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.

Last month, I discussed ideas for finding new students. In this post, I want to talk about ways to keep students interested and loyal to you. Some of those ideas involve:

* The use of games
* Incentives
* Attitude
* The “Free Prize”

Hope you find these ideas helpful.

THE USE OF GAMES

A few years ago, I decided that I needed to make my lessons a little lighter, more laid back. I wasn’t a strict, hair pulled in a bun school marm or anything, but I felt I wasn’t having as much fun in my lessons. I don’t think my students were either. So I decided to make some games that would help teach musical concepts. Some games I invented myself, others I pulled from websites such as lessonplanspage.com and printablemusicgames.com. After only playing the games with an individual student once, I noticed that their enthusiasm for their lessons increased. More…

Lots of musicians I know are curious about what I do for a living. They have never considered teaching, and even if they did, they don’t know where to begin. I was there once, so I want to share with you some of the things I have learned along the way.

YOU’VE GOTTA START SOMEWHERE

Getting the word out is the obvious first step. The place to start is your local schools. Getting a teaching gig at these schools is the fastest way to gain more private students. If you can’t get an actual job on the faculty (which would really speed things up, by the way) then offer to teach after school lessons. Most schools are interested in this, and many are already doing it. Keep your price competitive to the going rate. If you want to charge more, wait until you have a few students for awhile, and then raise your fees.

Another thing you can do with local schools is contact the music teachers at those schools. I once got a big envelope sent to my school job that was filled with flyers and a letter from a local brass and wind teacher. She was looking for private students, and lo and behold, I don’t teach those instruments, nor do I know any brass and wind teachers. Her letter was very professional and her flyers were clean and easy to read. So of course I let my students know about her. That was a very good marketing idea.

Another place to find students is More…

There are several teachers who, when they sign up for Music Teacher’s Helper, already have their own studio website, or at least own the domain name for their website. And because Music Teacher’s Helper gives them their own studio website, teachers are often faced with a choice of whether to use one or the other, or both. Take a look at our FAQ for some ways to help make the decision on which website to use:

www.musicteachershelper.com/faq#already-have-website

If you decide to get rid of your old website, but you’d like to keep your domain name (ie. www.yourname.com), you can More…

Well, there’s certainly a lively discussion going on in the comments for Finding Students For You, about online services matching music students with teachers. At first I was just going to let it be, but then I realized that it may be informative for many of us to learn first-hand from some of you out there who have had experiences with student leads from the online student-teacher matching services.

The lively discussion that’s going on is mainly about whether some services are using individual teachers’ addresses in advertising their general service, and whether that’s legitimate. I’d like to address that a little, and also tell you of a strange email I received today as a result of an online teacher listing.

But first, tell us–has any of you gained students from an online service? How did it work for you? Clearly, matching up a student and a teacher is good for both. Increasingly, people are finding each other through online services, so matching music students and teachers probably has good potential. If you have used online services of this kind, have you found it worth any costs or hassles you had to deal with? Or did you sign up for services and receive no students? Let us know with a comment below. Perhaps you’ve heard about student experiences in using the services as well.

The use or abuse of teacher information for the benefit of an online matching service is a concern, but the bigger issue is whether these services are providing real help to both teachers and students. Let us hear from you, to balance our picture.

In the mean time, let me tell you about the strange email I received today! More…

A teacher recently shared with me how her studio website helped her gain three more students within 24 hours of signing up.

This is from Thanet Baggett. You can see her website at:

http://BMS.musicteachershelper.com

I had approx. 30 students when I got very sick and had to quit teaching for a while. When I started back teaching, it seemed much harder to get students than it had been the first time.

More…

Any expert will tell you that the best source of new clients is current clients. Over the summer is a great time to get new students and to showcase your achievements.

There are several ways to promote your expertise as a teacher and your student’s achievements.

1. Late in summer as school is ready to resume is a fabulous time for a recital

2. Ask parents to sign a waiver allowing you to make a video of your best students in each category from beginner to advanced. You can use this video to show potential students, speak at community groups during the summer or post on your website

3. Offer an incentive plan for referring students. For example, if a student refers a new student and the new student completes a month of paid lessons, the referring student should receive one lesson free or a gift certificate to a music store

4. Offer a family introductory special if one member signs up at full price the second family member will be half price for the first month

The above steps are very proactive ways to reach new students, but the most effective way to increase your teaching base is to ask for referrals.

Many professionals use a note in red ink on invoices or correspondence to thank existing clients for their business and ask for referrals.

Another very handy phrase to use at the end of a lesson is: “Do you know anyone that is interested in taking lessons?”

By asking on a regular -but not annoying- basis, you are certain to spread the word and increase your teaching base. Persistence breaks down resistance, always has always will. So by focusing on increasing your teaching base and using your current resources to expand you will realize your goal.

First, thanks to Stephane, Betty, James, and Lynda for new comments this week on Playing with Students at Lessons, and thanks to Betty and Jan for comments, some of them pretty detailed, on Collecting the Benjamins (about collecting lesson payments from students). Feel free to comment on any blog articles, however old, in the archive; I will call your attention to new comments made on any article, so they won’t be buried.

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About 6 weeks ago, I wrote “Finding Students For You” about one website that helps students find music teachers. This time, I’ve looked at a number of them, and even conducted a little search-engine survey to help you consider which sites to try.

In thinking about these teacher-student matchmaking sites, it occurred to me that teacher needs are quite different from student needs. Students will want to look for teachers at sites that host the most teachers, so as to get the broadest selections. But as a teacher, you will do better with a site that has fewer teachers from your area, so that when a student looks for a teacher in your area, you show up in as short a list as possible.

There are a few other factors, of course. Some sites are free; others are not. Some have additional services you might find useful. Some are easy to use; others are inconsistent in their search results. Some search results are alphabetized, others randomized, others put premium customers at the top or give them first rights to answer inquiries.

Maybe most important, though, is whether students will actually find the website in order to use it and then find you. To address this question, I offer you my little survey, below. More…

Are you a member of any of the music organizations listed below? Maybe you can recommend a group that’s not on the list. Is there an organization, whether national or local, that you especially like (or dislike)? Please feel free to tell us, by adding a comment at the end of this article; we’d all appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Music teachers and performers are necessarily people-oriented, and yet many are freelancers, running their own teaching studios, and spend precious time alone practicing, listening, composing, arranging, preparing materials.

Bringing them together is the goal of professional music organizations, which offer networking opportunities, educational workshops and conferences, publications, grants, awards, competitions, insurance, websites, with annual dues ranging from $35 to $120.

Before listing some organizations and their websites, I must confess that the reason I first joined a national music organization was to get half-price instrument insurance. More…

You may have noticed various websites popping up to match people up–some are for dating, of course, but others are for matching artists and performance venues, such as www.matchbook.org in New England, and others are for helping students and teachers find each other.

I checked out a few of these student-teacher services to review and describe a bit about how they work, how much they cost, etc. One seems a bit better organized than others, so that’s the one I’ll discuss this week. It was started a little over a year ago, and is called Click For Lessons.

Based in San Diego, the site has grown tremendously. It matches students with potential teachers not only in music, but also in dance, singing, languages, acting, and art. A lot of the categories are musical instruments, so at first I assumed the main use of the site was for music, but the site’s blog has an article listing the most popular lessons requested in 2006, and many of them were for dancing.

The site’s most popular lesson requests last year were, in order: More…