Well that’s the reason I posted here....was hoping musicians would answer. We don’t collect unemployment and we know our business pretty well. It’s our career....we are also performing/recording musicians (not all teachers perform). I do appreciate all the suggestions but I really wanted area and pricing suggestions. No need for tips on how to run our business/career.
Music teachers
- Thread starter tanyaviola
- Start date
As I mentioned in previous posts, you will want to live in or around a city. So GTA (Toronto), Ottawa & surrounding area, London, or Kitchener/Waterloo. it is in the cities where you can grow your business. If you are also performing/recording musicians and supplement with music lessons, you can look in rural areas around Toronto or Ottawa, for example. This would be years away if you haven’t applied so the market can change in the next 3-4 years. As I also mentioned look at the music programs in the school boards as many have cut orchestra programs and only teach band...depending on the instruments you teach.
Qualifying for unemployment mean the ability to qualify for unemployment and paying into the program. For example due to covid most music teachers (and other self-employee people) did not qualify for any form of normal income replacement but could no longer teach in person so a different form of income replacement was created. Self-employed applications take longer to process but covid will have influenced the income of most music teachers. Covid may influence the ability to play music or teach music for the next year or two. Getting a teaching job through at a school would be a good source of extra income. There have been a lot of cutbacks to music programs over the past decade and due to covid I think there will be a lot of cutbacks at various level of government since there has been so much money spent trying to prevent covid and keep the economy from a depression. If you do music recording I think you’ll need to be somewhat close to the GTA. If you only do it once in a while you could always just drive in for the day or spend a night in a hotel or AirBnB. Would suggest looking at the list of royal conservatory teachers and contact them. I assume many will be willing to answer your questions and give you a realistic perspective of what to expect as a music teacher in Canada.
Thanks. Again, we don’t collect unemployment. Our income has actually stayed about the same for teaching. We lost a couple of students in March but have gotten a couple of new ones since. All of our students are online now so there’s not really a change in numbers. As for recording, we can actually do some on our own and we have a great studio engineer we’ve worked with for years. We now work online with him. Cutbacks in music department have been happening for several years. That’s nothing new. Yes...we’ll definitely be contacting other music teachers there!
Don’t think you are understanding. Many Canadians pay in to an employment insurance program every time they get paid so if they lose their job, can’t work, etc. they qualify for EI (employment insurance) which is commonly referred to as unemployment insurance. Those who are self-employed do not qualify which makes them much more vulnerable. Canada has been more aggressive when it comes to forced closures of businesses and in general Canadians seem to have been much more cautious when it comes to going out into the public. Would also be interesting to ask music teachers in Canada whether their students opted for virtual appointments or did they lose many students. For covid the government created a special benefit allowing people who are self-employed to access a program to provide them some income after they lost most or all of their income.
Yes. Works exactly the same way in the U.S. As I said, it does not affect us since we do not collect unemployment.
Don't think most of the people who applied for various government programs had ever applied before. Canada has much more strict lockdown policies versus the US.
I have a question. What do you mean by "a different form of income replacement"? I don't mean to derail the thread but I just want to know if as a self employed person, are you allowed to get a teaching job from another institution? Can you get hired as an employee (teacher) even if you're actually in Canada as a self employed person?
What stream are you accepted in or are applying to? If through the self employment stream, the purpose of the stream is to show that you can support yourself and your family as self employed not to get a job in an “institution.” However if successful throughh this stream, when you come to Canada you could get a job. If not through the Self Employment stream but through Express Entry, you can work wherever you want.
I'm applying through the Self Employed Persons Program. I asked that question because we all know the situation with COVID restricting almost everything related to performances and such. So how's that gonna work if I got in as Self Employed but cannot pursue the initial proposal as a self employed person due to COVID restriction issues, can I work as a music teacher at least?
So assume your application is in because processing for the stream is over 2 years and they only select around 1000 people per year for the business stream (that includes start up too). So hopefully in 2 years, COVID restrictions will be lifted. When you apply you show how you have supported yourself as a self employed musician. If successful, you can work as a music teacher out of your home and get any job, if you want.
Thank you Naturgrl! That pretty much answered and clarified everything that I need to know for now.
Cheers and have a good one!
Tanya viola
I am a self employed music teacher from India. I would like to know if you are a Permanent resident under self employed category. If you are please let me know the process for filing . I am waiting for your response
I am a self employed music teacher from India. I would like to know if you are a Permanent resident under self employed category. If you are please let me know the process for filing . I am waiting for your response