Make music leading work for you ...

Have your cake and eat it, with a quick guide to positioning yourself in a competitive market ….

At Yorkshire Youth & Music, we get lots of e-mails and letters from people who are interested in working with us as a music leader, or who are looking for advice about how to make a living as a music leader. Here’s our eight-point guide;

• Be really clear about your values and stick to them – be the best authentic version of you. If you believe that opera (or whatever else) is the most important and valuable music on the planet, it is fine; do work which matches your values. Accept that others may not share them, and that young people’s musical aspirations may be very different from yours.
• Know what you’re good at, and play to those strengths; no musician can do everything. Have a clear idea of what you can do, and the standards you can achieve. If there are things you can’t or don’t do (read bass clef, use Soundation, play the ukulele, improvise) – don’t allow yourself to be pressured into trying to deliver them – signpost your young people to alternatives, or help them research
• Don’t sell yourself cheaply; £20 an hour sounds OK – but if it is only a one hour offer, and it takes you 45 minutes each way to get there and back, that’s £20 for 2.5 hours of effort (plus travel!). Just about minimum wage then … oh, and will you bring all the instruments too? Have a charging policy which reflects everything you provide – materials, preparation, delivery, equipment, as well as your skills.
• Be specific about the people you’re good at working with, and have experience of working with. Outline particular approaches you use to potential customers (for example, if you work in Early Years and use elements of Kodaly and Dalcroze). Show the underpinning knowledge and understanding which backs up your practical skills.
• If you’re good and experienced at long term projects – with progression and achievement for young people built in – make it clear on your CV and when you talk to potential customers
• Some young people live in challenging circumstances, which need specific knowledge, skills and understanding – shadowing an expert or getting specific training is vital, as is keeping up to date with appropriate regulations. You can find useful resources and information on the Network site about some of these issues
• Keep your CV up to date; you can present it in several ways – chronological (most recent first), functional, or topical. The same goes for your Network profile! 
• Have an ‘elevator pitch’ (a 30 second description of you and your work – i.e. one which could be delivered to that important new contact in the time it takes to rise two floors in an elevator)

Gail Dudson is the Director of Yorkshire Youth and Music (www.yym.org.uk ), a community music education company working across the whole of Yorkshire. YY&M are Youth Music’s Musical Inclusion grant holders for Yorkshire, and organise Sing Up training in the region.