Thank you for your interest in teaching positions with our school. This page will give you an idea of our philosophy of teaching and on how our school can best meet the needs of our students and teachers.

Before You Apply

We take the qualifications part seriously so if you don’t have them don’t waste your time.
This means; a music degree/diploma completed or near completion and you’re still in school and/or an ARCT from the RCM).
As well don’t apply if you can’t do the job. We have plenty of otherwise qualified applicants who can’t do the job because they can’t get here for 4, go on tour with their band or move out of the city between school semesters.
4-9 weekdays, Saturdays 10-4 from the beginning of September to the end of June means exactly that. We do teach over the summer but it is not a requirement

If you are interested in applying for a teaching position, after reading the information below and viewing the rest of the website, please email your resume to info@riverheightsmusicschool.com with a subject line of Attention: Teaching Positions.
No phone calls please. Only suitable applicants will be contacted for an interview.

School Background

River Heights School of Music is a privately owned school that was founded in 2000. We are located in the Tuxedo Shopping Centre, 202-2025 Corydon Avenue. We teach private music lessons to students ranging in age from kindergarten to adult.
We recognize that most of our students will not become professional musicians. We strive to provide a fun but educational environment with well-organized administration and first rate equipment and facilities.

Why teach with us?

There are several places you can teach in and around the Winnipeg area. As a music teacher you can teach privately in your own house, in students’ homes, or you can teach in a music store or school – all have upsides and downsides.

If you teach in a music store you need to know that their focus is on retail sales and not on education or on keeping students long term. They can make their money on selling an instrument and a few lessons. They can have little or no interest in protecting the teacher or respecting your time. At some of these places you are also expected to do non teaching duties. These can be as simple as; taking merely taking attendance all the way up to collecting fees and cleaning up.

If you teach in your home or students’ homes, the upside is you can keep all the money you charge to the student. Since you have no expenses like rent, a receptionist or advertising, you do not have to pay out a percentage to overhead costs.

There are also downsides of teaching in your home or your students’ homes. It can be hard to keep your schedule constantly full with new students. Getting a full schedule can be difficult and expensive if you have to run ads, have constant social media content or maintain a website. Even if you are a good, well-liked teacher, it can take a long time for referrals and word of mouth to fill your schedule. If you are driving to students’ houses you also have to factor in the driving time between students, cost of gas and car maintenance, etc. which limits the amount of teaching you can actually do. If you teach in your home you need to have it clean and hazard free everyday you are teaching. Pets and their smells need to be taken care of as well.

The other downside of teaching on your own can be the difficulty in enforcing your attendance and payment policies. No one likes to be a collection agent. It can be difficult to concentrate on your teaching while trying to keep track of who owes money and making sure you are paid.
If you are teaching on your own, it can also be difficult to enforce your teaching policies and have your time respected. For example, if a student tells you they are going to Disney World for the next two weeks, it can be difficult to still make them pay for their lessons (AKA your time). Many parents/students will refuse to pay for those missed lessons because they will think: “I am not going to my lesson so why should I pay?”
Chances are you can’t book another student in that lesson time for just 2 weeks, so if you don’t charge the student in Disney World, you have just lost 2 weeks of pay. If that scenario happens a couple times per month it can greatly reduce your earnings.

Now let’s look at teaching at our music school. The downside is you might not get paid as much per student. So the pay per student to the teacher is lower because of commercial rent, advertising, receptionists and other expenses. The upside can be having a consistently full schedule of students each day. Being paid less per student but having 10 or 11 students in a day will mean you earn more overall without the hassle or expense of getting new students. And that is before you factor in all the aforementioned difficulties getting paid for absent, no shows, vacationing and those quitting with no notice.
Another upside to teaching at our music school is that you do not have any administration work to do. At some lesson centers you are expected to do a wide range of duties. Everything from; collecting payments, taking attendance, arranging make-ups, arranging substitutes, etc. Why some places even expect you to clean up.

We just hire you to teach!

Those are general differences between teaching on your own and teaching in a music store.

At our school you only have to focus on the teaching. Also our music school provides a professional educational environment that is stimulating to students. It is also free from distractions found in a home or music store such as; ringing phones or doorbells, TV’s and noisy family members, pets, retail sales, etc.

Here are reasons why music teachers choose to teach at our school over all other choices:

1. A constant flow of new students to keep schedules as full as possible.
Over the course of the year, students can move or quit. This can leave a teacher with gaps or holes in their schedule. Most students register and start lessons in September. Most music schools only advertise in late August and September for new students. We work all year long to keep new students coming and keeping present families happy.
At our school we spend a lot of time and money on advertising and marketing year-round to keep schedules as full as possible. We are continually registering new students for our private music lessons even during typically slower registration months like May or June.

2. Extras are taken care of – your only responsibility is to teach.
We have front desk administrators to handle all of the “details” of teaching. From scheduling to collecting fees, these details are handled by an administrator not the teacher. This means the teacher is free to focus on teaching and not get bogged down by administration.

3. Your time is respected and we are focused on you getting paid.
We have policies in place to make sure your time is respected. We only allow 4 make up lessons per year. Our inhouse tracking makes sure of that. If they cancel with too short a notice with out good reason, if they forget, don’t call, etc. the teacher gets paid. Our priority for our teachers is to make sure that your time is respected and your teaching day can be as productive as possible.

4. Gig performance friendly!
We are performers and we know that teaching and gigging is part and parcel of being a professional musician. You have a gig? We can book a sub or reschedule your students. Our in house system makes it simple and convenient. This is not for the performer who wants a little side money teaching, this is for the teacher who does gigs on the side.

More Information

The most popular instruments to study are what we call ‘The Big 3’. These are Piano, Voice and Guitar. This is also the type of application we get the most.
Piano Teachers are expected to teach ages 5 to adult, be versed in the classical as well as popular styles, be able to teach standard notation and lead sheet.

Voice Teachers are expected to take on beginner piano. We prefer to give piano students to our piano teachers but those young beginners need the early spots and they fill up fast. You will also be dealing with students from 5 to adult. We expect you to use published material and not lyric sheets. If you sub out or move on we do not want the next teacher to be saddled with “My teach had all the music” we want to instill the habit of buying and owning music.

Guitar Teachers are expected to teach ukulele and we have a studio uke for you to use in lessons. Your Ukulele students will be between 5 and adult while your guitar students will be between 7 and adult. We also expect you to use standardized learning materials and never ever use internet tabs!

You are not expected to teach bass. If you actually play bass you can get bass students but we mean you actually play the bass, read bass clef proficiently, use rest strokes, thumb and pop and own a bass.

So again, before you apply:
We take the qualifications part seriously so if you don’t have them don’t bother.

This means; a music degree/diploma completed or near completion and you’re still in school and/or an ARCT from the RCM).
As well don’t apply if you can’t do the job. We have plenty of otherwise qualified applicants who can’t do the job because they can’t get here for 4, go on tour with their band or move back home between school semesters.
4-9 weekdays, Saturdays 10-5 from the beginning of September to the end of June means exactly that. We do teach over the summer but it is not a requirement

If you are still interested in applying for a teaching position after reading this and viewing our website, please email your resume to info@riverheightsmusicschool.com with a subject line of Attention: Teaching Positions.

No phone calls please. Only suitable applicants will be contacted for an interview.

Winnipeg Music Lessons
River Heights School of Music
202-2025 Corydon Ave
2nd Floor of the Tuxedo Park Shopping Center (Safeway, Starbucks Mall)
Winnipeg, Manitoba.
R3P 0N5
204-487-3664
info@riverheightsmusicschool.com