I have been toying around with the idea of having a contest between all of my students. I think it’s a fun idea to get all your students excited about whatever musical theme you choose to base it on. Holding a contest could serve as a way to get your students thinking more about a musical subject they normally might find boring. Here are some ideas for contests:

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‘Tis the season for studio performances. But before you stress about coordinating all the details, we have streamlined all the steps to make this winter’s recital a blast!

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During the holiday season, teachers receive gifts from students, and the search engine can help you keep track of what you received from which student.

In the student lesson notes section, I write xmas-gift, followed by the gift received in the private notes section. If I just type xmas, a search will pull out any lesson notes with the word xmas in it. As some of my students learn Christmas music during this time of year, I have the word xmas in many lesson notes.

After the holidays are over, you can go to the Lesson History under the Lesson tab, and search for xmas-gifts. This search will give you a list of all the students that gave you a gift during the holidays. Quite helpful.

I also use this technique to enter particular grades, whether weekly, monthly or quarterly. I precede the grade with an astrick *. An example of a grade is *10. A search for * will pull up the student grades.

There are many uses for the search engine that will enable MTH to work even harder for you. On the bright side, you don’t have to give MTH a raise for taking on more responsibility and work.

What creative ways do you use for the search engine?

It’s a joyous time of year, a counterpoint to also being the darkest time of year. When I grew up, in a religiously diverse community, the Christmas spirit was about peace and good will to all. There were the school choruses singing a lot of Christmas songs, the concerts that included Christmas music and usually a Hanukah song, and some wintry ones about snow and sleighs.

Now music teachers have to contend with parents and students who are a little more polarized by the politicians. Some want to make stores say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”. This seems more of a political overlay than a real concern. We always used to sing “We wish-sh-shyu a merry Chris-s-s-s-sms-s-s and a Happy New Year!”–and our vacations and plans have never been just about Christmas, but also New Year’s–and for about 1 of 4 Americans, other holidays.

Although I teach at two music schools, they are not public schools, so I don’t feel much pressure from my students about this issue, but I know many teachers do. I hope you can share your thoughts on this by adding a comment below.

Before discussing some teaching ideas for the holidays, I’d like first to pose a purely musical question that arose for me when my kids participated in a piano recital one December. (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.

The Studio is the room where you actually give the private lessons to your students. Everything I need to give the student a quality lesson is in this room.

The basics include chairs, music stands and instruments needed for the lesson. Since I teach guitar, bass guitar, piano and voice, I have two guitars, a bass and piano. Occasionally students will leave their guitar at home, as they will be coming from work or school. I keep an extra chair in the room for a parent or two student lesson.
A white board hangs on the wall in front of the student. I use the board to further instruct students in music theory. Chord charts and music charts hang on the wall next to the white board for the student’s reference.

I keep my laptop computer next to me so I can review the notes from the last lesson as well as input notes for the current lesson into Music Teacher’s Helper. A speaker system is also connected to play needed music, as well as a printer to print music for the student. (more…)

Every home studio needs a waiting room, bathroom and teaching studio. In this article I will tell you how I use the waiting room to promote my business and retain students.

My studio waiting room has the basic furniture, such as several recliners, rockers and a long couch. Magazines are put out on a coffee table by students, parents and me. I also have a water cooler in a corner as well as a 27″ television set hooked to cable. This is a must for a waiting room.

Other items in the waiting room are to promote and retain students, such as…

• A snack bar, which contains a variety of snacks. I look for bulk items of candy and other snacks that average about 25 cents. I sell the snacks for 75 cents, and the purchaser puts the money in a jar next to the snacks.
• The end tables display my business cards, which parents take quite frequently for interested friends. I also let the parents display business cards and fliers for their business.
• A large bulletin board displays announcements and photos of studio events.
• In the front of the room, next to the tv, is a computer which runs a PowerPoint presentation of studio news, music trivia and photos of students and various musicians. There are also reminders such as when the monthly fee is due.
• I have a payment box in the waiting room which has an opening on the lid for parents or students to drop their monthly lesson fee. This box also helps to remind them that they need to leave a payment.

