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. More…

A Liberal’s Libretto “A Liberal’s Libretto is the place to look for news, commentary and real-life stories related to the ARTS and POP CULTURE.”  2-4 posts daily.  “American bass-baritone James Newman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Voice Performance from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington and continued his education in Opera Performance and Conducting at Arizona State University. He then moved to New York City where he began studying with internationally renowned soprano, Maria Spacagna with whom he studies today. When he’s not performing, James Newman blogs, follows politics, the arts and pop culture tirelessly and loves hanging out in Park Slope with his wife, soprano Jenn Raithel Newman and their daughter, Lyla.” Follow James on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JamesNewmanNYC

Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise “Books, articles, and a blog by the music critic of The New Yorker” Author of book The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. Posts infrequently: Newly changed over to Unquiet Thoughts under the aegis of The New Yorker magazine. He plans for several posts weekly.

Artistic Discourse… because the future of the arts depend on it “This blog is about many things: technology, sociology, economics, politics, arts policy and any other potential category of discourse that peaks my interest at the moment.  However, the underlying theme to all those sub-categories will always be, THE ARTS. Whether you agree with me or not throughout the course of this blog, I would hope that you share your thoughts.  I appreciate dissenting opinions almost equally as much as affirming ones.” Was posting More…

Do you have a passion for music, teaching, or writing? Do you have experience and insight you’d like to share with other music teachers across the world? Do you want to make yourself known in the music teaching community? Or would you like to be the catalyst for interesting musical, educational, technological, or business discussion?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then send us an email! We are looking for additional bloggers to write articles or posts that will be of interest to music teachers. Our goal is to provide an even more valuable resource and community for music teachers here on our blog.

The requirement is one article per month. If you’re a current Music Teacher’s Helper subscriber, compensation will entail all of your monthly subscription fee being waived (yes, you get a free Music Teacher’s Helper account!).

Applicants must have excellent English grammar and be familiar with the needs and interests of music teachers.

I will be accepting applications until November 10th, 2009. To apply, just send me an email with the following information:

• Outline of your writing experience (none required, we’d just like to know).
• Ideas you have for interesting post topics.
• Write and attach an article, which could be used as your 1st article if you are one of the chosen few.
• A brief bio.

The article you write needs to be written in text format, using a text program such as NotePad. The embedded formats in software such as WORD does not work.

We may bring on several individuals, so if you’re at all interested, don’t hesitate to send us an email.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Ronnie Currey

Director of Member Services/Editor
Music Teacher’s Helper

ronnie@musicteachershelper.com

Hello members of the Music Teacher’s Helper Community. As we are constantly growing, so is the quality and quantity of articles on our blog and newsletters.

You can use the blog for a splendid tool for gathering much needed info for your studio and use of Music Teacher’s Helper. Below are a few ways to make the blog work for you:

• Click on one of the Categories in the right sidebar, which will bring up all the years of articles in that Category.
• Enter a work in the Search box at the top of the right sidebar. This will search all of the articles for the word in which you are searching.
• Like a particular author? Click on their name to bring up all the articles written by the author.

Remember to click on MORE to read the complete article, and leave a comment for the author. I know they appreciate your comments and will answer any question you might have.

Please enter a comment, or email me at ronnie@musicteachershelper.com if you have any questions, comments or suggestions concerning the Blog or Newsletter. Also let me know if you have a particular subject that you would like to share with  other members. A good article of interest by you could be published on our blog and newsletter for over four thousand of our members around the world to read and gather ideas to improve their studio.

Thanks for your support and interest in Music Teacher’s Helper.

Ronnie Currey
Director of Member Services/Editor
Music Teacher’s Helper
ronnie@musicteachershelper.com

Free listings can’t be beat, especially from Google, the Internet’s most powerful and popular search engine. How many times have you looked up “plumber” or “pizza” online, and above a host of links, Google has a handy map with all of those plumbers and pizza joints pin-pointed and links to their business address. Not only does Google list these businesses at the top of their searches, but also these listings are free!

More…

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.

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!!

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

Last weekend, we were an exhibitor at the Utah Music Teacher’s Association (UMTA) Conference, and it was a great success! This was our first time exhibiting at such a conference, but the response was overwhelmingly positive. Everyone who took more than 30 seconds to see what our booth was amazed at what Music Teacher’s Helper could do to simplify business management in their studio. We also did a showcase and demonstrated Music Teacher’s Helper to a larger group, and got a lot of great interaction and feedback. Some of the most oft-requested features were a photo album on the studio website (to put up recital photos, etc.), and a way to track Federation (NFMC) points and trophies, etc. So, these are things we’re currently looking into. Actually, we already finished the photo album.

I, personally had a lot of fun getting to meet more teachers out there and learning the different ways teachers have of handling billing and scheduling in their studios. I especially loved seeing their faces light up when they realized how much time and headache Music Teacher’s Helper could save them. We had such a great time that we’re considering going to the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA) Conference in Toronto next year. We’re hoping it will be just as big of a hit there as it was here in Utah. What do you think?