music teacher

instructor

studio manager

general manager

guitar instructor

School of Rock

The way the school & the corporate part of it initially dangles its promises in front of you is very sweet, but once the veil is gone, the reality of this job is akin to maximizing profits. 

Teachers - who should be treated as the most important element of these places - get crumbs out of it. 

The location I worked at offered no benefits, no health insurance, no vacations (except a single unpaid week during December), & no paid breaks. As far as I know, that's the policy across all Schools of Rock in the USA. 

You're offered to get paid by the hour, which sounds pretty normal, right? There's a thing they do that borders on scam: You're given 45 minute lessons - So what's the problem then? Lets say you have 3 students, you think you're getting three lessons & you'll make $60 (one hour per student), right? - Nope - With the 45 minutes thing, you end up teaching 135 minutes, which amounts to almost doing a whole lesson for free - the school still gets most of the fee tuition, while you get less than the minimum for the last one. 

It's only rockn'roll, but I like it, right? 

Another weird point were pay raises for tenure, performance, etc. It's insane they pretend to review those things while there's NO benefits, NO health insurance, NO vacations , etc. The school charges an expensive monthly fee to clients, while the raise in salaries for teachers & staff are subpar. The last increase to every clients' monthly fee, while I worked there, was around $20 per month, but the raise for teachers who did exemplary work was embarrassing - just a couple dollars each.

Management can be hit or miss, but the general culture is to micromanage,  which turns it into quite a neurotic experience.

Part of the things that I had to do as Music Director were not properly compensated, like: Loading in & out equipment to all clubs/venues for mid season/final performances while waiting hours on end for the shows (played by students) to be over - That brought a problem barely mentioned - being exposed to loud volume for too long; Even though you can use ear protection, it becomes exhausting. The absurdly loud volume was a constant at the school I worked too (as the walls weren't properly designed to mute sound), & for whatever reason, a lot of rehearsals were conducted at insane volumes - that's the road to tinnitus & mental burnout, in a nutshell. Did they offer resources for ear doctors, mental health, etc? Nope. We got a pair of ear plugs, & that was it.

One thing that was blatantly insulting (for me at least) was to ask instructors to play/perform live with the "staff band" (a teachers band) every 4 months, but NO pay for the time spent on rehearsal, driving around, learning the music, preparing said performance, etc. As Music Director, I clocked in the hours, but the rest of the musicians? good luck with that.  It's miserable etiquette for what's supposed to be the schools' spiel, "We appreciate gigging musicians". 

Call it what it is: Unpaid Labor. 

There were some enjoyable parts, such as relationships I built with the community, specially my students, to watch 'em blosoom, & the chance to make friends that may have had similar interests. That's what I'd rescue out of the whole experience. 

Having said all of this, it's not THE worst job you can ever have, but it's also a place that offers as little as possible in terms of pay rate, development & long term security.

I’d recommend it if you want to teach music for the fun of it, but you'll be underpaid, & most probably, micromanaged & held responsible for things that are not compensated or reflected on your paycheck, so I wouldn't consider it a place that'll allow you to grow &/or prosper.

That was my experience...Hopefully yours will be different, if you're considering a job there.


I worked for School of Rock for about a year, and it seems great at first. Yes, the pay is terrible, but you know that going in and most of the time you're just happy to be able to work in a music-related field.

So let's get into the really bad stuff.

Their base pay of $12/hr is honestly not even that horrible, relatively speaking, if not for the asinine way they count your hours. You only get paid while you're teaching, and, especially in the beginning, you'll end up having three lessons scheduled across an 8-hour period. It doesn't make sense to drive back and forth between home and the school, so you end up staying 8 hours and getting paid for a little over 2, maybe 3-4 if they pay you to do some cleaning. The real problem though is what constitutes work. As a guitar teacher, you're sometimes expected to teach some pretty difficult material. Iron Maiden/Judas Priest solos and such. This isn't outside the realm of reason, but it doesn't matter how good of a musician you are, learning a very specific and challenging solo takes time, more time than you can afford to use up in a 45 minute lesson. So you're expected to learn this material on your own time, for free, so you can teach your students. It took me about two hours of practice to learn a particular solo to the point that I felt I could effectively teach it, then I went to work, stayed there for six hours, and got paid for 3 hours because I had a bunch of gaps. Their pay structure borders on MLM levels.

