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Music teachers give singing and voice lessons and teach people how to play numerous musical instruments like the violin, keyboard, drums, and guitar. You can work part-time or full-time anywhere from elementary and high schools to giving private lessons from a music store. You will be required to teach various musical concepts such as musical history, theory, sight-reading, and instrumental techniques.

You will also be expected to monitor your student's performance and grade their progress often through recitals and performances. Your job as a teacher requires you to enable the students to enhance their natural gifts and talents and provide training that will serve as a foundation for a music career. It helps to have a passion for music as it makes it your job to simply share that passion.

Many famous musical artists have attributed their present success to musical lessons taken when younger. A bachelor's degree in music is most commonly required. The average music teacher in the United States makes $24.33 an hour and $50,611 annually.

What Does a Music Instructor Do

There are certain skills that many music instructors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed critical-thinking skills, writing skills and speaking skills.

Learn more about what a Music Instructor does

How To Become a Music Instructor

If you're interested in becoming a music instructor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 65.5% of music instructors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 15.7% of music instructors have master's degrees. Even though most music instructors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Music Instructor

Career Path For a Music Instructor

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a music instructor can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as instructor, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title education director.

Music Instructor

Average Salary for a Music Instructor

Music Instructors in America make an average salary of $57,930 per year or $28 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $96,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $34,000 per year.
Average Music Instructor Salary
$57,930 Yearly
$27.85 hourly

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Roles and Types of Music Instructor

The role of a music instructor includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general music instructor responsibilities:

  • Develop individual and group instruction in corps assigned by the divisional music director in the pendel division, to include leadership training
  • Be part of the arts instructor team
  • Involvement in the total program with willingness to help in all areas as needed, including dining room, outdoor/indoor activities, children with problems, daily assembly, devotions, etc. Promote observance of moral, spiritual

There are several types of music instructor, including:

Instructor

Role:

Instructors are knowledgable about a topic and work to pass that knowledge off to their students. Whether you work in a gym or a school, instructors are super important to the students' success.

There are lots of possibilities for you as an instructor. You could work at a health club or a gym or you could work for a school and instruct math. There are so many different instructors out there, basically any topic you can think of probably needs an instructor.

Your hours will vary depending on what industry you decide to go with. You may find some jobs require you to work nights and weekends, like if you were to become a fitness instructor, while school instructors only work during school hours. Your schedule really depends on what you're passionate and knowledgable about and when people want to learn it.

  • Average Salary: $53,426
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Professor

Role:

Professors are key academic staff at colleges and universities. They develop in-depth familiarity with their material over extensive years of specialized education and share their knowledge in lectures they prepare, using appropriate textbooks, and keeping up to date with current trends and developments of the topic.

Apart from teaching, they conduct research as well, probing questions that have not been sufficiently dealt with in their area of expertise. They read articles and attend conferences to keep up with the work of fellow researchers and publish their findings and polemics with current results in academic journals.

Providing services at their department is also an important part of their job, such as evaluating students, organizing conferences, writing proposals for grants, and editing journals. They assist with creating course material and supervising postgraduate students as well. Being a professor is a coveted position for many who are attracted to academia. The competition is fierce, and you need a good amount of passion and dedication to rise to this beautiful and fulfilling role.

  • Average Salary: $157,570
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Music Teacher

Role:

Music teachers give singing and voice lessons and teach people how to play numerous musical instruments like the violin, keyboard, drums, and guitar. You can work part-time or full-time anywhere from elementary and high schools to giving private lessons from a music store. You will be required to teach various musical concepts such as musical history, theory, sight-reading, and instrumental techniques.

You will also be expected to monitor your student's performance and grade their progress often through recitals and performances. Your job as a teacher requires you to enable the students to enhance their natural gifts and talents and provide training that will serve as a foundation for a music career. It helps to have a passion for music as it makes it your job to simply share that passion.

