on your guitar while filming chord structure, graphics you can add to each module (highlighting chords), how much “you time” is to be filmed each module, etc.
3. Recording and editing your course
Now that you’ve outlined the modules and lessons, you are now ready to record your course. So how do you do this? You will need video recording software (there are several course recording programs that you can use to do this both for Microsoft and Apple computers), you will need a computer with a video camera (laptop with inbuilt camera can work though you’d probably want another camera, such as your phone, to film guitar close ups and finger positioning)
You’d probably want to invest in a quality microphone that can capture your audio clearly and can also capture quality audio from your guitar playing. These microphones aren’t too expensive and you can get away with spending under $100.
You’d also want access to a graphic design platform (such as Canva) or alternatively you can outsource design tasks to a freelancer through a platform such as Fiverr or Freelancer.
As we mentioned above we recommend planning out how you plan to film your modules (ie lighting, camera and microphone positioning). Simple planning like this can make your course much more professional looking and lead to a better learning experience for your students.
Also once you’re set and ready to film, film your first module and check early on how this appears to make sure it looks good, sounds good and is at a high quality. After checking early and everything is working well, move on to completing your first module then the rest of your course.
Recommended recording and editing products:
Microsoft
We recommend: Camtasia, Ezvid and Microsoft Stream
Apple
We recommend: Quicktime player, Screenflow and OBS Studio (also available on Microsoft computers)
When it comes time to record yourself in your course (if applicable), make sure you have a suitable camera, suitable audio and suitable lighting.
Camera: Depending on the computer you may have an inbuilt computer suitable for your recording and in nearly all cases this is the preferable option. You can test this with your recording software and if suitable, film the whole course. Alternatively you may have a quality smart phone that is also suitable to record. If not, we recommend either a webcam such as the