I don't know if this is true of every school, but the schools I worked for straight up take advantage of their students. 90% of the School of Rock employees I met were former students who had recently graduated from the performance program. Maybe 10% are actually qualified to teach music, but that's not even the biggest issue. I was offered $12/hr when I interviewed because I was in my mid-20s. A fellow coworker who was 18 and a recent student and had all the same responsibilities I did was only paid $8/hr. 

The schools are unsafe for children, particularly teens. They make you go through all the basic child safety stuff, but we had a lot of special needs students that we were left alone with, and with no training on how to teach special needs students. The school I worked at didn't have cameras in lesson rooms. Remember how I mentioned that they hire a lot of former students? Well, I knew of three examples where they hired a former student who was dating a current student. Not all of these instances were legally actionable, but were still highly unethical. There has to be a hard line there. 

The worst part about the school I worked at was the management, both of the school and of the curriculum. The same way they hire former students to teach, they hire former students to work the front desk. Because of the low pay, turnover is insane, and you end up with 20 year old general managers. The worst part, however, is they take advantage of you wanting to help your students and perpetuate this culture of fake positivity. Meanwhile, the music director has multiple DUIs and has been caught drinking at the school and still has his job. Another music director had a relationship with a student and rather than fire him, they employed the Catholic priest method and moved him to another school. 

The first thing you should understand is that the 15$ an hour pay isn't entirely true: each lesson is only 45 minutes, and the time in-between your lessons (which trust me, there will be days you'll have two hours in between lessons) isn't paid. So, to truly live-up to the pay that franchises will promise you, you have to teach two lessons.

However, if you're in college and doing this for some extra spending money, or you've got another day-job and are looking for a passion project--essentially, if you're not relying on SOR to feed you and pay your bills, the pay isn't bad.  

The low pay isn't just relegated to the teachers.The managment of the locations are also grossly underpaid for the amount of the work that they do. My GM managed my school full-time, another location part-time, organized shows, taught lessons, and helped run rehearsals (working close to 11 hours a day, 5-6 days a week), for a criminally low salary considering his schedule and credentials. 

Also, the "cirriculum" that the SOR execs distribute is a joke. There is very little empahsis on actual musicianship--the majority of your lessons will be either desiphering tabs to a Green Day/ACDC song, or teaching basic open chords to kids who are are either too young to be playing an instrument, or just plain don't care. To combat these situations, there is very little instruction on how to successfully teach these kinds of kids, and what information they do offer, is just an exec pontificating to a camera about useless acronyms and teaching "models."

As I mentioned above, a solid 65% of the kids you'll teach could care less about what you have to say. More than likely, they're there because a helicopter mom/dad wants to get them away from a TV screen. And while that's fine, you end up dealing with a lot of parents that think you're either under-valuing their child's talents, or just are just an ignorant "band dude" that doesn't know up from down. 

In summary: AVOID School of Rock. This isn't to say that the experience was entirely negative: I met some great people, and had a few really talented students. But,unfortunately, the short-comings of this company outweigh an kind of positive attributes. I took this job right out college to make ends meet until I could land my first job  in my field of study, and for that it wasn't the worst thing in the world. BUT, don't plan on making SOR a career--you'll end up over-worked and under-paid. If you're really passionate about teaching music, either strike out on your own, and teach private lessons (you'll make more money and not have to adhere to a stupid cirriculum), or go back to school, get a degree in music education, and work at an actual school that offers benefits, a salary, etc etc. 

My negative experience had NOTHING to do with my GM or co-workers, they were great, and really the only positive thing about SOR. The true issue lies with the execs--they do nothing and reap all of the rewards. So, beware.

I was hired on as the fourth General Manager of a location that had only been open a few years. This should have been a red flag in the first place, but at that point I was in need of employment and couldn't be picky. I quickly learned why this location had struggled to keep a manager and my tenure with the company was very brief.

The location I managed was struggling due to high turn over and needed special attention. I was never given the proper support or guidance to help make the adjustments needed, so I was stuck working long hours trying to figure things out on my own. In fact, during my time there, my supervisor had some personal issues (no fault of his own) and I was left on my own for a few months with no one to step in. In lieu of a supervisor, they provided me with a couple of video calls that were of very little help. I was constantly told I couldn't schedule people to help out at the studio because of low profits, but I also knew I could not make the necessary changes without additional help. This was the cycle I constantly went through during my time there.

Fortunately, after I had put in my notice, they had hired a regional manager that would be stationed at that particular location, so I am  hoping the next manager had better help and support than I did.

