Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Your occupation!

Medical device engineer in SF Bay Area and a piano teacher for lil kids after work. Teaching started as a volunteering thing in college for under-privileged elementary school kids and turned into a way to keep music/piano in my life for the past few years while I saved up and wondered how to get a piano. Finally bought a piano a year ago and trying to pick up on my own back where I left off when I went to college.

Telecom IT engineer, design and writing telecom programs, solving customer telecom system problems. I am a good IT engineer, much better than how I can play piano. (Learned piano because mother wanted me to and it was the thing to do )

Good move! And when the rain in Vancouver gets too depressing, you can always take respite from it in Victoria!

Regards,

(I wrote a reply and then my computer ate it - try again...)

Well I play the piano for my living - I freelance as an accompanist - and I don't think of it as having to play music, rather that I'm lucky because I get to play lots of great music and collect a fee. At present this is what I mainly do, though I have a few students as well.
I have spent a number of exhausting years teaching class music in schools (both primary and high school) - now there's a way to really earn your money!!
I don't envisage retiring any time soon, as I'm enjoying myself too much, but when I do it will probably be something like PoStTeNeBrAsLuX, "floating off into retirement on a wave of musical activity"

Currawong, a friend of mine suggested I think about working as an accompanist for exam students just two days ago - this was the first time I'd considered it, and I have to say I expect I'd need to be a lot less sketchy in my playing than I am now. Now here comes the stupid question - is it very difficult?

Currently I'm working on expanding my piano knowledge and ability so I can expand my student base (just one student coming into this year!!!).

And my plans too are to never retire but teach and play for as long as my body and mind holds out.

I am a clinical embryologist (i.e. test tube baby doctor).

Too right! I now just teach enough piano to pay the bills. Nice work if you can get it.

Stanza:
I am a clinical embryologist (i.e. test tube baby doctor).

So couples come to you when they want "a womb with a view?"

-Michael B.

I am a retired lawyer living is south-central Ontario. Two months ago I resumed taking piano lessons after a 33 year absence. I just wanted to be able to enjoy playing again. It's a bit of a struggle at times but definitely worth the effort.

Welcome to PW jehalliday! I grew up in Kitchener! How about that?

I forgot to mention - my main occupation would seem to be posting at PW (and I'm not the only one).

Well, I used to think this as well. Then I went into the finance business and longed to do music. One day, I decided to teach with the encouragement of my piano and voice teachers. I made the transition over time, and I've always loved teaching. I learned my limits, however, and now I can say no to other activites if need be. (You wouldn't guess that I do say no, but I often do).

I teach privately a studio of 20 students, hoping to grow to about 25-30. I teach Kindermusik in about 5 classes per week, I teach 3 group voice classes for young singers. I do accounting for my husband's web development business about 3-4 times per week, depending on my schedule. I wouldn't mind dropping all the classes, but it's good money and it's a change. I did do a church job for 3 years, but that became too much so I quit.

I'm from a town in Illinois located about halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago.
I majored in music/piano pedagogy in college and got my degree in May 2006.
For my main source of income, I work a full time office job. In addition to that, I teach Monday through Thursday evenings. I'm currently brainstorming ways to reduce my schedule so that I can do a better job of taking care of myself, my house, my cat, my puppy, my man, you get the picture.
My plans are similar to yours, Daffodil. I want to do this music thing for as long as I can. Hopefully I'll be exclusively teaching (and maybe performing/accompanying) before I hit 30. That would be great!

I work a full time job in London's financial district (affectionately called "The City"), but I'm not adverse to sneaking a peek (and posting) at PW during the day.

Otherwise, I'm on call as a substitute organist and occasionally work with singers on operatic and/or lieder repertoire.

How true! I just turned 30 and I wish I could have a lot more private students so I can quit my day job. It does take quite a while to get a music studio established and get the kind of word-of-mouth referrals. I have 23 students currently, but I still have room for 10-15 more. I tried all kinds of advertisement methods, but there are simply too many piano teachers in my area

Cool, I'm planning to be a lawyer! Loads of stress and pressure, though. Being in school and taking piano lessons is already busy enough. However, I would never want to quit playing piano. Would you say it's not advisable to keep such a time-consuming hobby with a full time career?

I don't know how all of you can do it.

Depends on how addicted you are to sleep. Me, I don't watch TV for a start. I have two adults at home who do most of the laundry, food buying etc. When I want to take a break from practicing I'm either here or deep in a mystery.

When I was at the height of my crazy period, I had a very stressful IT job (40+ hours per week, and had to wear a 24x7 emergency pager in rotation with my teammates).

I also had a 20 hour per week church job, which had its own stresses & responsibilities - especially during certain seasons!

Believe it or not, at this time I also worked at a movie studio from 6pm to midnight!

Oh well, I had the energy then. I also enjoyed my brief encounter with wealth.

If you love it enough, you'll make time. With a full time job and teaching on the side (usually ending up around 60+ hrs/week), I mostly only play on the weekends; run errands and practice.

I'm a retired senior exec. from a Fortune 100 company turned piano dilettante. Actually, I started playing well before I retired but due to travel & work demands was very inconsistent.

Full time network engineer, part-time forex trader,
leaving limited and precious time for my pursue of
music, especially piano performance!

My ultimate dream is to ditch my day job when I
can substitute the income with my forex trading
which surprisingly doesn't take up that much time
as I was led to believe in the first place ... then
I could afford more time on pursuing my loved hobby
of all time ... piano!!! 8-)