How to hire a violin teacher

How to hire a violin teacher, step by step

Here's a step-by-step violin teacher hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a violin teacher job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new violin teacher
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The violin teacher hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

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   Hiring the perfect violin teacher also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   Here's a comparison of violin teacher salaries for various roles:

   Type of Violin Teacher	Description	Hourly rate
   Violin Teacher	High school teachers help prepare students for life after graduation. They teach academic lessons and various skills that students will need to attend college and to enter the job market.	$16-37
   Science Instructor	A Science Instructor guides the student in understanding important concepts in science, which may include problem-solving and gathering evidence in supporting concepts or ideas. Their responsibilities include presenting science demonstrations, checking assignments, grading tests, and writing lesson plans... Show more	$14-37
   Math And Science Teacher	Math and Science Teachers are responsible for imparting knowledge and developing a student's skills in mathematics and science. Their duties include creating lessons, producing learning materials, sourcing supplies, and grading examinations and quizzes... Show more	$17-27

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Music Education
   • Group Classes
   • Chamber Music
   • Children Ages
   • Symphony Orchestra
   • EAR Training
   • Music Theory
   • K-12
   • Music Program
   • Learning Styles

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead debates with advance students on topics including globalization, economics, and political history.
   • Assist faculty with web-site design, technology integration, and interactive multimedia applications.
   • Focuse on teaching students digital photography, computer illustration, simple animation, and multimedia presentations.
   • Gain leadership skills through helping the students.
   • Create weekly PowerPoint presentations and quizzes for students.
   • Input accurate and complete data into school database.

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your violin teacher job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A violin teacher salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a violin teacher in West Virginia may be lower than in New York, and an entry-level violin teacher usually earns less than a senior-level violin teacher. Additionally, a violin teacher with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average violin teacher salary

   $52,870yearly

   $25.42 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level violin teacher salary

   $35,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 17, 2025

   Average violin teacher salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New York	$77,587	$37
   2	Maryland	$74,423	$36
   3	New Jersey	$66,160	$32
   4	Washington	$58,414	$28
   5	Texas	$53,518	$26
   6	Nebraska	$49,823	$24
   7	Louisiana	$48,580	$23
   8	Missouri	$44,865	$22
   9	Colorado	$43,930	$21

   Average violin teacher salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Holton-Arms School	$76,272	$36.67
   2	Research Foundation of The City University of New York	$64,324	$30.93
   3	Music Institute of Chicago	$63,143	$30.36
   4	DePauw University	$54,753	$26.32
   5	The Suzuki School	$49,994	$24.04
   6	Denver Public Schools	$46,619	$22.41	6

4. Writing a violin teacher job description

   A job description for a violin teacher role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a violin teacher job description:

   Violin teacher job description example

   Trala is a tech-powered online music school. Our mission is to make world-class music education accessible to every single person on Earth.
   
   Right now, music education is so expensive that the joy of music is available only to the rich and urban. Imagine instead a world where all 4 billion people who will pick up an instrument in the next 30 years could get a world-class education. Imagine how much more music and joy there would be in the world. That is the future we're obsessed with creating.
   
   Our first product, Trala: Learn Violin, is a mobile application through which anyone can learn how to play violin. We do this using movie-quality tutorial videos featuring diverse violinists, signal processing that listens to students play their real violins and gives instant feedback on every mistake, a curriculum that prioritizes accessibility and diversity, and private & group lessons that build off the curriculum in the app.
   
   Over the last 3 years, we have organically grown Trala to 250,000 downloads, students in 120+ countries, and support from some of the most famous musicians in the world. Our students are ages 7 to 70 and live in rural Montana, Lebanon, tiny Pacific islands, Hong Kong, and our hometown of Chicago.
   
   Your mission will be to be the educational backbone of this technology company. Your main responsibility will be developing beginner and intermediate students through 1-on-1 lessons and group classes. Trala's goal is for you to have as many students as possible and be given the support to provide quality lessons.
   
   Beyond this, you will have exposure to other areas of the business. Teachers who get involved in these areas have the most success. Notable projects include working with our Head of Curriculum to propose, create, and review changes to our curriculum, testing new technology in our app, and weekly discussions to improve our lessons program.
   
   Note that this role begins as part-time but can grow depending on your availability and performance. Most of our current violin teachers also perform, teach locally, or have other musical sources of income.
   Traits of a successful Trala teacher:
   
   An educator, with a love for teaching and admiration for those people making themselves vulnerable to learn a difficult instrument from scratch, often as adults.
   
   A keen observer, with emotional intelligence to read the room and connect with all types of students.
   
   An organizer, able to follow directions, manage time, and have an acute attention to detail.
   
   An entrepreneur, who is self-driven to succeed, and excited to learn by being part of a passionate, fast-moving company and working as a team toward common data-measured goals.
   
   A flexible contributor on all fronts, whether it's in a 1-on-1 lesson with a student, testing out new lessons with our curriculum team, or in a team strategy meeting discussing ways for Trala to improve conversion, retention, and student success.
   
