Music lessons are not assembly line work

By the time they complete their Master's degree in Pedagogy, teachers have acquired sufficient knowledge and skills in the artistic and pedagogical fields to be well equipped for their profession as music teachers. Internships in particular are an important part of the training. In this respect, it is worth following the HKB's pilot project with the Oberemmental music school, which will start in fall 2026: students will teach three to five children at the Oberemmental music school throughout their Master's degree. They will be accompanied by didactics lecturers from the HKB and internship teachers from the music school. They receive a salary in accordance with cantonal salary regulations and the music students can be offered these lessons at a reduced rate. It is quite possible that such a project will increase the attractiveness of a Master's degree in pedagogy. Because we see a problem here: far too many Master's performance students are being trained today, none of whom will ever have a viable career, while the shortage of music teachers (especially guitar and piano) is already a reality. Teachers from the fields of rock/pop and jazz also repeatedly point out that music universities offer far too few places in this area and that these courses should be more open to stylistic diversity, which could ultimately also benefit students on the Master's in Classical Music Education, who often have to teach pop/jazz in their day-to-day work at music schools.

Everyday working life

Young music teachers are not prepared for the fact that it is virtually impossible to work 100% as a music teacher if you don't work at a grammar school or a teacher training college. Not even if you teach a popular instrument like piano.
Curriculum 21 stipulates block periods and the number of lessons per week has been increased. Even though in the canton of Bern, for example, it is possible under certain conditions for parents to request that their children be excused from a school lesson so that they can attend music school lessons during this time, it is unfortunately a reality that music school teachers are often only able to start teaching later in the afternoon. They may then teach from 3.30 pm to 9 pm, ideally without breaks, so that they can teach as many pupils as possible. Depending on the canton, a full teaching load consists of 37 weekly lessons of 40 minutes each up to 58 lessons of 30 minutes each, as is the case in the canton of Graubünden, for example. This is aggravated by the fact that the teacher often has to travel from place to place in this tight time slot for lessons.
The first chapter of the recipe for good music lessons describes what an ideal music teacher should achieve, and then I ask myself whether the „alert eye and analytical ear“ don't get tired if they only hear and see 10-11 pupils in a row for half an hour each day without a short break in between to allow them to briefly process their impressions. Hats off to the music teachers who manage to make music lessons fun most of the time: in the 30 minutes of the lesson, the pupil has to arrive first, unpack their instrument, perhaps tell something very quickly or yawn a lot because the day has already been long and busy. Then you have to ask questions, explain something, introduce a new piece, play a duet and improvise. All this in 30 minutes and always in a good mood, while you always respond individually to each pupil and carefully ensure that you don't under or overtax them.
The situation is sometimes somewhat alleviated if you also teach a few adult pupils who like to take lessons in the morning or at lunchtime. Or you still work as a music teacher at elementary school, where the lessons are integrated into the timetable. Perhaps you perform as a solo musician or in an orchestra. Rehearsals for concerts can then be scheduled for the mornings, but the concerts, if they don't take place at the weekend, fall back into the precious time when you could actually be teaching. It is also difficult to organize family life with children when you work virtually every evening and at weekends.
Fortunately, musicians are creative and resilient and usually find a way to organize their complicated lives with the most beautiful profession in the world.

Opportunities for improvement

It is very important for music schools and elementary school to work well together, so that individual music lessons are not perceived as disruptive competition to primary school lessons, but as an important addition that must be integrated. When children engage in a complex activity such as instrumental or solo singing lessons once a week - preferably not after a whole day at school when they are already tired - this promotes their creativity, their ability to concentrate and their self-confidence, which has a positive effect on their behavior and their ability to learn in school lessons.
Politicians should increase the budget for subventions for music lessons instead of cutting it, so that as many children as possible from low-income families can take music lessons and that the lesson lengths are such that meaningful lessons are also possible. Music lessons must not degenerate into assembly line work.
We are looking forward to the canton of Aargau, where the message on the first reading of the revision of instrumental teaching will go to the Grand Council in the fall.
Just how much damage saving on music lessons can do can be seen in the city of Chur, where the primary music school used to take place in the morning during block times in half-class lessons. All children went voluntarily because otherwise they would have had to be looked after privately during the block times. Today, lessons take place in the afternoons and children have to register for them, which families with little education often do not do. This saves Chur 40,000 francs, but many children miss out on basic support, while the primary music teachers no longer have a living wage.