How many hours are you putting in both inside and outside of rehearsals total per month for your ensembles if you don't mind me asking?

I made $2500 for the season plus $1500 for the book

Minimal pay is common. However, myself...

School #1 - 700 for summer/fall, 700 for winter. Maybe 700 or so for writing if the BD remembers to allocate that money

School #2 - 700 for book, and usually 100/rehearsal.

School #3 (my priority school) - 700 for summer, 1500 for season, 1200 for winter.

All of these schools are within 40 minutes of each other. Some are rural NJ, some are more populated NJ. It's kinda interesting to see the differences.

I get 30 an hour....
I also get paid 45 dollars a trip, because the school is 45 miles away. I work 3 days a week including friday football games. I make almost 1000 dollars a month.

Must be nice to work at big schools that can afford such expenditures. I think I will be writing the book this year for the drumline and I doubt I will get anything for it. At the most, I will have my name read at every competition for arranging the music.

Well, yeah, it's nice to get paid, but sometimes it's more fulfilling to work with a school that can't afford the expense and build them into a contender. At the end of the season, you won't be any richer, but your students will be. You can teach them that hard work and determination are much more important to success than the amount of money their program spends.

I attended a poor school myself and our instructor was there every day after school working our tails off. When we not only competed with, but beat schools with shiny new drums and uniforms, it changed our whole perspective on what we could accomplish -- not just as a drumline, but in life in general.

I'm happy to pass that lesson along to my students. If I happen to make a few bucks here and there, it's icing on the cake (and often goes into buying things like sticks & heads).

But in more tangible terms... I get about $2500 per year from my primary instructing gig. I'm a school district employee, so it's a stipend on top of my salary. (My primary job isn't in the music department or teaching, though.) Here's what that $2500 bought the school this year:

• I wrote the field show percussion book.
• I'm writing the winter percussion book.
• I wrote the percussion exercise and technique programs.
• I wrote the band's field show drill.
• I did a little bit of wind arranging for the field show.
• I instructed every moment of band camp (and took vacation days to do it).
• I instruct 2-3 after-school rehearsals per week throughout the school year.
• I instructed three voluntary summer rehearsals.
• I attend and supervise every performance.
• I designed the band's new uniforms.
• I perform all repairs, maintenance, and tuning of percussion equipment (and sometimes repair brass instruments, too).
• ...and who knows what I'm forgetting.

If you figure it out hourly, I'm sure I'd make a lot more flipping burgers.

I've got a gig at another school, too, teching on on a "whenever I can make time" basis. It pays $50 per two-hour rehearsal. It's kind of a fun diversion to show up once in a while and worry about nothing but cleaning beats, leaving all the other stuff to someone else.

I'm currently paid less than the average for the area where I teach. However, I've got a great group of kids that are excited about the activity and take it seriously, and as a result they're a good drumline. I'd rather put less in my pocket and enjoy going to practice every week than make a little more and dread every minute of it.

20-50$ an hour...

over the course of the high school season.... about 2 dollars an hour, depending on the school but that's about the average.
less in drum corps. its about 1.2 dollars an hour.

2 dollars an hour??? where on earth are you instructing? You should instruct with me, instead. you can get a flat rate of at least $1,000, or at least $20 an hour. I've never heard of any instructor here paid less.