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Teaching piano is a skilled job! It will be harder to recruit and teach students if you do not have extensive playing experience. If you have been playing piano for a long time and have a significant repertoire under your belt, you are probably already qualified to teach. That said, you should still practice playing the piano daily so that your skills stay fresh and up to date. A degree is not necessarily required if you have a high playing skill level. However, most successful piano teachers are highly trained with the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in piano with coursework in piano pedagogy (instruction). Learning classical techniques is helpful for increasing overall playing skill and are necessary for aspiring concert pianists or future teachers. However, if your student wants to learn how to play jazz music in addition to classical, and you don’t know how to play jazz piano, you may not be the best teacher for them. While some students take piano lessons to show their friends their favorite pop songs, others may learn piano to make a career out of it some day. In either case, being able to explain and demonstrate technical knowledge of scales, chords, intervals, clefs, meter, phrasing, and harmony is essential to their musical development. If you find your music theory to be lacking, there are many resources that can help, but a music theory course on Coursera or Nicolas Carter’s book “Music Theory: From Absolute Beginner to Expert” or can improve your theory skills in an approachable way. This can include taking private lessons from teachers who are more advanced than yourself, reading music teaching literature, attending concerts, practicing and learning new repertoire on your own, or browsing the internet or YouTube for inspiration. Remember that a good teacher is also a good student. Join your local, state, or national music teacher's associations to network with other teachers and be informed about new teaching methods and publications. You can also learn about various pedagogical techniques and select the method that you think will work best for you and your students.
Practice playing the piano often. Advertise the genres of piano music that you're qualified to teach. Brush up on your music theory. Invest in professional development.