Music Teachers Blog

*** UPDATE #3: We have successfully moved to a new node and the issues of slowness should now be resolved. Please let us know if you’re still experiencing problems. ***

*** UPDATE #2: We will be migrating to a new node at the data center tonight at 11:00pm MDT to help with the slowness that many of you are experiencing. There will be 15-30 minutes of down time starting at 11:00, so you will not be able to access the site during this time. Thank you for your patience. ***

*** UPDATE: We have determined that the cause of the slowness is another server (not a Music Teacher’s Helper server) in the data center that is tying down the node. If that issue cannot be resolved within a matter of days, we will switch nodes to get back to full speed. We’ll keep you posted. No more reports will be necessary. Thank you! ***

We’ve been receiving a few reports of the site going slow lately. It seems to be intermittent, and not everyone is experiencing it, but we’re trying to collect more information to determine what might be causing the slowness so we can get it resolved as soon as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, we apologize for the inconvenience, and ask that you report any details to us, including the following:

1. What page(s) appeared slow for you, or what the entire site slow?
2. What time of day (with your time zone) did you experience the problem, and how long did it last?
3. Did you receive any error messages, such as a timeout error?

Knowing this information will help us track down the problem and get it solved as quickly as possible.

One teacher using Internet Explorer said that making the site a “Trusted Site” within Tools -> Internet Options, solved the problem for her. However, we can’t guarantee this as a solution for everyone, but do let us know if works for you, or if trying a different browser, or closing and reopening your browser works.

Since it’s difficult to troubleshoot a problem unless we can see it in action, the best way for you to help would be to follow the steps below and send us a report to help us see exactly where the problem is occurring.

1. Please download WinMTR from http://winmtr.sourceforge.net/winmtr_bin.zip
2. In the host field, enter the IP address: 205.234.107.79
3. Click Start
4. Let it run about 15 minutes, then click “Copy Text to clipboard”
5. Send us an email with the text copied from step 4 either inline or attached as a file
6. Please include your IP address (from Step 2) so we may trace the route back to you

Thank you for your patience as we work to solve this issue as soon as possible.

I love being a busy teacher, working with students for the bulk of my day.  As a musician and teacher, it’s hard to find time to update and manage the studio outside of lessons.  With an array of things to do, from documenting business purchases, pricing advertising, contacting prospective students, to researching pieces for students, it can be very difficult to get everything done in one day.  Here are 10 tips to get you organized:
(more…)

Last spring I was looking for a piano book to teach my son with, but I was disappointed with so many of them. I just wanted a simple book that started with all five fingers on five keys starting with C, and taught several pieces of music in that position to start off, so he could get a clear feeling of how to use one finger per key. So many of the books seem clever and entertaining but also distracting (sort of like children’s TV!).

Finally I found the right book, and as I was paying for it, my friend who owns the store commented on how old the book was. She was right. I discovered when I looked it up that the book was published in the 1940s. Yet it had a great, simple, workable method. (more…)

Lately I have become addicted to downloading (legally of course) music. This isn’t really news coming from a musician, but it has been way more serious than usual lately. I have been spending close to $50 a month at the itunes store. I keep rationalizing that, as a music teacher, I am merely conducting research, and therefore, it is tax deductable, and not such a big deal. But still, it is getting expensive. I started looking around on google and found some pretty cool links that could help me get my fix while saving a few dollars. Now keep in mind, all you type A’s out there, that each link is totally legit and legal. I hope you find it all useful.

Pandora Radio

This is an amazing internet radio station that creates custom playlists according to your tastes. All you do is type in an artist, and the fancy schmancy pandora software considers all the elements that make up your said artist, and  voila: it puts together an entire radio station suitable for your tastes. Feel like listening to folk music that happens to be more modern than the old Pete Seeger stuff? Type in “Nickel Creek” and you should get a whole list of bands worthy of your listening ears. (more…)

Where I teach, in Michigan, the winters are so cold that everyone saves their outside activities for summer.  Most years, my student load reduces by about one-third this time of year.  I used to teach in Florida, where it was the exact opposite — the summers are hot and the winters are beautiful.  Kids have time, not being in school, and are used to sunny warm weather, so they start music lessons.

For the northern half of the country, once school starts and families get back into their routines, this is when we as music teachers get busy. So how do we tap into this music-teacher-searching frenzy? That is what this article is about.

