Start or make over a work out

Any way you can take time for yourself is a good thing, but working out is good for a lot of reasons. It raises your endorphins, which are the feel good hormones. It helps reduce stress. Plus you will increase your lung capacity and stamina. Even getting out and going for a bike ride or a walk will improve your outlook.

Meditation

Meditation helps you to relax it has been shown to increase immunity. The best part is that if you have a regular practice, the effects last longer. I’ve noticed that when I regularly do yoga and meditation, I experience less performance anxiety, less stress in rush hour traffic, more patience in lessons or stressful situations and more.

Yoga

Yoga has many benefits. Some of them are the same as meditation. Since yoga requires diaphragmatic breathing, it is great for breath support. It also helps to improve range of motion and flexibility. It has helped me to get rid of tension in many places. Deep breathing for an 20 minutes to an hour helps to reduce stress as well. Yoga is a moving practice, so it is great if you aren’t good at sitting still for meditation.

Massage

Massage is great for reducing stress and getting rid of pain or stiffness. Some forms are even good for improving flexibility. I know that I feel like a million bucks after getting a massage (even if I was in complete melt down mode when I went to the massage.)

Mini Vacation

Take a day off. No cleaning, studio work or anything allowed. Sleep in, go somewhere fun or just stay home and watch all the movies that you have been dying to see. Sometimes a real vacation can cause more stress then it alleviates. A day or two off at home can make you feel like a million bucks. If staying home is too stressful (with all of its visual reminders of things that need to be done, phone calls and chores), stay for a day or two at a hotel nearby. While you are there book a couple of hours at a spa.

Inspiriational CD, book or seminar

Listening to inspirational books on CD, reading a book, or going to a seminar on motivation are all great ways to improve your outlook. Here are a few to get you started.

Zig Ziglar – Better Than Good, Creating the Life you Can’t Wait to Live.

Anthony Robbins – Awakening the Giant Within.

Julia Cameron – The Artist’s Way

Eloise Ristad – A Soprano on Her Head

Read for fun

Take a look at the list of recommended books from your library. Pick something fun that you might read if you were a kid. (no self help books, educational reading or anything else applies.) Spend as much time as you can getting lost in the book (no guilt allowed either.)

Try to pick one or two of these to add into your week. If you add them in weekly or daily, it will help you to avoid burn out and have more energy to give to the others in your life.

I have used this software to slow down a piece that I was practicing on flute and also to slow down songs and change the keys for students. Every student that used the software in lessons, was impressed and wanted a copy to use at home. This was a great way to experiment with lower keys for vocalists without a lot of commitment. Just click the button and you have the recording in a lower key. If you purchase additional software from Roni Music, you can also record the new lower or slower version for your students to take home with them.

For those of you who use the iphone or ipod touch in lessons The Amazing Slow Downer is now available as an iphone or itouch application. Just go to the application area on itunes and look up Amazing Slow Downer. It is $14.95 for the application.

The software for regular computers (both Mac and PC) is available for immidiate download from the Roni Music website and costs $49.95.

Sight Singing can be very frustrating. Generally it involves a lot of practice with exercises from books specifically designed for learning to sight sing. The MLR Verbal Associations Skills Program takes a different approach. This approach is geared at teaching sight singing by repeating patterns. The idea is that you will internalize the patterns by repeating them after someone and putting patterns to piano without first hearing the patterns. The program has two different types of exercises on each CD. One with a leader singing the syllables followed by  blank space for the singer to repeat it back. There is a corosponding exercise right after it, that just has piano playing the same patterns. The singer is asked to put their own syllables with the notes that are played. This is not difficult to do, because the patterns are in the same order as the first exercise. There are two CDs with this series. One is dedicated to Major and Minor tonality and the other is dedicated to duple and triple rhythms. There is also a third CD in the series. It is called the MLR Harmonic Ear to Hand Program. It helps students to develop your ability to perform harmonic progressions by ear on a harmonic instrument. Sequential exercises use harmonic progressions composed of primary chords (C, F, and G7 in major tonality and Am, Dm, and E7 in minor tonality). I am in the process of ordering this CD to write a future review of the product.

I used this series in college and have since pulled the CDs back out to dust up on my sight reading. I found it increadibly helpful in the past. It definately helped me to improve my sighreading. I was able to look at music and hear the intervals a lot easier than I could before.

Pros

This set makes learning patterns that you see regularly in music fun and is quite contagious. After a few times practicing with this series, you will find yourself humming the patterns back to yourself. The added accompaniment makes it fun for younger children as well. As I practiced with this CD, I was able to sing patterns much more readily and with fewer headaches. (I actually used to get headaches in sight-singing and dictation classes in college.) My sense of rhythm was greatly improved by using this series. I learned to recognize sixteenth note patterns by site which has helped me out considerably.

