Private music instructor skills for your resume and career

My gut reaction to that is that it depends on the age of the student. You need to have a lot of energy for younger students and keep them interested while also communicating with their parents. For college-age students (the world I am mostly in), you need a direct language with the student that tells them if they are on track, how they are doing, and ways they can improve that are not condescending.

In addition to the obvious: Being really good on your instrument and teaching it well, the next would be the technology stuff I mentioned above.

If you're taking a gap year, I always recommend continuing their education in music. Local community colleges offer cheap courses, applied lessons, and other musical avenues to explore. In many cases, scholarship money FAR surpasses the cost of the credit hour, especially at the community college level. Other skills to improve are ones that bring you joy. Find a hobby or other activity you enjoy and dive in. Whether that's something in music or otherwise, it's always good to be reminded of good things in light of so much suffering.

In the new environment, recording and mastering skills may be the new requirement for any performer. I'm sure that sound engineers will experience a Renaissance of employment in this post-pandemic world! Young musicians are already much more tech-savvy than those in middle age, so this may not be an issue, and at APU, our music technology courses are first-rate and teach all of these skills through Logic, Pro Tools, etc. Additionally, I believe that writing is a skill that can never harm a musician, especially as they may need extra funding from grants to complete projects or hire additional personnel to handle online recording and performances, COVID compliant initiatives, etc. Flexibility, patience, and perseverance are highly sought-after traits and playing well with others, both literally and figuratively.

There's a phrase often used in music, "happy to be here, ready to work." This shows that one of the most important skills is really a disposition that shows enthusiasm and preparedness. So many of the particular activities of a working musician are accomplished through an application of tools gained in traditional music programs rather than simply mirroring the identical circumstances. For example, a nurse might practice running an IV and then be required to do just that. A musician might practice playing a major scale at a certain tempo and then be required to perform an acoustic version of a Rihanna song at a corporate event. As a person who hires musicians myself, I look for those who have been insatiably curious of their craft to have achieved high skill levels as well as those who understand the importance of creating a positive communal work environment. Finally, that phrase also communicates the values of punctuality, dependability, and being solution-centric.