Meri’s Musical Musings

I have bought a few musical instruments via online classified ads, and have helped others find good ones as well. On the other hand, I notice that some instruments stay on the market for a long time for various reasons. So here are some tips on how to get most instruments sold quickly.

1. Don’t overprice the instrument, even if it’s barely been played. Typically you should ask between 50% and 65% of what it sells for new.
2. List a phone number. I’ve seen some listings I’ve wanted to respond to where I cannot get a hold of the person via the email address.
3. Respond to inquiries promptly, especially email ones. Particularly true if you are selling a piano, because they might be bidding on other instruments.
4. Don’t sell an off-brand instrument. This especially applies to woodwinds and brass instruments.
5. Don’t sell a instrument that needs hundreds or thousands of dollars work on it to make it playable. Especially with pianos.
6. Include the brand of the instrument.
7. Provide pictures on the listing.
8. Include the accessories, eg: the bench for the piano if you have the original, and the supplies that typically come with woodwind, brass, and string instruments.
9. Provide a serial number, especially when selling woodwind instruments.
10. Let the potential buyer know if the instrument will need work or if it’s been reconditioned/overhauled recently.
11. If selling a piano, consider offering the buyer to pay for the delivery, especially with acoustic pianos.
12. Don’t sell an instrument with missing or broken keys.
13. If the student is studying privately on instruments other than the piano, ask the teacher if they might know someone who could be interested in the instrument. I’ve had 2 piano students and 3 clarinet ones who were upgrading their instrument, and found buyers for the instrument through my musical network.
14. Find out whether the person buying the instrument is a parent of a student, a an advanced student or professional, or a teacher helping a student purchase an instrument. Parents of students or a teacher assisting one will tend to be looking at several instruments; professionals are generally looking for instruments for themselves, although a few may be adding a small number of loaner instruments for beginning students.
15. With digital pianos or keyboards, if the instrument has less than 88 keys, it will be much harder to sell than an instrument that is full size.

First, the pay. While the music school may charge $20-$30 per 30 min lesson, most music schools take a 40-60% cut of the pay from the teachers. That leaves the teacher with as little as $8 per half hour. Subtract the cost of travel time (particularly if the teacher does not take public transit if available) and teaching supplies, and some teachers may be earning minimum wage or even less, especially if they only have a small number of students.

Second, the size of the rooms in most music schools. Most music schools have the students in very small rooms. This has a negative impact on all ages of students. For young students needing to learn how to play with a steady beat, it is difficult to have the student walk around the room at different speeds to develop this skill. For students of all instruments, especially those past the beginning stages, it impairs the development of sound projection. Independent teachers can, and often do, choose a large teaching space if it is available to them, or at least use a large bedroom or living room, which are several times larger than most music school teaching rooms–and enable students to move around to different areas or learn to make their sound “carry” in a big room, sometimes a large sanctuary in a church with a nice piano if available to the teacher.

Third, you cannot choose the students who you teach. You have to take almost every, if not every student assigned to you, from whiny, spoiled brats with a poor quality instrument to advanced students ready to go to study music at a university or conservatory. And everything in between, with most being students who might come every week to lessons, but do little practicing, in which you’re like a musical babysitter. (Plus highly unlikely getting the advanced students going on to study music after high school; almost all of those go to independent studios) Independent teachers can choose not to teach students who are over-scheduled, have poor attitude, have poor ability to follow instructions, or have various intellectual, emotional, behavioural, or learning challenges or if the parents have a history of things such as constantly late payments, lots of missed lessons, and teacher hopping.

Fourth, many music schools will not let teachers take the students with them if the teacher leaves the school. This is bad news if students develop a close relationship with a teacher that they really enjoy.

Fifth, many music schools have overly long concerts at the end of the year. Considering that some of these concerts are 2-3 hours long, and some teachers need to spend time with their families or have performance commitments which they need to attend performances, rehearsals, or practice plus travel time, this can impact a teacher’s relationships outside the school and even income!

Sixth, teachers are not able to teach the length of lesson the student needs or wants. For example, 45 min lessons are offered only at a few music schools, and no community music school that I know of offers longer than 60 min, even if the student needs or wants it. I’ve taught 75 min to 2 hour lessons to at least 4 students which the student or their parents requested extra time. I love having lots of time, for students who need extensive prep for auditions for music programs after high school (there are lots of requirements to fulfill for these), or need major remediation, or want lessons on a couple of instruments.

Seventh, some music schools, especially for piano students, choose the method book teachers are supposed to use, even if that method generally produces students who play poorly.

Eighth, music schools offer very little flexibility. A teacher cannot take a day off to do special performances or run a workshop during the hours they are assigned to teach, or would be travelling to the community music school if they work for one. This happened to a flute teacher friend of mine, who wanted to do a flute workshop at a public school I was doing a clarinet workshop at, and could not perform for a special memorial service for one of the musicians at the church, because she would be on her way to teaching at the school during the service. Perhaps it is because music schools feel that they want the teachers to be dependent on the music school for students. Teachers working independently can ask for students and parents to accommodate other events occasionally.

Ninth, teachers of orchestral instruments are typically not able to hire someone that they like and is good as a pianist for solos, and are asked to use someone who teaches at the school. The flute teaching friend above wanted to use my husband for her student’s flute exams, but the school would not permit her to do so.

Tenth, teachers at music schools are generally limited to using the tools in their teaching that are available at the school. This means that, for example, a teacher cannot bring a laptop computer to help students learn theory or ear training or have their playing recorded and seen/heard.

Eleventh, many music schools separate learning music theory from learning to play an instrument. This means that students may be far less likely to connect music theory to music learning, and the students of parents spend at least twice the amount on lessons than they should be. (the instrument lessons and the theory classes!)

Finally, music schools will not let you teach the instruments which you are known as a good or even excellent teacher, but may, according to the music school’s rules, be unqualified to teach. Several of my musical colleagues, including piano teachers who teach for the Royal Conservatory in downtown Toronto, think of me a really good piano teacher (and they have observed my teaching and student performances), even though I do not quite meet the minimum qualification to teach that instrument in most of them. (usually at least Level 9 piano, though a few say Level 8 minimum and others require Level 10)

I used to hate the electronic tuner for musical instruments, and rarely used it. I started using it again in September 2011 before performances to tune my instruments to the desired pitch level, especially on the A clarinet I play on currently, particularly in that instrument’s very lowest and highest notes. Over the past month however, I have been using the electronic tuner not only to tune up my instruments, but even during the playing of technical elements, etudes, and repertoire.

It has helped me learn of problematic notes in various passages, when my instrument needs to be taken in for adjustments due to leaks, and has helped me play very consistently in tune, even though people have said that I am very good at that; in some ensembles I play and have played in, other musicians liked to tune to me because they assume I was going to be in tune very quickly if not immediately.