Piano Instructor (Remote)

About Trala: 

Trala is a tech-powered online music school for adults headquartered in Chicago. Founded in 2017, our mission is to make life-changing music education accessible to every single person on Earth.

Almost everyone picks up an instrument at some point in their life, but accessible, affordable lessons are almost impossible to find, especially for adult learners and people who don’t live in big cities. Adults are actively kept from learning by teaching methods solely aimed at kids.

Our strategy is to:

• Be the brand-name online music school that everyone knows.
• Make it unbelievably easy to join music classes as an adult.
• Teach in playful, non-judgmental ways that lead to personal transformation.

Trala has created a new type of music lesson. We nurture accessible, playful spaces where music learners can be artistic without judgment. Every interaction with Trala (including this job description) should be human, joyous, and truthful. Trala lessons are spaces where you can fully be yourself, and as a bonus, you learn how to play beautiful music.

On the back-end, Trala’s daily operations are powered by AI. We build custom AI features to save teachers 15 hours/week of administrative work such as Trala TA, which writes custom lesson plans based on every lesson taught.

Trala has taught thousands of students in 50+ countries and received support from top musicians and investors such as the CEOs of Duolingo, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Figma.

About the role:

You will be teaching 10 – 30 piano students via Zoom. While most of our students are adult beginners, you will teach students at all different levels. We’ll match you with students who fit your teaching style and availability. Your job is to teach and retain these students, and hopefully to have fun with it! Our students are wonderful and incredibly diverse. This is a remote contractor position, offering flexible hours to accommodate both instructor and student schedules.

You will also have the opportunity, if you wish, to teach group courses using Trala as a platform. A course can be on any musical topic from songwriting to playing in a band, as long as it helps the student deepen their understanding of and appreciation for the artist within. Courses can be stand-alone offerings or a complement to 1:1 lessons. 

Responsibilities:

• Conduct online piano lessons, tailoring each lesson to each student’s goals, learning style, and musical preferences.
• Send lesson wrap-ups and nurture your students throughout the week to help them make progress.
• Strive for 90% retention with your Trala students. Proactively communicate with both your students and your support team.
• Optional: attend training sessions with other teachers around technology, studio management, and pedagogy.

Requirements

• Five years of experience teaching piano at all levels, from beginner to advanced. 
• Advanced knowledge of and ability to teach sight-reading, improvisation, and transposition.
• Advanced technical skills and ability to teach all major/minor scales and arpeggios.
• Advanced knowledge of harmony and ability to teach chord progressions and rhythmic patterns.
• Ability to play by ear and to teach students how to play by ear.
• Proficiency in various styles of music, including but not limited to classical, jazz, pop, rock, musical theater and country.
• Deep empathy for and curiosity about the student journey. 
• Experience teaching piano in a virtual setting.
• Reliable high-speed internet connection and comfort with necessary audio/video technology for online instruction and a webcam with at least 1080p resolution.
• Two camera angles are preferred: one of your profile and one of your keyboard. 
• Preference will be given to teachers looking to teach 20+ hours per week and who have evening and/or weekend availability, which is in high demand from Trala students. Trala is not a good fit for teachers looking to fill a few hours worth of gaps in their current calendar.
• Fluent in English and based in a North American time zone.

Benefits

Why Trala?

• As Trala School of Music continues to grow, you’ll join as one of our first piano teachers, playing a role in shaping future students and teachers! 
• You’ll get to work on a daily basis with diverse students all over the world. Trala lessons deeply impact our students’ lives.
• Consistent pay, flexible schedule, and minimal admin work.
• Teachers at Trala are paid as contractors; the base is $35 per lesson hour.
• Access to our Teacher Slack Community and professional development programming to help you continue to grow as a teacher.
• Trala gets students for you. We acquire new students and match them specifically for you. We also provide tech tools needed to maintain your studio.
• As a developing company trying to change traditional standards, we constantly seek out teacher feedback to help us make a fundamentally better music school.
• Trala is building a community of incredible educators and musicians, who are collaborating to reinvent music lessons and break down traditional barriers to entry.
• We think big, and encourage all teammates to think outside the box and share ideas.
• Trala is funded by amazing people like the CEOs of Duolingo, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Figma. These folks are leaders in education & growth and are our mentors. 
• Read up about our amazing teachers at www.trala.com/teachers and about our team at www.trala.com/about.