Just a short post that’s as much for me as all of you, my fellow teachers
Like the old saying: “The teacher teaches what he most needs to learn.”
Most of us who teach have a naturally giving personality.
In fact, a career coach I regularly work with, Barbara Deutsch, told me the first time she met with me over ten years ago that my competitive edge in any industry is…giving.
But like any good quality we may have, we always have to be vigilant to make sure we stay in balance.
I’m not great at this sometimes, okay, often…and I’m guessing many of you have your own struggles with it as well.
What are you doing to fill your own tank creatively? Personally? Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Professional Development, Studio Management, Teaching Tips
It’s the start of a new school year on my side of the world, which means that it’s time to reflect on my goals and plans for teaching in the coming year. The first thing I do when making new goals and resolutions is to first look backwards at the year just finished. In order to create realistic goals for 2012, I need to assess what worked and what didn’t in my teaching in 2011. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Professional Development, Teaching Tips
I am writing to see if anyone else from the Music Teachers Helper community is going to the Music Teachers National Association 2012 National Conference held in New York city from March 24-28. This will be my first time attending a national conference for music teachers, and I am super excited!
The Conference Schedule is packed with workshops, masterclasses, exhibition showcases, and there is a very strong focus on the business side of teaching music, with a whole day dedicated to PROFESSIONAL STUDIO INSTITUTE: Building a Successful Studio in Any Kind of Economy. For those that already have a thriving studio and may not be interested in studio marketing, there is an alternative session called Teaching Artistry, where “Attendees will learn strategies for teaching artistry to students of all levels. Four tracks will explore the topics of technique, basic essential repertoire, advanced repertoire/competition preparation and developing artistry.”
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Posted in Music News, Professional Development
I’ll admit it. I was having a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.”* I was tired. And I was cranky. Very cranky. The last thing that I felt like doing was sharing the love of anything with anyone, especially not music and children. I didn’t want to smile, be polite, or encourage. I just wanted to go crawl in a hole and wallow in my [now laugh-able] self-pity. Can you tell this was not one of my finer moments in life? Pity or no, my students were coming in just a few minutes and I had to teach them. My energy was gone, my head was hurting, and I had nothing left to give that day. I’m pretty sure that I was so desperate that I even prayed for the flu. But instead of getting ill, one of my favorite teachers came to mind and I began to think about what she would do in this situation.
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Posted in Professional Development, Studio Management, Teaching Tips
Right now, teachers are gearing up for end of semester recitals, benefit concerts, holiday school concerts, and holiday gigs. And then there’s the additional blur of holiday shopping trips and social commitments. But it’s definitely time to make plans for the January 2012 NAMM show if you haven’t already done so. NAMM is taking place from January 19th to January 22nd, 2012 in Anaheim, California. Music Education Days is Jan. 21st to 22nd. About 1,400 exhibitors are participating and over 90,000 people will attend.
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Posted in Financial Business, Music & Technology, Professional Development
“The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield has become my bible. It was recommended to me by a friend 3 years ago and I have read it over and over again since. The author declares resistance to be the official enemy of all creative endeavors, and it is a demon that takes on many, many forms. Self-pity, television, relationship problems, a messy house, long to-do lists, volunteer committees, any kind of personal drama, etcetera, etcetera. You get the point. As music teachers, it can be difficult to make time for our own practice, but I am beginning to realize how essential this is.
When I started teaching, I told myself I would work really hard to get my teaching business going, and once that happened, I would begin making my own practice a priority again. That was 7 years ago. What happened? Life happened. It became difficult to not only find time, but also motivation for practice. There was always an excuse. The kicker came when I was asked by a student how long I practice each day. I was so embarrassed to say that I was so busy with the business that I probably only practiced a few hours a week. Yikes. What a bad example. Read more…
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Posted in Practicing, Professional Development
During the last decade, the music scene on the Internet has transformed. Now we can legally listen to just about anything we want to, whenever we want to, for a small fee, or we can choose the genre and stream our own personalized radio frequency (such as Pandora, in the States) for free.
Several years ago, when I moved to California, I began to subscribe to Rhapsody, which at the time cost around $15 a month. Previously I had been living in London, and a member of not just one, but three specialist music libraries with CDs available to borrow. Now this opportunity was not available to me, I was feeling deprived, not only personally but professionally, as I was not easily able to share the vast world of classical music with my students (apart from my own private collection). With Rhapsody, I was delighted to have the opportunity to listen to a wide variety of classical music again. It had some bugs, to be sure. Some days it would decide not to play, or not to sign me in, and it could be difficult to get online support. Then too, there was the problem of the catalog. Read more…
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Posted in Music & Technology, Music History & Facts, Professional Development, Teaching Tips
Recently I attended an Alfred Piano & Keyboard Workshop given by Dr. Gayle Kowalchyk, senior keyboard editor at Alfred Publishing. The workshop was organized and hosted by The Piano Warehouse San Marcos CA, and was well attended and received by enthusiastic piano teachers from southern California.
I always love to go to these publisher workshops. As an independent piano teacher in the 21st century, I feel it is very important to know the variety of method books and teaching resources that are available through many fine publishers of educational materials. While some methods are tried and true, and I certainly have my favorites that I stock up throughout the year, it is always refreshing to see what’s new. I also strongly believe in supporting living composers. By using a variety of books and music from different publishers featuring different contemporary composers, I know that come recital time, the students will all have different and interesting pieces to play, and the lessons are more fun for me as well, as I get to listen to a variety of pieces instead of the same things over and over!
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Posted in Product Reviews, Professional Development, Teaching Tips
My students tell me they aren’t ready. And I admit that I’m really not ready, either. But back to school is coming fast. For some areas, school has already begun. Our local schools, however, have a few more weeks of freedom, and I have a few more weeks to get myself ready. Even though I don’t really want to see the end of summer, I do love the excitement of new books, new backpacks, and especially, new pencils. Don’t you? I’m like a piano teacher in a music store when I walk through the back to school aisle.
This year in the studio, we’re going to break out of our lesson book rut and make lessons more exciting and fun. I’ve been evaluating my teaching skills, my studio space, and the materials that I’ve been using. Since I want to grow my studio by at least 15 students, I know I need to step it up and make my studio a place where students want to be. Here are some of the changes that I’m making this school year.
Enthusiasm. Over the past year, I’ve really seen how enthusiasm on my part goes a long way to motivate and excite my students. So I’m going to work towards being more enthusiastic during lessons – from the time I greet my students at the door until the the time they leave. It also means keeping the studio space fun and exciting, too.
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Posted in Music & Technology, Performing, Professional Development, Studio Management, Teaching Tips
Many of us are expanding our teaching practice to include online video chat instruction. This is clearly evidenced by the number of recent posts about the topic here on the MTH Blog.
Here are a few things I’ve learned as a voice teacher using Skype with some of my clients that I hope will be helpful to any of you who are currently using this new technology or contemplating it…
I do have to say that nothing can replace being in the room with the client. You get a clear read on their sound, energy, and where they are mentally and emotionally. All of these factors help us as teachers to clue in to what the client needs the most.
For me, though, the Skype/online chat lesson offers a lot of advantages by virtue of its limitations.
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Posted in Music & Technology, Professional Development, Promoting Your Studio, Teaching Tips
