Let me tell you about the moment I realized my music education degree had some holes in it.
I was looking at the printout of the budget the school financial manager just handed me. Now, this was a brand new school and I’d done all the purchasing for the entire band and orchestra departments. I’d put myself through college running the accessories department at a music store. I had a decent grasp of purchasing and receiving. But the way this financial statement read just didn’t make sense to me. It was embarrassing when I realized the numbers were what I was expected to bring in, not what I was given to spend.
I thought about that moment a lot while researching my dissertation. I spent months interviewing music teachers and administrators, asking a simple question: what actually makes music educators effective? Not what should make us effective. What does.
The answers weren’t what I expected. And honestly? I didn’t love all of them.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: being a great musician and knowing how to run a rehearsal isn’t enough anymore. The teachers who thrive have developed competencies most of us were never formally taught.
The good news? You probably have more of these than you think.
Cross-Cutting Skills
Communication. Adaptability. Emotional intelligence. Relationship-building. We like to call these “soft skills,” but there’s nothing soft about them — they’re foundational. You can be the finest musician in the building, but if you can’t navigate a tense parent email or pivot when a lesson implodes, you’re in trouble.
Ask yourself: When things fall apart, how fast do I recover?
Broadened Musical Skills
Your students have Spotify. They’ve heard everything. When I asked administrators what they wished music teachers could do better, “diverse repertoire” came up constantly. So did multi-instrumental competency and arranging on the fly.
I get it — we learned what we learned. But programs offering only what we played in college are quietly losing relevance.
Ask yourself: When did I last program something outside my comfort zone?
Pedagogical Skills
Here’s what kept surfacing in my interviews: classroom management, differentiation, and technology integration. Not as nice-to-haves. As non-negotiables. One teacher told me, “I can teach music all day. It’s the teaching kids part that gets me.”
Digital-native students need different strategies. One-size-fits-all pedagogy doesn’t survive teenagers raised on TikTok.
Ask yourself: Do I have a real plan for mixed-ability learners, or am I winging it?
Personal Attributes
This one surprised me most. Boundary-setting, wellness, identity development — these weren’t side notes in my research. They were central. Perseverance and patience turned out to be stronger predictors of effectiveness than musical skill alone.
Let that sink in. How you take care of yourself determines whether you last.
Ask yourself: Do my boundaries hold during marching season?
Entrepreneurial Skills
Budget management. Grant writing. Recruitment. Advocacy. Teacher after teacher described their job as running a small business — one where artistic vision means nothing if you can’t keep the program alive.
Ask yourself: Do I have a recruitment strategy, or do I just hope kids show up?
Now What?
If you’re feeling a little called out, welcome to the club. I built a career on skills I learned through trial and error — sometimes spectacular failure. Most of us did.
The question isn’t whether you have gaps. We all do. The question is what you’ll do about them.
That’s exactly why we built Accelerate 2026 at Music Teacher Guild — July 29-30, fully online. Twelve deep-dive workshops addressing these research-identified gaps. Not 50-minute inspiration sessions. Real skill-building, three to six hours each.
But whether or not you join us, I hope this gave you an honest look at where you are — and permission to keep growing.
You’re probably doing better than you think. And where you’re struggling? Those aren’t character flaws. They’re just skills you haven’t learned yet.
You’ve got this.
Dr. Elisa Janson Jones is the Founder and Executive Director of the non-profit Music Teacher Guild. Her doctoral research focused on music educator competencies — which is a fancy way of saying she spent a lot of time asking people what actually works. She believes in deep-dive PD, strong coffee, and the radical notion that music teachers deserve effective professional development.