I have witnessed many different activities taking place in the waiting room when I walk in following a lesson. A few of them are:

1. A mom, cross-legged on the floor, with her checks spread out, balancing her checkbook.
2. A father asleep and snoring on the couch.
3. A group of parents watching a football game, and asking if they can stay around a few more minutes.

At least once a month, when a student is in the studio on a different day and time for a makeup lesson, the student and parent find another parent and student in the waiting room who turns out to be close friends of theirs. They both knew that their children were taking music lessons, but had no idea it was from the same teacher.

Yes, the waiting room is a magical place for parents and students alike, and a valuable resource for the teacher.
What are ways you put your waiting room to use? Any suggestions?

When I moved to Denver, Colorado from Atlanta, Georgia eight years ago, I started working for a company that built computers. I began advertising for music students in my home for January 2001 by leaving brochures at a national chain music company, Guitar Center. By April 2001 I had signed up thirty students and had to quit my job at the computer company. I gave the music lessons in the finished basement area of my town home, providing me enough area for a waiting room, restroom, and two teaching studios.
I currently keep between forty and fifty guitar, bass guitar, piano and voice students, as well as teach music full time at a local high school. Most of my private students are referrals, although I continue to leave business cards and brochures at the music store as well as in schools.

There are advantages and disadvantages to having a home music studio. However, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages of a home music business. Let’s start with the advantages.

ADVANTAGES

1. Working your business from home gives you many tax deductions, including utilities and mortgage interest or rent deductions.
2. You have more control over the studio enviroment verses working as a teacher in a music store. You can design the layout of the studio and use furniture/equipment that works the best for you and your students.
3. There are no music studio rental fees to pay.
4. Parents enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of a home studio waiting room. In a music store, parents usually wait in hallways on metal chairs. Many times parents and students from two different families will run into each other during lessons, not knowing that the other family also took lessons in the same studio.

Disadvantages

1. Wear and tear on carpets, walls, entrance door, etc. Students carrying instruments often put small holes in the walls.
2. Housekeeping needs to be done regularly, such as cleaning the bathroom, waiting room and studio, vaccuming, refilling supplies such as toilet paper, paper towels, and paper cups. And when it snows or rains, students and their family tend to track debris and mud into your home.
3. There is an increase in your utility bills. On some occasions, students leaving the home left the front door open, causing the heat or air to stay on.

Next week I will discuss the layout of my studio, beginning with the Waiting Room. I will show you how I use the waiting room to market my business and handle collections while providing the students and parents a relaxing atmosphere. This is the room where the lessons begin and end.
The studio should work for you, helping you to recruit new students, retain current students, and provide the best learning enviroment for both you and your students.

I look forward to your comments and advice on your experiences in running a music studio business at home. What do you see as advantages and disadvantages? What are your success stories with your home music studio? What are your strategies?

I’d like to call your attention to some very useful ideas about scheduling students using Music Teachers Helper; these ideas were suggested by Tina in response to my post a couple of weeks ago. Take a look at her comments at the end of that post, Tips for Easier Lesson Scheduling. She even has PDF examples of how she does it.

The basic idea is to add your own categories, such as “available”, “makeup lesson”, “group lesson”, or whatever you’d like to track or offer to students–and then color-code them to make them easier to see.

For example, I’ve taken to listing available lesson times (more…)

One of the most important benefits of Music Teachers Helper (MTH) is that students can look up information at their convenience: they can look up online when their next lesson is, what they did in their last lesson, what their payment situation is–and if you wish, they can look up alternative lesson times in case they need to schedule a makeup.

At this time of year, teachers are scheduling lessons for the fall, and MTH can make that much easier. Who hasn’t had to play phone tag or use multiple emails to schedule a lesson?

I’ve tried a few different approaches with MTH. One was to create events on the calendar that were global, open to all, showing when there were available lesson times. This had the benefit of being easily accessible to students, but the drawback was that most students didn’t need this information very often, and it cluttered up their own calendar, making it harder to view their own lesson information.

What I do now (though we would all appreciate hearing from you about your own experiments–just add a comment at the end of this post) involves a fictitious student named “Just Visiting.”  It works well both for new students trying to schedule a first lesson, and for existing students needing to reschedule. (more…)