student group teaches two pupils violin in music pedagogy

In the Studio | Maranatha’s Music Pedagogy Program

To many people, the idea of entrepreneurship is exciting; you create your brand, build your student base, and teach, create, or perform the work you love. If an entrepreneurial musician is looking to start a studio, the idea may seem daunting. You probably don’t know how to run a business or have a lot of experience teaching, but you want to set yourself up as a strong guide and mentor to potential students.

How do you prepare for a career that requires business and musical knowledge?

The Training

Maranatha offers a music pedagogy program that equips you to teach in a professional studio setting. Through the pedagogy program, you will take courses like Music Studio Management to equip you with the knowledge of handling the business aspect of operating a studio.

Starting your sophomore year, you will gain valuable teaching experience through a six-semester paid internship at Maranatha Music Prep—a community music school offering private lessons, theory classes, ensembles, and early childhood music and movement classes. This internship will enable you to successfully teach your future students.

As you progress through the pedagogy program, you will discover that pedagogy needs to be grounded in sound educational research. You will interact with this research in pedagogy courses and in your weekly Music Pedagogy Seminar class. Your professors will help you learn how to instill and establish a love of music in your students, develop your students’ inner musician, and play their chosen instrument.

The Application

While all that sounds good, what does it practically look like?

Caelyn Meier, a sophomore studying Piano Pedagogy and Arranging, shares, “Teaching at Music Prep and watching our teachers teach lets me see the things we’ve been taught in class. This helps reinforce the lectures.”

As for the classes, Meier states that “everything from teaching tips to how to manage a studio has been helpful.” She has even added a minor in Business so she can learn to better manage finances and marketing.

Junior Christina Trowbridge, a pedagogy student with concentrations in Piano Pedagogy and Early Childhood Music, says that her goal after graduation is to teach music. “I don’t want to teach them just the music, I want to teach them how to enjoy music and how they can use music to enrich their lives and those around them,” Trowbridge states.

Trowbridge also teaches at Music Prep and has found it helpful as she learns how to teach and the best way to teach. “If we did not get to teach at Music Prep,” Trowbridge asserts, “we would not know how to deal with problems when we encounter them in our teaching after college.”

Students in the pedagogy program will earn their MTNA certification. This certification, combined with the paid teaching internship and the weekly pedagogy seminar, gives you a competitive edge for jobs and graduate assistantships.

The Career

So, what does that look like in the real world?

2012 Music Pedagogy alumna Kara Burgess gives us a peek into her teaching experience at Music for Me, her studio in New York.

In the Spring of 2015, Burgess began some group piano and early childhood classes. Her group classes turned into private lessons which led to referrals that built her clientele.

By 2019, Burgess had two studio locations: one in her parents’ hometown and the other 30 minutes away. Despite the 2020 pandemic and losing some of her students, Burgess has seen new growth in the last few months resulting in a waiting list.

Looking back on her time at Maranatha, Burgess shares, “Maranatha’s pedagogy program does such an amazing job at training individuals who can make music, teach music, build relationships, and run a successful business. The more reading and learning I do, and the more contact I have with other pedagogy programs and students, the more I appreciate the thorough, well-rounded program Maranatha has created.”

To learn more about Maranatha’s pedagogy program, click here