Debt, debt and more debt....

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shedophone

Member
Dear all TMP'ers....

I need advice for money making ventures.

student life seems to be getting more and more expensive, and i seem to be managing worse than most to control my budget.

(i really need to stop compulsively buying percussion equipment!)

My 8 hour-a-week job, apart from being mind-numbingly boring, doesnt bring in enough money, and im starting to worry about how to manage, or more importantly how to pay my car insurance!

i know i have skills that i should be able to make use of, but as always, its who you know not what you know. So, i need to know people, and i figured this would be as good a place as any to start.

I can teach, compose, arrange, transcribe, perform, conduct, and i want to be able to use my skills in more financially useful way.

Can anyone give me advice on how to go about finding and organising pupils to teach, people to arrange/transcribe for, etc etc etc?

Yours desperately,

Shedophone.
 
K

Kari Anson

Member
1 - Advertise in the local paper (for your musical services obviously)!

2 - Approach local schools and see if they have any requirement for a perepetetic (or how ever you spell it) teacher.

3 - Contact The Prince's Trust. During the summer they offer a rock school (not exactly brass I know) but they'll need staff to teach the youngsters. It's residential so you'd get your bed and board paid for and also a wage. Yippee! They certianly used to - can't guarantee at the time of press they still do.


4 - Dep loads!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALTERNATIVELY

5 - Seek employment in another area where the hours are plentiful and the money is good.
 
N

Naomi McFadyen

New Member
Teaching:
Go to local bands and say that you teach- specalising in XYZ...
When I was playing in bands down south I just got talking to parents of the kids that wanted to learn drums and I took some of them on as pupils... charge a fair price and that gets a nice lil income, even if you just have 3 or 4 per week... charging at say £10 per hour...
 
Accidental

Accidental

Supporting Member
Ditch the car?! Noone could afford to run one anyway when I was a student, and we still got grants!

Seriously though, teach - if you teach privately you can fit the hours round the rest of your life, and you can get paid cash so no tax :D
 
J

James McFadyen

New Member
For me, teahing happened totally by accident, basically by word of mouth. Similarly, I have recently put in for a job as Composer-in-Residence at a local(ish) High School, again by word of mouth. A local Brass Band has offered me several top opportunities that could give my career a real boost, again, all by word of mouth and contacts!

Teaching is a good little income, I used to charge 10 quid an hour, but now 15 quid an hour. You can make good money on it, but when you get it, it's a good Idea to think about it first, coz a lot of time can be spend making up lesson plan, exercises, etc, all the boring stuff outwith the actual paid lesson, school teachers will know all about this and then some! ;)

arranging and transcription is far trickier, the clients are fewer and it it's a specialised job. If your only intending to do small arranging/transcription jobs, you wont be able to pay much. No offence here, but your probably better to leave this with the people who have more contacts or more expereience. My popular saying on here: You've got to see the wood from the trees, kinda apply's here, your purpose is to make decent money to live on within the shortest time possible, in my experence, I don't think you'll find it in arranging and transcription, sorry, but fairs, fair, you can't earn decent consistant money from it easily. It is a specialised job that all the specialists like working composers get. Pitty.You might make the odd 10 quid every so often, so it defeats the purpose of the exersise, to make money. If you disagree, then you have every oppertunity to prove me wrong ;)

One thing I've learned so far in the music industry, more than anything else, is the power of word of mouth and the power of promotion. Making money is a business (for personal use or not), not an artform, all you have to do is find out what will make you money with as little work as possible. Sometimes the jobs come for you, sometimes you can create your own job!

Advertising in a local newspaper can be expensive, which in turn puts the break-even anaylsis way up. You need something with the least amount of money to be spent. Going to local schools and bands is a good thing, but to be honest is a bit of a lottery and you'll find you'll waste money on phone calls and petrol. Go to your own Uni and check their jobs, depending on your level of education you'll get offered some top jobs, although the best are left for Postgraduate students! ;). This was a big feature at the RSAMD, several well paid-teaching jobs came up!!!! :) :)

Sorry I don't have any real advice for you, since making money in music isn't very easy at all and I can't think of anything you can do, that's not been said before in here, just to keep at it, spread the word and promote your services like ur ass is on fire! ;)

Good luck, once you find out the formula to make money from doing anything in music, publish it on tMP, I'm sure there are hundereds of folk after that formula! :)
 
S

shedophone

Member
Cheers, some of that's very helpful. (thanks rob :wink: )

The only problem with teaching is where to teach, i dont have a drum kit (or room for one), and the music department would go mad if i kept trying to book the hall to teach in!

Unfortunately i need my car to get to band, and work, and to and from uni.

Busking's a good plan, i have got a small transcription job actually but im doing it for a friend so theres not much in it- writing out the european national anthem for string quartet for a student european parliament.

:evil:
 
J

jo

Member
volunteer for medical trials....some of them pay well (depending on what they want to do to you! :shock: ) failing that there is often cash going for doing a spot of work at uni events (promo, ticket checking etc)...we used to get between 25 and 50 a night plus free drinks at the end of the evening for doing ticket checking and stewarding for the club nights.
Alternatively sell your car, blow all the money on lottery tickets and hope you win more than a tenner!!! :D
 
johnmartin

johnmartin

Active Member
Here's a few ideas,

1. Sperm/egg donor
2. Sell a Kidney
3. Auction your virginity on ebay
4. Pyramid selling
5. Lottery

:D :D :D

Believe it or not these have all been done by impoverished students with varying degrees of success.
 
lynchie

lynchie

Active Member
ah sperm doning may not be as good an idea as it once was, now that they small children can now find out your name and turn up at your door at some random time down the line!
 
jambo

jambo

Member
Yup, ditch the car and assuming you get enough for it, pay your rent with it.

Look for a better higher paid job with less hours, like teaching...that you can get a bus to.

the money you save on insurance will probably pay most of your house bills for the year thus you wages are your own, drink less, shop at liddles or aldi or iceland and only buy what you need not want. after you're finished being a student, then go mad buying stuff
 
S

sparkling_quavers

Active Member
Try looking at agencies that deal with private tuition.... I just registered with one for teaching science but they deal with musicial tuition as well. It was free to register but they charge 4 pounds commission per lesson which is halved after so many lessons. They contact you with any local work that you are suitable for. I know for the musicial tuition it did state you didn't have to be formally qualified as a teacher just to have reference who can vouch for your ability.

RE: having no where to teach... most private tuition is done in the pupil's homes now so, as long as you made it clear they needed their own kit, you should be ok.

The agency I am using is a manchester one so if you would like the contact then PM me.
 
S

shedophone

Member
cheers for that.

Although sperm donation wouldnt be the easiest thing in the world, (lol) there are some good ideas.

Coal is coal coloured.
 
ScrapingtheBottom

ScrapingtheBottom

Active Member
Kari Anson said:
Forgive the complete randomness and off topic but am just doing a little experiment.

I would say that coal is black!
Click to expand...
Well you're wrong coal is actually yellow with pink spots, it only looks black.
 
lynchie

lynchie

Active Member
is this whole coal thing an attempt to divert us tangentially off topic? because it wont work you know...












oh bugger!
 
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