Many famous musical artists have attributed their present success to musical lessons taken when younger. A bachelor's degree in music is most commonly required. The average music teacher in the United States makes $24.33 an hour and $50,611 annually.
  • Average Salary: $51,978
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Music Instructor Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active music instructor jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where music instructors earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Music Instructor Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California1,707$70,818
2Texas880$47,823
3Georgia733$52,169
4Florida723$54,852
5New York679$76,108
6North Carolina671$60,730
7Virginia615$60,182
8Colorado501$37,196
9New Jersey482$58,605
10Illinois451$50,184
11Pennsylvania439$68,308
12Michigan432$65,518
13South Carolina384$47,637
14Ohio382$55,199
15Massachusetts328$73,870
16Maryland296$62,646
17Oregon284$63,663
18Minnesota251$54,584
19Tennessee244$49,237
20Washington237$56,621
21Arizona233$53,989
22Wisconsin187$50,109
23Iowa168$50,783
24Missouri156$49,440
25Alabama150$53,391
26Kentucky150$47,768
27Nevada143$45,395
28Indiana139$51,525
29Utah134$52,700
30Louisiana133$51,916
31Kansas105$40,332
32Connecticut98$71,598
33Oklahoma96$41,560
34Mississippi91$51,105
35Montana83$44,078
36New Mexico83$45,871
37Nebraska76$53,120
38Delaware66$58,577
39Hawaii60$52,583
40New Hampshire59$58,149
41West Virginia57$35,779
42Idaho51$57,144
43Alaska51$54,436
44Wyoming51$37,142
45Rhode Island47$58,691
46Maine42$49,898
47Arkansas41$50,897
48South Dakota38$45,326
49North Dakota37$52,217
50Vermont33$53,702

Music Instructor Education

Music Instructor Majors

43.8 %

Music Instructor Degrees

Bachelors

65.5 %

Masters

15.7 %

Associate

9.4 %

Top Colleges for Music Instructors

1. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

2. University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,610

Enrollment

40,329

3. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$50,420

Enrollment

7,582

4. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

5. Cornell University

Ithaca, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,188

Enrollment

15,105

6. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

7. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

8. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

9. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$59,430

Enrollment

8,216

10. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

Top Skills For a Music Instructor

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.8% of music instructors listed classroom management on their resume, but soft skills such as critical-thinking skills and writing skills are important as well.

  • Classroom Management, 12.8%
  • Adaptive, 10.4%
  • Fine Arts, 8.3%
  • Music Program, 7.3%
  • Instructional Materials, 6.8%
  • Other Skills, 54.4%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Music Instructor Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Music Instructor templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Music Instructor resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Music Instructor diversity

Music Instructor Gender Distribution

Male
Male
64%
Female
Female
36%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among music instructors, 36.3% of them are women, while 63.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among music instructors is White, which makes up 66.1% of all music instructors.

  • The most common foreign language among music instructors is Spanish at 47.3%.

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Best States For a Music Instructor

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a music instructor. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California. Music instructors make the most in New York with an average salary of $76,108. Whereas in Massachusetts and Connecticut, they would average $73,870 and $71,598, respectively. While music instructors would only make an average of $70,818 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. New York

Total Music Instructor Jobs: 679
Highest 10% Earn:
$129,000
Location Quotient:
1.11

2. Michigan

Total Music Instructor Jobs: 432
Highest 10% Earn:
$113,000
Location Quotient:
1.17

3. Oregon

Total Music Instructor Jobs: 284
Highest 10% Earn:
$113,000
Location Quotient:
1.44
Full List Of Best States For Music Instructors

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Top Music Instructor Employers

Most Common Employers For Music Instructor

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Music Academy of the West$87,004$41.836
2Georgia State University$62,170$29.895
3Cleveland Metropolitan School District$52,845$25.415
4Piano$50,376$24.2216
5The Hotchkiss School$50,167$24.125
6Music Together$49,743$23.915
7MTAC$48,958$23.547
8Academy of Arts$48,650$23.394
9University of Arkansas$47,162$22.677
10Pensacola Christian College$46,336$22.285

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