Cons

There are a few minor things that I didn’t like about this series. Most of them are because I wish that they would have added more advanced patterns to the CD. The series stops with Major and Minor tonality and doesn’t go into other tonalities which would be helpful for more advanced musicians and college bound music majors. Along the same lines, the rhythmic CD stops at regular douple and triple meter and doesn’t delve into compound meter. It would be helpful if it had a book and exercises that helped students to visualize what the patterns looked like once they had learned what they sounded like.One small drawback is that the singer on the CD reminds me of Kermit the Frog. The first time I heard the CD I thought someone had played a joke on me. Along the same lines the accompaniment reminded me a bit of music for children. If this CD series was designed for children only then they met their mark. If not, then this is an area that could be improved upon.  The syllables used are moveable do and la based minor which is fairly common in public education and beat-function syllables doo day and doo dah dee. These don’t seem to be as common in public education (at least not in the area where I teach.)

Overall, I think this is a great tool for helping students to imrpove their sight reading without the monotony of practicing endless sight reading drills from a book. The few small short commings of the series can be overcome by help from their private lesson teachers or school music teachers. Teachers could help students to visualize the patterns once they have learned to sing them very well on their own. Along the same lines, students can be shown other methods of counting once they are already familiar with the sounds of the pitch and rhythmic patterns.

Lessons are supposed to be a collaborative effort between student and teacher. However, if your student doesn’t prepare well in between lessons, it can quickly become a one sided effort. Here are some ideas I found while looking for ways to help my students come to lessons more prepared.

Help your student remember what they had trouble with in between lessons.

Every lesson you ask your students what they had trouble with in between lessons. Every lesson, you get the same response. Nothing… This is really frustrating for you because you don’t know how to fix what they won’t tell you about. It is also frustrating for your students because they probably remember things that they could have asked about later when they can’t ask you.

This is a problem that needs to be resolved at home. Here are some ideas that your students can use to prepare in advance to get the most out of their lessons.

#1. Encourage your students to create an agenda of their own for lessons.

This can be the page after last weeks lesson in their notebook. Have them write the date of the next lesson on it and write any questions that they have for the next lesson on that page. Another idea is to stick a sticky note in the music and write the question on that (so you don’t have to describe the area where the problem occurs.) If they have lots of questions have them prioritize the questions to keep the lesson time from being over run with too many questions.

Give your students ideas of good things to ask about in lessons.

Create a list of things they might have questions on and tape it to the inside of their notebook (or put it in their binder.) These suggestions will help them to know what to ask about in lessons.

Here are some typical issues students may have in between lessons.

• Bowings/fingerings that don’t make sense.
• Difficult rhythms, counting problems
• Tension, pain, vocal fatigue or discomfort when practicing or performing.
• Performance ideas that are different than the score.
• Ideas for ways to act out a piece (with the voice) or add in more expression.
• Passages that seem uninteresting despite your work on them.
• Sections that you can’t play at tempo
• Notes that you just can’t hit
• Difficult notes
• Phrases that just sound wrong
• Markings and symbols that you don’t understand

#2 Encourage your student to run a pre-lesson check

Has this happened to you? All week long you practiced and practiced on what you thought was important. Only to get to the day of the lesson and panic because suddenly you realized that you forgot to practice something that was on the list from last week, or neglected to memorize a piece or something else. Worse yet, you didn’t realize it till you got to your lesson and your teacher asked for the item you forgot. A pre-lesson check would have helped to avoid all of this. Here is how to run a pre-lesson check.

Here is how your students can perform a pre-lesson check. Two days before their next lesson, they play through all of the required pieces and exercises exactly as they will be asked to play them in lessons. This should be a one shot deal (no do overs). For example: If there is a piece that should be memorized for the lesson, they should play it from memory, or if scales are supposed to be played at quarter note equals 100 then they should play them at 100. This will give them a good picture of what is ready for their lesson and what needs work over the next couple of days. It will also tell them where to focus their practice efforts.

The pre-lesson check is a good time to make a list of everything they need to have with them at their lesson so that on lesson day they can just grab everything that they have on their list and put it in their bag for lessons.

#3 Encourage your students to check to make sure that they have everything for lessons the night before.

At least once a week, one of my students forgets something for lessons. It is very frustrating for both the teacher and the student, because it makes the lesson less effective if important items like their notebook or music are missing. There is an easy solution to this problem. Have the student dedicate a bag for lessons. This will allow them to keep all of their items for lessons in one place (except maybe their instrument.) Have them check the bag for everything that they need the night before their lesson. If they practice the day of their lesson, they should check the bag again before they leave for their lesson.

