Have you checked out About.com online? It has lots of “neighborhoods” featuring information about all sorts of interests, and one of them is music education. Started in 1996, About.com has been run since 2005 by the New York Times company.

The music education site presents information and resources on music theory, history of music, profiles of musicians and composers, online music games, and lesson plans. Every week a newletter is emailed to those who sign up, with links to their articles about specific topics within each of these areas–spotlights on certain performers or composers from various musical genres, lesson plans, a free music resource of the week involving songs, links and downloads; timely series built around, for example, Women’s History Month, Jazz Appreciation Month, and Black History Month. There are ideas about practicing, buying instruments, history timelines, etc.

Apart from the music education site, the larger site, about.com also has “neighborhoods” devoted specifically to folk music, classical, guitar, top 40/pop music, and children’s music. You can also sign up to receive weekly emails with highlights and links for any of these topics.

How do you give lessons online without any expenses? Yes. No expenses.

In the past I had students having to quit lessons because they were moving away from the area. I also have family on the other side of the country that asked me for lessons. Recently I have been putting together lesson plans for online lessons, using family members as test subjects. The online lessons have been working well.

Online lessons may not work well with certain instruments that need a hands on teacher. I do know it works well with guitar, but not so well with piano.

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Sibelius is a great program with many useful features and well thought out additions. There are two different versions of the software. Each fulfills a specific purpose. There is also a trial version that allows you to try out the software before you buy it.

The free trial version of the Sibelius software allows you to to test drive the software to see if it is for you. It includes a demo guide that explains all of the features. Be forewarned, this software doesn’t allow you to save your work.

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PayPal has become one of my hardest workers. Signing up and using PayPal is free and painless. Using PayPal with MTH is even better.

When a student pays by credit/debit card through PayPal, you get an immediate email from PayPal as well as MTH advising you of a student payment. That’s not all! MTH immediately updates the Accounts Receivables and credits the payment to the student’s account. What do you need to do? Nothing. The fee you are charged for a student making a credit card payment is $2.62. However, if you want have the funds transferred from PayPal to your bank account, there is no charge.

Occasionally I have a student, who has set up reoccurring payments through PayPal, wanting to stop the reoccurring payment and is unsure of the procedure. Below are instructions I received from PayPal to terminate reoccurring payments. I just copy and paste the information shown below in an email to the inquiring student. Try it. You will like it. (more…)

Of the different types of music notation software, Finale is probably one of the most well known and used pieces of music notation software. One of the great things about the software is that it comes in different levels of software that can be easily upgraded. So if you start out at one budget and level of expertise and you decide that it isn’t really meeting your needs, you can easily upgrade the product. This article covers the first two levels of the Finale family NotePad and Songwriter (more…)

Music notation software has changed a lot over the last few years and the number of programs and features available have multiplied. There are many types with many different pluses and minuses. Over the course of the next few weeks I will be taking a look at several different types of notation software for both Mac and PC and outlining the features of each of them. I will also be rating the software on various areas such as ease of use, cost, help/support, input/output capabilities and ease of entry.

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Almost every studio teacher has a tuner that they use on a regular basis to help their students tune their instrument or play in tune. However, now there is a tuner that will show a student visually that their pitch is high or low. It is called Vocal Lab.

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How often have you wished that you could have a way for your students to practice with an accompanist more often? Smart Music is a fantastic program that allows them to do just that and more. It also makes it easier for teachers to give assignments and track the students progress and their grades. (more…)

The following applications are available for Palm OS. This operating system works on both PCs and Macs and with many PDA’s. Make sure you check the list of compatible devices for each applications before you download it.
Scale Tune
Scale Tune is a great application to have right in your pocket at all times. It can tackle the job of a tuner, metronome and stopwatch. It has a piano keyboard and a scale (more…)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I use PowerPoint to present a slide show in the waiting room of my studio. Now I want to share with you what I include in the slide show.

Announcements

• Fees due today
• Mailing address to mail payment
• Payment can be put in the drop box
• Available open slots
• Monthly Birthdays
• Please make sure front door is closed when coming in or leaving.
• Lost and found items
• Suggestion box location
• Parent business advertisements
• Student accomplishments

Trivia

One slide has a trivia question concerning a band or music. The slide that follows has the answer. Trivia questions can be found in a Google search for music trivia.

Photos

• Students playing their instrument
• Various musicians or music groups
• Holiday photos
• Photos of myself in a classroom or band

Schedule

• Upcoming concert events
• Studio events
• Denver events

There are many types of slides you can have. Each slide stays on the screen for 30 - 60 seconds, depending on the slide. Just be creative. Parents and students find the slide show both entertaining and informative.