Have you ever requested that a student buy a certain book and had them turn up with something similar, but not quite right? Or have you waited weeks and weeks for them to find the time to head to the store, while you lose precious lesson time and momentum?
I became so fed up with the situation that I used to supply all of the books necessary for my students, and add it to their next invoice (this can be done using the Music Teacher’s Helper ‘Charge a Fee’ feature). However, the music store closest to me has recently closed down and now the extra time it takes to travel to another store, combined with the large number of students that I teach makes it near impossible to continue to do this. So I have started to explore other options. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Product Reviews, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Since the start of the year I have been producing a monthly Studio Newsletter. I initially started the newsletter as a method of communicating with parents of the students that I teach in schools. In contrast to the parents of my home studio students, whom I usually see weekly as they drop off/pick up their children, there are some of the ‘in school’ parents that I only see once or twice a year at recitals. So far I have found that there are three main uses for my newsletter. Read more…
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Posted in Customer Support, Promoting Your Studio, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Have you ever wanted to record a student’s performance prior to a recital, or a difficult passage that the student needs to work on, but lacked the equipment or knowledge to do so? I would like to share the ways in which I use recordings in my studio, and the very accessible and simple equipment that I use to produce recordings. Read more…
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Posted in Composing & Arranging, Music & Technology, Performing, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Here is a list of the latest new features, enhancements, and bug fixes we’ve added to Music Teacher’s Helper. Thank you for your feedback and support.
New Features
- Reconcile All Events for one Day. You can now reconcile all events for a specific day. To do this, click the down down arrow on any day of the calendar and choose “Reconcile All”.
- Repertoire Columns Split. In the Repertoire Tracker, the title and composer fields are now showing in separate columns.
- Day of Week. Added the name of the day of the week at the top of the calendar in Day View.
Recent Bug Fixes
- When e-mailing all students on a day, it now e-mails the parents as well.
- Manage Student Logins page was not always resetting the logins properly or showing all the parents. This is fixed.
- Current day highlighted on the calendar is now taking time zone into account.
- Added warning message before recurring events are deleted. Also disabled Google Calendar->MTH sync temporarily. MTH->Google is fine.
- European date format now saving properly on the Reconcile Events page.
- Photos page now shows the correct amount of space left for uploading photos.
- When parents login, if they have a credit, the “Amount Due” now shows zero, rather than a negative amount due.
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Posted in Site Announcements, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Follow-up is extremely important to growing your home-based studio. Like anything worthwhile, consistent follow-up requires a lot of effort, but over time you’ll reap the benefits of a solid group of students and referrals. After all, it takes far less time and money to keep an existing student than market to prospective students. Here are 9 follow-up tools sure to motivate your students to stay loyal to your studio:
Thank-you notes: This is a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many business owners neglect to write thank-you notes–especially when they get really busy. Take the time to show your students that you genuinely appreciate their business. After an initial lesson with a new student, or after semester recitals, send a note thanking them for their time and hard work. They’ll remember your thoughtfulness! Read more…
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Posted in Promoting Your Studio, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper
May is that time of year when year-end recitals are happening, exams are right around the corner, and music teachers are working at a feverish pace to get students ready for their upcoming performances. Often students need that extra push to work just a bit harder in order to meet upcoming goals, deadlines, and expectations.
How can teachers use MTH’s functionality to drive home the importance of what the goals are and what date they need to be accomplished by? Here’s a quick tutorial on how to add goal-setting language to lesson reminders:
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Posted in Studio Management, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Keeping good records of your students is imperative for good communication, and for continued growth in musical study. Here is a checklist of things I keep on file for each student, from the first lesson and beyond:
Personal Data
Detailed information on each student is essential. Gather this data at the interview or online via the “Register” website feature on MTH, rather than at the first lesson. Parents and students will appreciate your not taking teaching time for administrative details.
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Posted in Studio Management, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper
I am a teacher who does not usually struggle with fixing a vocal problem or finessing a vocal line, but does struggle with keeping herself organized! I have three assistants at this time who help me overcome this deficiency. One manages my scheduling, a second manages my billing, and the third manages and arranges my student’s and vocal group’s performances. The latter two work just a few hours a month. The former oversees any lesson changes I need to make to accommodate my directing and performing or changes that may be requested by my students and their families, and she usually works 10 hours or so a month. Read more…
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Posted in Financial Business, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Let’s face it, teaching private lessons can be tough. You only see your students from 30 to 60 minutes per week, and not only need to fit in as much instruction as possible, but make sure that students remember what you taught and motivate them enough to put it to use in their practice sessions. Writing useful lesson notes can greatly extend the contact that you have with students through the week. Over the last few years, quite a number of articles here on the Music Teacher’s Helper blog have dealt with the issue of creating the most interesting lesson notes possible and in what format to deliver them.
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Posted in Studio Management, Teaching Tips, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Dr. Foley, I forgot my notebook again. Can you just email the lesson notes to me so I can read them on my phone when I practice?
Often students arrive without their notebook, still expecting lesson notes to magically appear. If you’re able to use a laptop with an internet connection, it’s a snap to use Music Teacher’s Helper to type lesson notes that can be sent to the student and/or parent the minute they leave. It’s relatively easy to wire your home studio with a reliable internet connection. However, many institutional and corporate music teachers work in studios without the benefits of ethernet or wifi connections. What to do? Read more…
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Posted in Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper
Have you ever requested that a student buy a certain book and had them turn up with something similar, but not quite right? Or have you waited weeks and weeks for them to find the time to head to the store, while you lose precious lesson time and momentum?
