Being a woodwind teacher means you probably need to play multiple woodwind instruments, but do you also need to play the piano? Students often need accompaniment for pieces, particularly if they are for grade exams, but does the teacher always have to provide the accompaniment themselves?
It’s always cheaper and easier for a student if their teacher is able to accompany them. You don’t necessarily have to, but if you don’t, you should at least have an accompanist you can recommend who is nearby and has plenty of availability. You might be able to get away with using backing tracks if you’re teaching beginners.
It can already be pretty difficult as a woodwind teacher, having to play lots of different woodwind instruments. Realistically, if you want to call yourself a woodwind teacher, rather than specialise in a particular instrument, you’ll need to be able to play flute, clarinet and sax (preferably with access to multiple saxes). This can be hard enough, without needing to accompany students as well. There are a few options if you don’t play the piano which I’ll talk about now. Some of it depends on the standard of the players you’re teaching.
Alternatives to accompanying beginner students
It can be much easier to teach beginners without playing the piano. Complete beginners are unlikely to require any accompaniment at all. They’ll just be learning notes and rhythms at first and later they might get to the stage where they can play duets with another person on the same instrument. It will take a while until they’re at the level to need accompaniment.
For students who are thinking about starting grade exams, accompaniment will be required. If the student is still a beginner and doing one of the early grades, it may be fine to use backing tracks. This should really be for grades 3 or lower, as backing tracks are very rigid and don’t allow for any rubato. Backing tracks are available for all pieces on all of the main exam boards and this can work well for some students.
Alternatives to accompanying intermediate and advanced students
If your student is more advanced, they are likely to need live accompaniment. If you don’t want to stick to beginner students and you don’t play piano, you’ll have to think about other options. One option is to teach unaccompanied pieces or duets only. This wouldn’t be an option for students wanting to take grade exams but not all students are interested in this. Jazz music, for example, is often taught with backing tracks for the student to solo over.
Another option is to team up with an accompanist. One of the easiest ways to do this is to be a peripatetic teacher in a school. They would most likely have a piano teacher in the same school. In that case, it is likely to be possible to schedule lessons for your student easily with the piano teacher when they need to practice with an accompanist. They can then have the specialist woodwind teaching from you and the accompanied practice with the piano teacher.
If you don’t want to teach in schools, and want to be a private woodwind teacher, you’ll need to think a bit more about whether you can teach without piano skills. It could be doable if you have one or more accompanists you can recommend. These people would need to live nearby and not be too hard to book or too expensive.
Will I still be employable as a woodwind teacher if I don’t play piano?
It can definitely be more difficult for students if their teacher doesn’t play piano. You need to make sure it’s worth it for them to choose you if you don’t play piano. You can make it easier for the students by recommending an accompanist, but they need to be easily accessible.
There are plenty of ways to get good contacts for accompaniment. Accompanists will usually be happy to have someone recommending them to students, as this gives them more work. If you work at a studio or somewhere where other teachers also work, you can easily ask around and find people there.
If you work from home or travel to your students’ houses, you might need to advertise more widely. You could put up notices in local music shops, or advertise on Facebook or other social networks for someone looking for accompaniment work. Always make sure you check they’re a good enough standard before you agree to anything.
Another way to get students interested if you don’t play piano is to specialise in something that not many other teachers do specialise in. An obvious one if you don’t play piano is jazz, as this can be done more easily with backing tracks, although you obviously have to be a jazz musician yourself to teach jazz! You could specialise in beginner teaching or you could teach multiple instruments to the same person, showing them how to switch between them successfully.
Could I learn to play piano well enough to accompany?
If you’re interested in learning piano, you’re likely to be able to pick it up fairly quickly. Most musicians find it much easier to learn a second instrument than a first. If you want to do this, you should be quite careful in how you approach it. Make sure, for example, that you don’t start trying to accompany your pupils before you’re confident enough that you can do it well. If you do it badly, you’re likely to put them off.
It’s also a good idea to get yourself a teacher who understands why you want to learn. You don’t want someone who wants to train you to be a concert pianist. Pick someone with accompaniment experience and tell them that you need to be able to accompany your students. Start by accompanying students at a lower level and then work up to more advanced students.
You don’t necessarily need to be able to play a piece perfectly to be able to accompany a student. The most important thing is to be able to follow the student in their interpretation. You don’t want to play too rigidly or you might as well just use a backing track. If you’re just accompanying them during lessons though, you also don’t have to be able to play every note – you can just get to the stage where you can play enough to get by. In this situation, you probably want to arrange an accompanist occasionally, for example just before exams.
To sum up, you don’t necessarily need to play the piano to be a woodwind teacher. I can be an advantage if you do, as you’re not relying on outside help. You do have options though, and if you’re a good enough teacher, your students will be willing to work around you not being able to accompany them, especially if you have a network of contacts they can use.