Lauren Bateman taught music for 10 years and runs three schools with 400+ students, none of it requiring a music degree. What matters is teaching ability, practical experience, and solving student problems. She learned guitar on her own and has two non-music degrees.
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Hey guys, welcome back. My name's Lauren Bateman. I wanted to share a common question that I get from a lot of guitar teachers. I actually just got this email this morning that I'm going to share with you and the topic is do I need a degree to teach music? So Vinnie wrote me this morning and he said I'm considering taking the good path of becoming a self employed as a guitar teacher and quitting my typical day job. But I've never taught guitar before and wanted to inquire for some help. I've been playing for up to 13, 14 years and am part of musical projects. But I do not hold any certificates or merit as I'm completely self taught. My main concern is that students won't trust someone who isn't formally trained. Any help would be tremendous. Well, Vinnie, the answer to this question is no, you do not need a degree to teach. Believe it or not, I don't have a music degree to teach my degree I have two degrees actually. One is in archaeology and one is in biology. Neither one of those qualify me to teach. I don't have a degree in education and I don't have a degree in music. I myself and this comes up I think a lot more for guitar players than say a piano player. I think a lot of people to really get into piano go to conservatory or go to university or something to study at a very advanced level, whereas guitar, there's a lot of us out there who are self taught. And I went through this same issue that Vinnie was going through. I felt like I wasn't qualified to teach people because one, I was self taught and hadn't really taken very many lessons myself. Two, I didn't have a degree and I was concerned that people weren't going to trust me or think that I had the skill skills to be able to teach someone. And so, you know, over the course of me teaching 10 years, I only have one person ever asked me if I had a music degree or if I had a degree in music. And this was actually towards the beginning of when I started teaching. And when I started teaching I wasn't even that good at playing the guitar. And I didn't teach voice either when I started because I felt like I wasn't doing good enough of a singer to actually be able to teach people. And that eventually changed too. So this mom asked me, she goes, hey, what are your credentials? What's your background? And I was completely honest with her. I said listen, I don't have a degree in music, I don't have a degree in music education or teaching. I said, but I know I can help your daughter. And I asked her, I said, did you ever have a teacher in school who. Who was absolutely horrible? And she said, yeah, of course, everyone has, right? We've all had that teacher who is just like horrendous and shouldn't be teaching anyone. And I said, well, that person probably had a master's degree in education and teaching. So that person was trained to be a teacher and they were absolutely horrible. I said, I don't have the degree. I said, but I can help you and I can help your daughter. I ended up teaching this girl for about seven years and she went on and went to Berkeley, Berklee College of Music. So it just goes to show you, you don't need a degree.
And I think we get caught up in needing these qualifications. People aren't buying your degree, people are buying you. They either like you or they don't. Alright? And if they like you, the next question they're asking is, can this person help me solve my problem? So if someone comes to you wanting to play guitar, wanting to sing, wanting to learn piano, all they want to know? Most of them really don't care if you have a music degree or not. What they want to know is, can you help me solve my problem? And if you can help people solve their problems, then guess what? You're going to be successful in this industry. Because that's really all anyone wants in a service industry, whether it's photography, personal training, you know, whatever. Can you solve my problem? And if the answer is yes, they like you, chances are they're gonna go with you. I mean, I trained people for years and we would start talking about college and I would tell them how I used to work for the pharmaceutical company and they're like, oh, we thought you went to Berkeley. Just because I live in the Boston area, they assumed I went to Berkeley. I said, oh, no, I went to Boston University. And they're like, oh, but you got your degree in music? And I said, no, my degree is actually in archaeology and biology. And they're like, then what the hell are you doing here? Teaching music. Music was my passion. It's what I love to do. And there's a lot of people out there who are very passionate about music and are very capable of teaching and being good at it. They just don't have the certificate or the degree to show the world that they're able to teach music. So the long answer to this short question is no, you don't need A degree to teach music, to teach guitar to someone, teach piano. As long as you have the skill set to show people what to do and as long as you can help people make progress and show them that you're helping them make progress and that you can show them how you and your experience as a guitar player. So this guy has 13 or 14 years of guitar experience, which was more than I have when I started teaching. So if you can show that you have the experience to help someone to get from point A to, to point B, then you're golden. And you know, in my rockstar coaching course I talk about ways that you can build credibility for your as a business owner even if you don't have any students yet. So you do have experience. There is a way to build credibility for yourself. Even if you're a brand new teacher, even if you're brand new in the business. I do go over that in the rockstar coaching system. So I hope that answers your question guys, because this one is so common. I see it a lot amongst guitar teachers and you know, I have three music schools now, we have over 400 students. So if I can do it without a degree in music, being a self taught guitarist, then so can't you, you know, so just go in there, be confident that you have value and that you have something to offer people and, and communicate how you can help them solve their problems and you'll be very, very successful in this industry. So there you go guys. I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll see you in the next one. If you have any questions. If you want to submit a question to me, go to laurenbateman.com click on the contact button and you guys can shoot me an email or you can put a comment below this video. I do try to answer as best as possible. So if you have any questions, shoot them over to me and maybe I'll make a video about your question too.
