Enter for a chance to win!
Test your knowledge about Alfred’s best-selling methods and enter for a chance
to win Premier Piano Course materials, Mighty Bright lights, and subscriptions
to Clavier Companion Magazine and MusicTeachersHelper.com!
Click the image below to enter on Alfred Music’s Piano Facebook page. If you
don’t already “Like” the page, you will be prompted to do so before entering.
Follow Alfred Music on Facebook for news, teaching tips, and exclusive content.
If you do not have a Facebook profile, you may enter the sweepstakes at
alfred.com/namethatmethod.
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Posted in Press, Site Announcements
Having a professional looking website helps students feel more confident that you take your teaching business seriously. Your website is often a student’s first introduction to you as a teacher.
Today we added 41 new studio website themes to Music Teacher’s Helper. These themes are available on all paying plans. To see the new themes, or change your current theme, click Website -> Theme/Layout, then click the “Prime Themes” tab.
Here is a sample of three of them.
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Posted in New Features and Fixes, Press, Site Announcements, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Our support continues to improve as we have added a Live Chat option. You may have noticed a Contact Support tab at the bottom right corner of the website, where you can submit a Support Ticket, initiate a Live Chat, or place a Call to our Support Team. So if you want to initiate a Live Chat or talk to our customer support by phone, feel free to call or initiate a Live Chat and we’ll help you out during regular US business hours (9am-6pm Central time) Monday-Friday! You will continue to have the option of submitting a support ticket for help 24/7.
A new version of the iPhone app was released this month, allowing you to add, edit, and delete students. Version 1.2 also fixed a number of bugs. You can read about the updates and download the latest version of the Music Teacher’s Helper iPhone app here.
Latest Updates
- Image uploader was automatically resizing uploaded images 600px high regardless of the image dimension. Automatic resizing will now happen only when the image file size exceeds 2mb.
- Template page was going blank when trying to edit. This has been fixed.
- Lesson cost could not be saved for reconciled lesson when using the iPhone app. This has been fixed.
- Lesson notes and cost would not save when using the iPhone app. This has been fixed.
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Posted in Press, Site Announcements
We’ve taken your feedback to heart and are excited to announce some major improvements to the Music Teacher’s Helper Calendar we just released. Here are some of the highlights:
- 100x Faster. Everything from cycling between days or weeks to turning filters on and off is now incredibly faster.
- Drag & Drop. You can now drag & drop events to change their dates and times in all views.
- Change Time Slot Duration. Time slots have always been shown in 30 minute increments. But if your lessons end at the quarter hour or in 10 minute intervals, you can now change the time slot interval to make it more clear.
- Hide days and times. Don’t teach lessons before 6am or on weekends? You can now make the calendar show only the days and times you teach.
- Easier Access to Student Info. When you click an event, the info bubble that appears will now let you click any student in the participant list to be taken to their profile. Or if you click “View” you can see the email and phone number for each participant in the event.
- Change Start Day. You can now have the week and month view start on Monday or another day rather than just Sunday.
- Improved Appearance. We’ve improved the look & feel of the calendar, and made a few interface improvements such as easier access to edit categories and locations within the filter area, and no need to refresh after selecting filters.
Here are some other more minor changes we made in May, 2012. We appreciate your votes on our Feedback page letting us know which features are important to you, and we continue to listen to your ideas and suggestions.
- On the registration page of the Music Staff template, studio names with an apostrophe were not showing properly. This is now fixed.
- The font size of the quote in the sidebar of the Music Staff template was too large. This is now fixed.
- The Payment Category drop down list in the mobile app now shows all of the payment categories you’ve created.
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Posted in Press, Site Announcements, Using Music Teacher's Helper
We’re having a contest starting on June 15th, 2012 and ending on June 30th, 2012 with several prizes including a free subscription to Music Teacher’s Helper for life! This contest will judge an article or video you submit about how you use Music Teacher’s Helper to manage your music teaching business. Your submission can include advantages that MTH gives you, a comparison of your life before and after MTH, as well as other creative ways you use MTH. Winners will be announced on August 1st, 2012 in the Newsletter, Blog and Facebook.
Contest Rules:
- Write and post an article on the benefits and/or creative uses of Music Teacher’s Helper on a blog or website (either your own or as a guest blogger on someone else’s), or create a video and post the video on YouTube.