   A true community member, who is open-minded and empathetic to the individual journeys of the students, engineering teams, executives, and every other teacher that makes us who we are.
   
   A leader or future-leader, who listens, collaborates, is a master of their craft, and lifts others around them to achieve more.
   
   What KPIs (metrics) we obsess over:
   
   Quality: Our student satisfaction score is over 98% all-time. Best part, it's because our students are learning and happy doing so.
   
   Conversion: >75% of students who take a first lesson continue. They trust us and they trust you.
   
   Retention: >85% of students come back month-over-month. Students achieve their goals and don't give up.
   
   Requirements
   
   4+ years' experience teaching beginner violin.
   
   Deep empathy for the journey of each individual student.
   
   Action-oriented. Moves with purpose, urgency, and adventure.
   
   Hands-on. Willing and eager to learn new skills to help out the team. Doesn't view any task as “below” or “above” them.
   
   Creative. Able to come up with truly new ideas and be self-directed.
   
   Accountable. High standards for team productivity.
   
   Excellent organization and communication skills. Likes details. If you've read this whole thing, you might be a fit.
   
   Being technically savvy to operate the suite of software required for high-quality remote learning (Zoom, Trala, GSuite, Music notation software, and others)
   
   Multi-lingual teaching skills are a bonus, but not required. Italian, German, Spanish, Turkish, French, Vietnamese and many other languages are spoken by Trala students.
   
   UPDATE: Preference will be given to teacher applicants looking to grow a substantial studio quickly (20+ teaching hours per week within a few months) and who have some evening and/or weekend availability, which is in high demand from Trala students). Trala is not a good fit for teachers looking to fill a few hours worth of gaps in their current calendar.
   
   What to expect after joining Trala?
   
   First week: Paid training of the Trala curriculum, app, and processes. (roughly 10 hours, partially on your own)
   
   First months: Be an active partner with us in building your Trala studio. How? We build your presence on all Trala platforms. We invite prospective students to talk to us. We offer discounted trial lessons. We introduce teachers to new students through group orientations and give new teachers even exposure on our platforms..
   
   Teach new students. Convert first-time students to continue learning with Trala by scheduling their second lesson and retaining those students.
   
   We will offer training and support to help you achieve Trala's high bar for quality.
   
   Once in the groove: Daily: Teach private violin lessons over Zoom, to primarily beginner adults who take 1 - 4 lessons per month. See students progress fast by integrating the Trala app into your practice assignments for them.
   
   Daily: Stay in Communication with Trala. Nurture your students.
   
   Weekly: Actively attend one teacher 30-minute meeting plus one 1:1 with a team lead. The focus of these is student progress, lesson quality, and Trala improvement. We rely on teachers being active voices.
   
   Every couple months: Teach a group class or workshop. Cheer on your students at a recital. Participate in other team events. Come over to dinner if you want. We're family.
   
   Benefits
   
   Why Trala?
   
   You'll get to work on a daily basis with diverse students all over the world. Trala deeply impacts peoples' lives. These are dreams you'll be fulfilling.
   
   Consistent pay, flexible schedule, and minimal admin work. We pay teachers for their time (including meetings) and award individuals based on their success and dedication to Trala and its students. This job could be a few hours a day, a few days a week, or a whole career with salary, benefits, and equity in the company. It's about what you put in.
   
   Trala invests in marketing, acquires new students daily, manages all student payment, and provides the video and scheduling tools including the license cost. Trala automates email outreach and reminders, allowing teachers to spent time where they are most valuable, teaching students and making Trala a better school.
   
   Teachers have a say. More than that, as a developing company trying to change traditional standards, we rely heavily on teacher feedback from curriculum and lesson structure to our app and the entire student experience.
   
   Competitive starting pay, with generous bonus incentives (eg. As a new US-based teacher, teaching 12-13 teaching hours per week plus paid meetings earns roughly $2500/mo. Growth into full time would lead to $60K salary or more).
   
   Fully remote employment, allowing you to fill more of your day teaching students. A community of educators and violinists, who you will see regularly to share ideas and feedback.
   
   Trala is a temple of learning. You'll make a big impact on the team, iterate quickly, and grow faster than you would anywhere else. Your unique knowledge as a teacher is valued. We think big, and encourage all teammates to think outside the box and share ideas.
   
   Trala is funded by amazing people like the LinkedIn and Duolingo CEOs. These folks are leaders in education & growth and are our mentors. They will be your mentors, too.
   
   Trala is small and tight-knit. If you need us to move a couple blue barrels in the middle of the night, we won't ask what's inside.
   
   Trala prioritizes diversity, inclusion, and righting economic and social wrongs. We strive to make our corner of the world a better place.
   
   Read up about our team at .

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find violin teachers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any violin teachers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level violin teachers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your violin teacher job on Zippia to find and recruit violin teacher candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as k12jobspot, learn4good, serious teachers, teachingjobs.com.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit violin teachers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new violin teacher

   Once you've found the violin teacher candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new violin teacher. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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