Violin teacher job description

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 .