- Articles needs to have at least 300 words to qualify. Videos need to have a minimum length of 2 minutes.
- Tell us about your article or video by posting a link to it on our Facebook page. Copy and paste the link into the status box on Facebook. The intro to the article from the blog, and photo, should be pulled into the status box along with the link to the article. If you’re unable to post the link, send it to ronnie@musicteachershelper.com and I’ll post it for you.
- Send me the link to your post as well at ronnie@musicteachershelper.com. This will ensure that I have your link to the blog post.
- Use one of the keyword phrases below in the title of your article, and one to three keyword phrases in the first half of the article. If you are submitting a video, use a keyword in the title, and one to three keywords in the description. If possible, make the keyword a link to http://www.musicteachershelper.com.
- Contestants can not be an employee or subcontract labor for Music Teacher’s Helper.
- Contestants do not have to be an active subscriber to Music Teacher’s Helper.
Keywords or Keyword Phrases:
Use any of the following keyword phrases in your article or video title and contents/description.
Read more…
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Posted in Press, Site Announcements
I am completely fascinated with online networking. It’s such a fun way to interact
Are you a social media expert?
with people you know and meet people you don’t. In fact, social media is all the buzz in advertising in today’s market. It’s free, it’s fast, and you can hit a large market. Big companies are even hiring social media experts whose full time job is to tweet you, text you, and message you about hot deals and cool stuff. It’s the next big thing in marketing. But should you use it for your private music teaching studio? I do.
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Posted in Customer Support, Music & Technology, Music News, Press, Promoting Your Studio, Site Announcements, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Many of us associate famous musicians with their instrument and the instrument’s builder. That powerful imagery has become a marketing tool that has beneficially served both the artist and the instrument builder.
But as a teacher, we have the power to influence a great number of people as well.
For years, I played Ibanez Soundgear basses, Ovation acoustic electric guitars, and Les Paul style guitars. After a year or two, my beginner students would start moving on from their starter instruments. There was an unusually high percentage of Ibanez Soundgear basses and Ovation acoustic electrics in the mix of new purchases.
Later on, I acquired a Gibson SG and switched to playing Spector and LightWave basses. Not surprisingly, the next batch of students tended to gravitate to SG style guitars (made by a wide variety of builders…Samick, Epiphone, and even Ibanez) and a few Spector basses entered the mix.
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Posted in Press, Professional Development, 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
So-called “social” online networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Ryze and Twitter generate a lot of buzz in the press. But can they really be productive business-to-business networks for you — or are they just a waste of time???Consider these issues before taking the plunge: Read more…
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Posted in Music & Technology, Press, Promoting Your Studio, Studio Management
daily observations “classical music insights” Charles Noble is the Assistant principal violist of the Oregon Symphony. He blogs about his experiences with the orchestra, as well as his deep love of good coffee. Follow Charles on Twitter.
Dial “M” for Musicology “Music, Musicology, and Related Matters.” “This is a musicology group blog that features the prose stylings of Jonathan Bellman (University of Northern Colorado) and Phil Ford (Indiana University Jacobs School of Music). It is a place for us to work ideas out publicly in what is still, for our field, a somewhat new medium. We are members of the American Musicological Society, but our views are entirely our own and should not be taken as representative of the AMS or any other academic organization. “Dial ‘M’ for Musicology” is an academic blog, but it wants to be friends with everyone. Welcome to all critics, musicians, bedroom air-guitarists, louche aesthetes, prickly autodidacts, and random passers-by!” There are also several new contributors who have joined the fold. Often thought-provoking and always interesting, this is a great place to find things to think about. 4-8 posts monthly.
dramma per musica “My name is Bob Kingston. I’m a librarian, free-lance musicologist, lapsed bass-baritone, and self-professed opera fanatic living in Portland, Oregon. I give all of the pre-performance talks for the Portland Opera, and I also lead music history classes for the company’s Studio Artists. I love collecting historic vocal recordings, and I often use examples of these in my classes and presentations. So, don’t be surprised if I post a clip of some obscure Russian tenor or Italian baritone from time to time.” 4-12 posts monthly. I enjoy Bob’s tweets immensely. Follow Bob on Twitter. Read more…
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Posted in Composing & Arranging, Music & Technology, Music History & Facts, Music News, Music Theory, Performing, Practicing, Press, Promoting Your Studio