Here are things I usually recommend students check for:

• Music
• Lesson notebook
• Water bottle
• Pencil
• Recordings or anything else you wanted to bring to lessons.
• Reeds, valve oil, or other supplies needed to play their instrument.
• Tuner
• Pre lesson snack if they are coming right from school, sports practice or anywhere else.

Encourage your students to follow these ideas, and you should see your students coming to lessons more prepared for their lessons. They’ll arrive ready to hit the ground running instead of starting their lesson by admitting which item they’ve forgotten to practice or bring this week.

This is a great teaching tool for students of all ages because the simple, colorful cartoon illustration is accurate without being too graphic and detailed. It high-lights each selected part of the system and gives a simple description of the role that each part plays in breathing. Once you (or a student) has clicked through each part of the respiratory track, you can view a demonstration of all of the pieces in action. The illustration even has blue air on the inhale and red air on the exhale. There is a self executing file that you can download as well to use when you don’t have access to the internet. (Unfortunately, it is a Windows application and I run a Macintosh computer, so I wasn’t able to test this feature.) You can also view the website in a printer friendly form (if you want to create a hand out for students.) and email it (if you would like to send it to students.)

1. Know what you are dealing with.

It is important to know what disabilities the student has. One of the easiest ways to get this information is to ask the parent if the student has any disabilities at the initial interview. If they mention anything, try to get their input about the ways that their student learns best. Also, ask what things cause them the most trouble or bother them. (this is especially important with people with Autism or some other disabilities that may cause them to be sensitive to some sounds.)

Sometimes students don’t want to tell others about their disabilities because they don’t want to be labeled as different. You will avoid a lot of frustration if you find out about a problem early on. I had a student for over a year and a half and was really getting frustrated because I couldn’t seem to teach her the simplest concepts. I would teach something like note values over and over and the concepts didn’t seem to stick at all. I asked the student if she had a learning disability. She said that I should talk to her guidance counselor. I found out that she had Aspergers Syndrome. This is a form of autism that doesn’t affect the language development and cognitive development as much as other forms of autism. Some things it had been shown to affect though are visual-spatial perception, auditory perception, and or visual memory. This is probably why it was so frustrating to teach her to read music. Once I knew what I was dealing with though, I was able to change the way that I taught her. I created patterns to make it easier to memorize her songs, and made patterns to help her understand music reading better. She ended up attending solo and ensemble festival that year (in previous years she had been unable to) and received a second division rating (a huge achievment for her).

2. Learn about the strengths and weaknesses often exhibited.

Once you know what the disability is, spend a little time researching the strengths and weaknesses associated with the disability. Look for official websites that offer help for parents and students with that particular disability. Learn what the strengths are as well as the weaknesses. If you can tailor your teaching to their strengths you will make faster progress. If you know about the weaknesses, you can avoid using  methods of teaching that would focus on those things. In my case, drawing pictures of the notes did little to help the student learn about how to read music. You may need to record the songs for the student to practice with, use more tactile methods of learning (making notes out of clay or drawing them in sand.) having the student clap the rhythms or sing while keeping a beat with their body.

3. Be patient, but not TOO patient.

Sometimes it takes students with special needs more time to learn things than other students. Be accepting of that, but at the same time, don’t allow the student to use their disability as an excuse or crutch for not improving. Try to create goals and time lines that are reachable, so you and the student will feel the excitement of reaching goals and seeing the student improve. Remind the student of how far they have come. Maybe say… wow a few months ago, you wouldn’t have been able to do X, Y or Z.

4. Routines

Many students with special needs find comfort in the familiar or routine. If you always do things in the same order, that is really helpful. For example, Warm-up, sight reading, music theory, and songs. Try to stick with a routine because changing the routine can be very distracting for some students with special needs. If for example, you always follow the routine I mentioned earleir and one week, you decide to skip one of them or add something new, this may really bother a student with special needs more than other students.

5. Say it, say it again and just when you think they have it, say it again.

I’ve often heard this saying, say it, say it again and just when you think they have it, say it again. This is applicable to teaching anyone anything, but it really comes in handy with some students with special needs. You may need to repeat yourself many times if you want something to stick. This depends on the student. Some students absorb information more quickly than others. It helps to find new and different ways to cover the same bits of information so it isn’t obvious that you are repeating the same information over and over.

Teaching students with special needs can be challenging and requires extra effort on the part of the teacher, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Seeing the joy in a students face when they finally grasp a concept or can sing or play a song correctly is very rewarding.

