We just got back from this year’s Music Teachers National Association Conference in Toronto, Canada. We had a great time talking with all the teachers there and showing them how Music Teacher’s Helper can help them manage the business-side of running a private studio. Teachers really lit up when we mentioned how they get their own website with it where students can login to check schedules, and that it could automatically email their students reminders before each lesson and event, and lesson notes after each event. The idea of automatic invoicing and online credit card payments was also very popular, as well as the lending library, since teachers tend to lose so many books that way.

We really appreciate everyone who stopped by our booth to talk to us and check out our program. We handed out brochures like crazy so hopefully the word will continue to spread. We’ll be announcing the winner of the Free Portable DVD Player Giveaway shortly.

Thanks to Toby and Tina for comments this week on Collecting the Benjamins (about collecting student payments), and to Steven for comments on last week’s survey of sites connecting students and teachers.  I agree with Steven that ads vary from day to day and place to place, so I have revised one survey listing which was based entirely on ads.  (By the way, I take responsibility for all my own comments in this blog!)

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A very up-to-date downeast Maine minister, whom I interviewed for his daring World War II experiences, introduced me to Audacity–a free music program that can provide some very nice benefits for music teachers.

(Note that Audacity is not at audacity.com; it is at this link, in case you’d like to check it out.  The download is free, and available for Windows, Mac, Linux and other systems.  It is open-source, much like Linux and Mozilla.)

With Audacity, you can record anything your computer can play–from a CD, a website, a microphone, anything–into a sound file of its own, which you can then manipulate in a ridiculous number of ways.

For example, you can slow any portion of the recording down without changing the pitch–great for transcribing tricky passages.  You can also (more…)

We just found out today that Music Teacher’s Helper had a small mention in the Spring 2007 issue of Guitar Teacher magazine. One of our subscribers had told them that our site was “very helpful” when filling out a survey in the Teacher Talk section of the magazine, so they decided to do a little write-up.

In it, they said that the Music Teacher’s Helper website is “an online service for registering students, scheduling, billing, tracking payments, and generating reports on income and expenses,” and they even had a little picture of our website’s home page.

Thank you for spreading the word!!

First, thanks to Stephane, Betty, James, and Lynda for new comments this week on Playing with Students at Lessons, and thanks to Betty and Jan for comments, some of them pretty detailed, on Collecting the Benjamins (about collecting lesson payments from students). Feel free to comment on any blog articles, however old, in the archive; I will call your attention to new comments made on any article, so they won’t be buried.

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About 6 weeks ago, I wrote “Finding Students For You” about one website that helps students find music teachers. This time, I’ve looked at a number of them, and even conducted a little search-engine survey to help you consider which sites to try.

In thinking about these teacher-student matchmaking sites, it occurred to me that teacher needs are quite different from student needs. Students will want to look for teachers at sites that host the most teachers, so as to get the broadest selections. But as a teacher, you will do better with a site that has fewer teachers from your area, so that when a student looks for a teacher in your area, you show up in as short a list as possible.

There are a few other factors, of course. Some sites are free; others are not. Some have additional services you might find useful. Some are easy to use; others are inconsistent in their search results. Some search results are alphabetized, others randomized, others put premium customers at the top or give them first rights to answer inquiries.

Maybe most important, though, is whether students will actually find the website in order to use it and then find you. To address this question, I offer you my little survey, below. (more…)

I’ve heard that many people take a beta-blocker or other drugs to fix stagefright (see the blog article about stagefright for some more musically based ideas), and I know there are gadgets out there to keep a bow on track, play the next note of a tune every time you tap on a drum, show a piano student which keys to press remotely from an online connection, practically play a guitar for you, and so on.

I think it’s time for some more advanced products to help people learn to play musical instruments:

Magnetic Tune Teacher–electromagnets on the playing surface of the instrument are activated based on a programmed piece of music, and magnets in the student’s fingers are drawn to the right place at the right time for the right amount of time, thus teaching their fingers to play the music. Slight drawback is the minor surgery required to insert the finger magnets.

Tune Pills–building on advanced memory research pinpointing the sites and structures in the brain which retain musical patterns, these pills make it a snap for the victim, I mean the student, to learn musical patterns overnight. Just take the proper pill (e.g. “broken thirds going up for three steps, then proceeding down 6 major scale notes”, or “minor scale up 4 steps, dropping a sixth and then back to original note”) and the student will find it simple to learn that particular passage the next morning. Alternatives to these pills are also available but are much more expensive, including hypnosis, and practicing.

Musical Tuneup Juice–no, this isn’t about tuning the instrument, it’s about (more…)

After several requests, we have created a Repertoire Tracker for you keep track of pieces your students have mastered and are ready to perform. It lets you enter information about each piece such as title, composer, difficulty, length, and comments. Teachers who do frequent recitals or have their students enter competitions will probably find this most useful.

You can access the Repertoire Tracker from the “Students” Menu after logging into your account.

Below are several situations I’m sure you’ve had to face–about ways to collect lesson payments, including for missed or cancelled lessons–I look forward to your ideas and hope you find these thoughts of interest.

Six or 7 years ago, someone introduced me to the expression, “it’s all about the Benjamins.” I suppose it wasn’t obvious to me because I almost never have an occasion to notice whose face is on the hundred-dollar bill, but yes, it’s Ben(jamin) Franklin.

Business people are sometimes stereotyped as cold-cash-minded, but really, any way you make a living is a business. As in any business, music teachers have to attract and keep students (”customers”), collect money, and pay the bills.

Of course, most musicians don’t go into music thinking “it’s all about the Benjamins.” In fact, popular wisdom says that there’s only one way for a musician to end up with a million dollars: start with 2 million!

But we have to learn about collecting money consistently and with respect, and setting up policies that are reasonable but make for good relations. How would you handle some of these situations?

A student called me today to say her son is sick. Policies say she should pay for his lesson because she gave less than a day’s notice. It did create a hole in my schedule but this parent is ostentatious about her poverty and yet considers lessons important enough to pay for them. Would you charge her for the lesson?

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Music Teacher’s Helper just got a great review at http://www.classicalmusic.org.uk/music-teaching-studio-software.html

In it, we were called “A world-class piece of online software that manages every aspect of a private music studio… apart from the teaching!” among other things.

It did recommended that if you’re using your Music Teacher’s Helper studio website as your only website, that you get your own domain name and redirect it so you don’t have to have a really long website such as http://mystudioname.musicteachershelper.com. I think that’s a good idea, too.

Anyway, it’s nice to hear people talking about us. Have a read and see what you think.

http://www.classicalmusic.org.uk/music-teaching-studio-software.html