Many of our old students do come back, and some of their friends sign up for lessons as well. Some people have seen our studios as well of course, but we want more!  A lot of music teachers are musicians and have that mentality, but we also have to think like CEOs.  Many teachers say that there are plenty of students out there, and they will eventually call.  That is like wanting lobster for dinner, getting dressed up and sitting on the beach waiting for one to crawl onto your plate!  There are plenty in the water.

First, all businesses have a budget or set aside some money for advertising and marketing. Think about big business — they spend millions each month in advertising, even if the business is doing poorly. (Think General Motors).  They know a good marketing plan will make them more money.  August and September are two of the most important months — do as much as you can afford. 

The phone book is a great source, but most people don’t use it correctly.  People pay to put just their name and phone number in the Yellow Pages. That is a waste of money! If there are other studios with bigger ads, why would someone call a little name and phone number?  Imagine if your furnace goes out and you don’t have a company in mind you know that can fix it. Are you going to call the little name with just an address, or are you going to call a larger ad that says “serving the area for 30 years”?  My point: don’t waste money. Buy the biggest ad that you can afford.  Here’s another tip: In larger counties, AT&T will breakdown the Yellow Pages into areas. This makes it more affordable, AND you only need to be in your area’s phone book anyway!

I have also had a lot of success with direct mail. You can buy mailing lists for anyone in any area.  Say you pick a zip code and want families that make over a certain amount of money and have kids ages 6 to 16, you can buy their names and addresses.  I use infousa.com. Buy a bulk mailing permit from the post office as well — with that, any mailing over 250 currently reduces your cost from $.42 to $.216. 

The key is frequency. Some people will call right away, but it may take 4 or 5 mailings for others to call.

You may also want to check out advertising in coupon books that get mailed out every month.  Offer a free lesson — people go crazy for it.  I find that daily newspapers are OK only if you can afford to put it in every day for August, September, and October or every Saturday or Sunday for 3 months. Otherwise, it can be a waste of money.

These are just some ways of advertising and marketing that have worked for me. They can be expensive, but if you run your studio like a business, it’s all worth it.

For all you social networkers out there, Music Teacher’s Helper now has a group/fan site on Facebook! You can use Facebook to collaborate with other teachers all over the world to share ideas on running your studio, or just to make friends. To join, simply click the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18557577219

As many of you know, we have been working for over two years on a new product similar to Music Teacher’s Helper, specifically designed for studios with multiple teachers. It’s called Studio Helper, and it’s available now! To get a 30-day free trial, go to www.StudioHelper.com.

Studio Helper does much of what Music Teacher’s Helper does, but on a larger scale, allowing you to track the schedules of multiple teachers, see how much each teacher has taught, and create line-by-line invoices for complete financial control. If you have staff members or a secretary, they can also login and access the portions of the program you want them to see. We’ve included options for taxes, including International standards to meet the needs of those outside the USA.

Studios wishing to migrate from Music Teacher’s Helper to Studio Helper can (more…)

Marketing for new students can be frustrating. You put out the advertising piece (whatever it may be) and wait for people to call for lessons. This can really be stressful, especially if you really need to fill some openings right now. To help keep the students rolling into your studio on a consistent basis, you need to market on a regular basis. To help with that, I’ve created a marketing calendar to help you keep in front of your audience. It starts in August, since next month is August.

(more…)

I don’t mean to advertise for a specific product here but thought I’d share info with you about a new mp3 player that has surprised me. It suits me better than any mp3 player I’ve tried, and hopefully this will spark your thoughts to investigate this and other possibilities for keeping your own music in mind and sharing it with students.

For a year, I had an mp3 player which was good but then the video screen failed. It was going to cost almost as much to fix it as to get a new one, and I had hesitations about replacing it because I really didn’t use it very much.

I soon found out why I didn’t use the old one much, when I got my new one for $50–a Creative Zen Stone Plus.

[Here's a link if you're interested: Stone Plus player]

The big difference for me was that it has a tiny speaker in it, and the sound is pretty good, too. I discovered that I never liked using earphones. With this player, I can play it any time, anywhere, for any length of time. I can play a tune for a student, or let it play in my shirt pocket at the airport so I have my own favorite background music following me around instead of whatever background music the airport consultants think I ought to be hearing. A few times people have (more…)

Advertising is telling students about what you do and your availability to allow them to participate in it. Advertising is the most efficient way to find students, and this is important because without students there is no studio! If you rely on word of mouth or people stumbling on the fact that you teach private music lessons, it will take quite a while to build your studio roster. This may be what you want, of course, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. However, if you want faster action, advertising is the way to go. Let’s get started!
(more…)