The lack of support was hard enough, but the major issue I had with the company was the abysmal pay of our instructors. Being a musician myself, I was familiar with industry standards in terms of studio rent and lesson costs. Our highest paid instructor was paid far less than half of what our students paid for lessons, which was quite shocking to me. Most companies split profits with instructors at the rate of 60/40, 66/33, or 75/25. We were closer to 25/75. As a result, many of our teachers would, rightfully, blow off work in favor of taking gigs that paid far more. I kept suggesting we raise teacher pay, but again, I was told we couldn't do so without higher profits. Unfortunately, you have to spend money to make money, but I was refused several times the opportunity to do so. 

The other issue I had was paid time off. We did get a few major holidays off, but outside that, we had 10 days (maybe even 5) on top of that. This had to count vacation AND sick time AND personal days.  Since we were salaried, it didn't matter if I had worked 60 hours the prior week, if I was sick, it had to come out of my PTO. 

I wish the company well as they do provide a unique service that has a lot of potential, but there are definitely issues in their upper management and support systems that need resolved.

The culture of the school is what's absolutely amazing. Your students, the parents, the shows, the other instructors. You'll love your day to day life there.

But as time goes on, and you begin working there for a while you'll begin to notice you have basically no room for advancement after you've become a show director (which each school determines who will become one in their own manner so it's also rarely an earned privilege in even the slightest -- from my experiences show directors are sometimes picked from completely random criteria).

You'll notice you have very little employee benefits... In fact, I can't think of a single one aside from an understanding scheduling staff if you need to go on tour and whatever food/coffee is left in your school's lounge area. Aside from that there's no real benefits.

You'll also notice pretty much either a swiss cheese schedule of barely any students (and you don't get paid unless you're teaching so you can be there from 3-9 but only get paid for 4 hours) or a schedule completely packed to the brim not following labor laws regarding breaks. This also means depending on the ebb and flow of school breaks and whatnot that your income will truly suffer. You'll grow to hate winter break, spring break and the summer more than anything.

You'll also notice that unless you're working for a franchise school; you're probably getting extremely underpaid in comparison to other music schools in your area. Even though parents are paying quite a lot for their student's education very little of that money is coming back to you as the instructor. The corporation definitely does not give priority to the instructors and while it seems some people in the higher offices care about keeping a happy and fulfilled culture in the schools the overall vibe that is presented to us instructors from corporate is that money is the ultimate priority. 

The one pro I can say about School of Rock is that with a good Music Director and Manager team (assuming you -have- a good team); you will learn how to become a better and more effective teacher so even if you are someone with very little teaching experience you can get some great chops for learning how to teach. But that's maybe the only helpful thing to you.

I wanted to love this job, I thought it would be inspiring to work with kids and teach them my craft that I have passionately loved since I was ten years old. I loved being around my coworkers, they helped me stay longer than I normally would have stayed at a job like that. After my sixth month of employment, I started to resent the company, not because of the students, the parents, the unlivable wage, lesson planning, or the comedic work schedule, but because the management was so manipulative towards honest good people. I met some incredibly kind people that work there. I remember I would always get an "Its about the kids" lecture anytime I wanted to take time off or request a different work schedule, even though I was informed that management would approve this during the interview process (my schedule changes twice a year). I had no issue devoting work time to the students and becoming a better employee there, but I couldn't take the terrible management practices and the "I'm better than you" energy the directors gave off.  Music is supposed to be completely self-expressive and I originally believed School of Rock promoted the idea of letting the students become the musician they want to be and take the meaning of performance to another level, not the stereotypical sheet music reading gatekeeping scholars that make other musicians feel disconnected and out of place. I felt like I had no sense of belonging while I was employed. 
On a brighter note- 
This job taught me my worth, it taught me that I shouldn't tolerate higher-up individuals who do not deserve their position of power. Maybe if I was working a livable wage I would have made an exception, but I was so broke I was visiting my local food pantry to survive.
Also, I learned that if I am going to stand up for anything it's for myself, and my wellbeing, and not to be uncomfortable for someone else's benefit. Also, you learn pretty quickly that you get paid per lesson. So, don't expect it to be a normal hourly gig.


After giving 2 years of my life and passion to this company, I finally see it for what it really is.

Foolishly, I had thought there was room to grow within the company. No. The pay is terrible and the corporation is run by a group of non-musicians who don't understand why the company struggles to find qualified teachers that will teach for $16/hr. They challenge every expense that comes up and use loopholes to avoid paying their employees for breaks and overtime. They also practice WAGE THEFT by requiring that "show directors" perform unpaid work in exchange for a "show bonus". When challenged recently to end this practice, they decided they couldn't figure out a better payment system, so they are continuing this terrible concept.

