As the school academic year is coming to an end, many students will be starting summer vacation soon. It is a busy time of the year, as we prepare our students for that last audition/recital/jury/competition, before they take off for the summer. Most companies provide their shareholders and investors an end-of-year report, outlining the year’s activities and successes. As I gather information to put together my end-of-year Studio Report (using the Pages App on my iPad), I would like to share with fellow teachers some of my thoughts.
My Studio Report is separate from individual student progress reports. Although it is one more item on our never-ending “To-do” list, taking the time to write a Studio Report has many advantages, including:
1. Keep your current students
2. Attract potential new students
3. Important record-keeping for teacher certification/renewal Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Promoting Your Studio, Studio Management
I was speaking with a beginner teacher last week and offered her some advice on some issues she was having in her studio. Below are five tips I think all beginner teachers should know before starting out. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Promoting Your Studio, Studio Management, Teaching Tips
I graduated with two Master of Music degrees (vocal performance and vocal pedagogy) in 1997. I’ve been teaching privately and performing regularly since then, while still taking lessons myself. I learned a lot of detail work and artistry since then, and I didn’t feel as if I needed to go back for my doctorate. Most of my studio has been high school students and adult devotees.
Last year, though, I had three high school seniors preparing to go on to vocal performance degrees, as well as one community college student, preparing to go on to her junior year in vocal performance in college. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Performing, Practicing, Professional Development, Teaching Tips
My private vocal studio is comprised mostly of high school students. I have regular studio classes, for which I hire various pianists. The main goal of this is help students learn BEFORE college the fine art of working with a pianist. This is vitally important, I think, when teaching music (especially voice, as the voice is rarely presented alone).
I also hire pianists to play for the two annual NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) competitions that we have each year here in Arizona. I try to contact pianists well in advance. When I contact each pianist, I spell out projected dates, amount of pay, and what the projected repertoire is. I keep in contact with the pianist, and ask if it’s okay whenever there is a schedule change, BEFORE I confirm it with the students.
Most importantly, I found over the years that I got incredibly nervous when it came to paying the pianist. After enough times running after students to make sure they had paid, I decided to use MTH’s Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Performing, Studio Management, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper
This is an article that I wrote last spring, but it seems like perfect timing for those of you looking to grow your studio next Fall or even this Spring. It’s never too early to ask lots of questions and start planning ……or not! Since writing this, I went on to open a small music school in Brooklyn, NY: www.BrooklynMusicFactory.com
For the past three months I have been laying the groundwork for expanding my teaching studio in the fall. I currently don’t teach that many students (13) as I have a number of other professional commitments in music. I spend part of every week scoring for TV/Documentaries from my home studio and the other part practicing for gigs around New York. I have in the last year, though, become really excited about teaching like never before. Not exactly sure what has changed though I think watching my two daughters grow up and seeing how they learn has a lot to do with it. Something seems to have clicked and I’ve decided it’s time to ratchet it up a notch. But then I get a bit nervous….
When is it just the right balance between teaching, performing, and composing? Finding balance, this is my topic for today. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Professional Development, Studio Management
My local school system has a program where local business people come in to talk to kids about the “real world” is like, so they can be thinking about their career choices. I am planning to go in and talk about the arts as part of the “real world.”
What about you? Would you consider giving kids in school an idea of what it’s like to choose music as a career?
In this post, I’d like to share with you some information and observations about the arts as a work choice in America. Did you know there are more people (2 million) working in the arts in America than there are lawyers or doctors? Did you know artists as a group earn about $70 billion a year? That the median income of artists is higher than the overall median income of American workers?
And yet, we have a disconnect in our society. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Music News
Have you ever requested that a student buy a certain book and had them turn up with something similar, but not quite right? Or have you waited weeks and weeks for them to find the time to head to the store, while you lose precious lesson time and momentum?
I became so fed up with the situation that I used to supply all of the books necessary for my students, and add it to their next invoice (this can be done using the Music Teacher’s Helper ‘Charge a Fee’ feature). However, the music store closest to me has recently closed down and now the extra time it takes to travel to another store, combined with the large number of students that I teach makes it near impossible to continue to do this. So I have started to explore other options. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Product Reviews, Using Music Teacher's Helper
In just one short month, students will be heading back to school, and music teachers will be gearing up for another full year of teaching young musicians to make beautiful sounds on their instruments. August is a prime time to recruit students, whether you’re starting a new studio or only looking to fill a few places. But how do you know that the actions that you’re taking to market your studio are the ones that will really make an impact and get people’s attention?
While re-reading Martha Baker-Jordan’s Practical Piano Pedagogy this week, what struck me as particularly relevant was the section on Impact/Effort Evaluation in marketing your studio (p. 67), which is the process of determining which ideas can have the best impact with the least amount of effort (and cost) associated with the implementation of the idea. In this line of thinking, the goal is to find the most effective advertising vehicles for the least amount of time and cost.
Until you’ve actually got the students signed up, your job has less to do with pedagogy and more to do with marketing and sales. The difficult part about advertising music lessons is that each community has its particular culture and methods by which its residents glean information about products and services. What you need to know about your neighborhood is which ideas work. Here are some things to keep in mind when coming to a decision:
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Posted in Financial Business, Promoting Your Studio
Summer is always a little scary for private music teachers, but with a little creativity and confidence, you can find some fun ways to bring in extra income. Group activities are great for the summer. Kids are already in camp mode, so why not take that commraderie into your music program? You can host these events anytime, really. In the morning, afternoon, evening, weekend.
1. Music Video Day
Find an easy song that most of your kids know and write an easy to follow script for a music video. The key to doing a successful music video is lip-singing. When musicians make a video, they don’t sing live. They may sing out-loud along with the track, but the recorded track is always what’s hear over the video. If you want to have your student’s voices and instruments on the actual video, then consider requiring that they first participate in a “Recording Day.”
2. Recording Day
Maybe you have some kids who are ready to play together in a band, duet, or ensemble. Why not take advantage of this and teach them how it works? You could spread this out into a 3-4 day workshop. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Promoting Your Studio, Studio Management, Teaching Tips
Every professional or aspiring professional music teacher needs a well crafted bio. Your personal bio is your way of introducing yourself to new students, fans, and music industry types in a way that puts your best foot forward. Here are some very important concepts to keep in mind as you craft your own bio.
Target Your Audience
Before you begin your bio make sure you have a clear idea of who your main audience will be. What details will the people who are interested in your talent and music instruction want to know about you? This should frame how you go about writing your personal bio statement. Always keep this in mind as you write. Who is my target market? As an example: If I were a music teacher trying to market my lessons toward aspiring singer/songwriters I’d make sure that I mentioned my extensive knowledge of Beatles tunes, James Taylor songs, or John Mayer songs etc. In addition, I’d also mention whether I’d played on any albums released or performed in any local venues….
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Posted in Financial Business, Press, Promoting Your Studio