This one is Craigslist specific and was sent to me by Craigslist customer service. It highlights your ad and allows people who are looking at ads to save them and pass them on to friends. Copy and past the code into the very beginning of your ad text (before any of the actual ad). Click here to get the code.

You can change the size of your text, insert spaces between lines of text and create lists with relative ease. To get instructions on how to do all of this, go to this page. There are some really great basic HTML codes that you can use.

If you would like to add content from another web blog, you can add a feed reader to your site. This will add any posts from another blog (or evey multiple ones.) To set up a feed reader for your site, go to RSS Feed Reader. You can register there for your feed reader and get the code to set up a feed reader for your site.

Want to show a YouTube video of someone playing your instrument? Just copy the code from the “Embed” box—you can find it in the “About This Video” box when you’re watching the video.

Copy and paste some of these codes into your work and spice up your pages, ads, emails etc. I hope you will find them very useful. If you have found some bits of HTML code that are useful for pimping out your site, please share them by posting a comment below. If you like please include your website address, so we can see your code in action.

August - August 1 send an email to all students past and present reminding them to sign up for fall lessons and detailing any early enrollment/pre payment discount. Now is also the time to run ads in the paper if you have room in your budget for that.

September -

2nd week in September – Send a welcome back letter to teachers and church choir directors in your area. Make sure to include a flier about lessons that they can pass out to students and posters for their bulletin boards. You might follow this up in a week or two with a phone call to ask if you can come in and make a presentation to their students about lessons. Also, if they send students your way, take the time to send them an email thanking them for their referral.

Be sure to send studio promotion cards home with your students. I give a free lesson as a thank you to students who send referrals who sign up for lessons.

October - Send press releases to your local papers about your fall studio recital. Send invitation cards for the fall studio recital home with students to give to friends and family.

November - Early November – order or purchase studio Christmas gifts.

Mid November – Purchase or create studio Christmas cards and label them so they are ready to go out the first week in December.

Late November – Put ads in the paper promoting gift certificates for Christmas gifts.

December -

Last week before Christmas Break – Give out studio gifts and or cards.

January - Send new referral cards home with students. Send an email to teachers welcoming them back to school, include information for spring lessons and helpful article about getting ready for solo and ensemble festival. Send a press release to the paper about students who have received good ratings at Solo and Ensemble Festival.

February - Schedule bring a friend to lessons week for sometime in March or April.

March - Send press releases to the newspapers in your area about your spring studio recital. Send studio recital invitation cards home with students to invite friends and family to the spring studio recital.

April - Send an email to all students past and present detailing summer lessons and any promotion for early enrollment/pre payment. Make sure that you have free lesson cards available at the studio recital for people to take with them if they are interested in lessons.

Last week in April – send a letter or email to teachers telling them about your summer offerings.

May - Run an add in the paper congratulating students on their accomplishments this year.

June – Write an article about selecting a private lesson teacher or keeping your student practicing. Pitch the story to your local newspaper or music store newsletter. Be sure to include a little bit of information about you and your studio at the end of the story. (Amy Gould is a private voice teacher in the Holland area. She has taught lessons for over ten years and performs regularly with the 126 Army Band. She can be reached at amy@lakeshoresinging.com)

July – Create a press release mailing list with contact information and deadlines for press releases (if you already have it, now is a good time to update it.)

For more great marketing ideas, check out these books.

• “The Complete Guide to Making More Money in the Private Music Studio” by Mimi Butler
• “The Practice Spot Guide to Promoting Your Teaching Studio: How to make your phone ring, fill you schedule, and create a waiting list you can’t jump over” by Philip Johnston

These ideas should help to keep more students rolling into your studio on a fairly regular basis. Keep working at promoting your studio a little at a time and you will continue to see the fruits of your labor.

Practicespot.com has tons of online resources to help music teachers build a better studio and experience for their students. With the Practice Spot Rhythm Machine you can test your sight reading skills with thousands of automatically generated rhythms. You will never have to come up with rhythm exercises for your students again. Just punch in few requirements, hit generate and you will get up to 12 measures of rhythmic challenges just for your student.

With the scales chef, you can generate your own manual of scales and for a little bit extra it will create arpeggios and more as well and you don’t even have to break out the music notation software. The sight reading chef and sight reading genie will give you tons of sight reading exercises as well. It should take them quite a while to burn through all of those sight reading exercises.

There is also a note identification game, manuscript generator, dictionary of 1200 musical terms and a music theory sheet generator. This site really is the all in one site for your students and a great resource for the busy music teacher as well.