by Eric (Sword) Beaty

Created on: May 12, 2010

First of all, this book is packed full of useful information.  Steiner goes over the pros & cons of the various aspects of teaching music.  He gives helpful tips on how to create solid - and sometimes frank - business policies for your studio.  It was a quick read for me; between breaks at work and coming home I was able to read it in a day.

Though the information is useful, the disclaimer in the front of the book plainly says that this book is "for entertainment purposes only" and that "Each individual's success and outcome depends on his or her background, desire, dedication, implementation, and motivation."  Having said this, the book itself is too short (only 66 pages, 60 of them with actual information on them - lot of blank pages in the back that could have been used for more info.) for me to believe I can quit my job in "30 days or less" like the subtitle of the book says.

Also, the pages are double-spaced, and the shortest section in the whole book is the chapter on "What to teach"; don't you think that this would be the most important chapter?  And it only has 2 pages?  What a drag.  The whole book could have been printed single-spaced on only 33 pages (nearly a page for every one of those 30 days in the month).

This book is entertaining as the disclaimer says, I'll give it that.  But it's a few (make that a lot) pages short of being worthy of the claim that you can "Quit your job and become a professional musician in 30 days or less."  To me, that's too important and too risky a decision be so hasty about.  It takes research (more than what this book can provide), time, and serious planning to do what this book fails to.

In short (just like the book), get it for the entertainment value, but consider "The Idiot's Guide to Teaching Music On Your Own" by Karen Berger or "Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business" by Marcia Washburn (available on her website at marciawashburn.com) if you want a more well-rounded and experienced point of view.  These are much more valuable resources and are worth every penny.  And they also fill in all the white space between the lines quite nicely.

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