Not only that, but the demands on their instructors are high. The way the "curriculum" (hah) is set up means that instructors need to be top-notch gigging/performing musicians with the ability to figure out and transcribe pretty much any rock song thrown their way. The level of musicianship required to teach at this job is staggeringly high and not something your average amateur player could walk into. They don't provide music to their teachers, either.

I can't say enough negative things about the way this company is run. If you feel drawn to it, work for a franchise, as they are typically run by people who genuinely care about the product they produce. The corporation cares about money and money only, and don't have the slightest idea about what they are asking of their employees. The only benefit to this place (and this is a big benefit) is that coworkers are all wonderful people and great connections to have within your local music scene, and it is truly a joy to work with and inspire kids and teenagers to achieve greatness.

School of Rock is a fantastic place to work especially if you're more geared towards a Pop/Rock teaching experience. As well as following your own curriculum designed by yourself, you will often have students who participate in the various performing ensembles within the school. In these cases its often a good idea to spend time with the students to ensure that they have a good grasp on the songs they're cast on in addition to your own specific goals with them. 

At School of Rock you will find yourself working with a wide variety of students of every age, background and experience level. Patience is key as well keeping track of what you teach each week as students, (often the younger ones) will not remember right off the bat when asked. Also if you plan on using sheet music in order to aid in your teaching, be prepared to have extra copies as I've found students (again mostly the younger ones) tend to forget to bring their copies to lessons.

Be prepared to repeat material as you will have students who do not put in any practice time at home for your lessons. Encourage at-home practice and vocalize the benefits of practicing the material versus not doing so.

I encourage you to get to know your students' likes and dislikes as well as figuring out their learning style sooner rather than later. It will create a more positive environment in the lesson rooms and make the job far more enjoyable. 

Every School of Rock is run differently despite having corporate roots, so my experience might differ from others who have taught at other schools. If considering a position at the school, talk to other teachers and gain their perspective of how their school works.

The opportunity to teach learning musicians what I know was one I did not take lightly, and I put a lot of effort into using my knowledge and experience in lessons I taught. I was initially very happy with the way I was able to do my job, but a combination of out of touch management and nonexistent benefits or growth soured it for me quickly. 

The managers are great people but they don't know much about teaching music or consider the perspective of their students, and the emphasis of lessons is placed more heavily on notes for parents and assigning app based homework rather than, you know, actually teaching.
To give a breakdown on the day-to-day lessons, they are usually 45 minutes. 30 of those will be spent looking for things to write notes on while boring your student to tears with the songs they mastered weeks ago and formulating a note that falls in line with the "requirements" imposed by one of the managers that severely limits how useful a teacher can be both in and out of lessons. The other 15 minutes are actually writing the note and being spammed with groupchats and emails about "updates" to what is required from notes(usually simplifying them to a corporatized format that makes progress intangible to the student and parent.) 

There are very knowledgeable and music educated individuals working here and it's truly a shame that management threw a wrench in what worked for so long. The app based learning and endless demands for notes while leaving no room for growth is another shame. The place has potential though.

As a music instructor, you will be equipped to prioritize students' musical development while also forming supportive connections to create an environment of comfort and retain student interest. With teaching private lessons, you will utilize School Of Rock's own curated curriculum and current seasonal objectives to help develop a student's musical capabilities. This position may also come with the role of group instruction, which is comprised of the same as well as educational fundamentals of classroom control and educational lectures. Through working at School of Rock, you will learn a better understanding of motivational and conflict-resolving skills by inspiring a future generation of musicians to better themselves and hold each other accountable. This includes students of all skill levels, maturity and age groups, as well as all disabilities, and so the job requires a sensitivity to neurological and physical disorders as well as a strong conviction to assist those who may need more help. For the Short Pump location, having worked there for 3+ years, the work environment that you will find with your management team and fellow instructors will provide you with an incredibly fun, open-minded and dedicated atmosphere. The air at School Of Rock of Short Pump, VA is very familial and withstanding, as it is comprised of a core that have been close to the business for many years from its earliest beginnings. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Music teacher 196 salaries reported	$20.65 per hour
Instructor 41 salaries reported	$19.97 per hour
Studio manager 39 salaries reported	$18.95 per hour
General manager 18 salaries reported	$54,085 per year
Guitar instructor 15 salaries reported	$20.37 per hour

Working at School of Rock: Company Overview and Reviews

School of Rock

School of Rock Ratings

Popular jobs at School of Rock

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected