Posing proudly after a No-Worries Workshop

1. Lesson Time: Adults are able to schedule lessons during those hours when most K-12 school students cannot attend.

2. Income: Because adults can come during “off hours” weekly income is expanded.

3. Friendship: Every time a new student enters the door a new relationship is established and inevitably a friend as well.

4. Variety: Each adult student arrives with a unique and distinct musical background and agenda. While some desire to master Mozart, others want to learn note names, while others wish to play current pop hits. Because of time limitations, I have not initiated a Recreational Music Making (RMM) class but this could be a possible option for your studio. This program, that emphasizes recreational and not traditional lessons for adults, continues to grow in popularity. For more information check out the Recreational Music Making Handbook.

Don and Stuart--self-titled "The Octogenarian Duo"

5. Appreciation: While I thoroughly enjoy seeing kiddos eager to play their first song (and watching them discover how fast they can play their new piece!), adults seem to enjoy and appreciate every aspect of their progress. Each step of the piano path seems to be equally important as, or even more important than, a perfected performance.

6. Light-Bulb Moments: In many cases, soon after lessons begin there are the “Ah-Ha” moments. Example: some students have known that 1 sharp at the beginning of a piece means that the F needs to be sharped throughout. However, it is so exhilarating when the need for the F# in the key of G is discovered and understood. Many theory secrets are unlocked after being bound by years of “blind obedience” to the score.

7. Staying Hip: One of my “younger” adult students keeps me up to date with the latest YouTube pianists and digital print music. He can play by ear but wants to read the latest hits as well. Since he has no prior reading skills, we both continue to carve a way to master pitch, rhythm and chord symbol recognition from the grand staff in an unconventional, non-method-book manner.

8. Flexibility: Job obligations or vacation plans often get in the way of weekly piano lessons for most of my adult students. Although the income may not be as reliable, I don’t mind a weekly schedule that varies. Because lessons may not occur weekly, Music Teachers Helper is crucial to keeping things organized. Lesson Reminder emails prompt students of an upcoming lesson (that they may have forgotten about) and e-mailed Daily Summary reports remind me of the lesson as well. Students truly appreciate the lessons notes I write and these serve as a basis for the following lesson. The notes are especially helpful if there is a long gap between lessons.

9. Workshops and Wine: I have learned adult students prefer not to perform among young pianists so I offer informal “No-Worries Workshops”. Students are invited to perform and share some details of the composer, the composition or the challenges encountered while mastering a piece. I always learn something new from the information they share. This past December we all enjoyed a glass (or two) of wine after the December workshop to celebrate the season. That just doesn’t happen at my bi-annual K-12 church recitals

10. Wisdom: One of my students boasts 88 years with the daily schedule of an 18 year old, another is a renowned eye surgeon, one a general contractor, another, a bio-chemist engineer, another a psychiatric practitioner, one is a World War II vet and…Although most are “retired” they prefer to call this stage a new chapter in their lives. All of them generously share their wisdom and perspective with me on a regular basis. Many times, I feel I OWE THEM for what I learn from their life experiences  and professions.

Sarah (on the right and 88 years young) celebrating her performance with friends

Teaching adult students may be a great fit for you IF:

• your policies allow for flexibility in scheduling (my adult student policies are far different from those for K-12 students)
• you enjoy meeting new people and engaging in stimulating conversation
• you are willing to teach those who may suffer from arthritis, hearing loss, poor eyesight…
• you are willing to customize lessons to match students’ desires and goals
• you are interested in the concept of and the benefits of Recreational Music Making for adults
• you enjoy keeping great minds stimulated and on track in the later years.

Would love to hear from others who enjoy teaching adults!

Are you a social media expert?

with people you know and meet people you don’t.  In fact, social media is all the buzz in advertising in today’s market. It’s free, it’s fast, and you can hit a large market.  Big companies are even hiring social media experts whose full time job is to tweet you, text you, and message you about hot deals and cool stuff.  It’s the next big thing in marketing.  But should you use it for your private music teaching studio?  I do.

Facebook.  I love Facebook, mostly for its ability to quickly and easily connect with a ton of people, specifically my friends, family, high school classmates, and even my piano students. You can quickly and easily get messages to all or some of the people you know, advertise your studio, and share tips and tricks for practice times.   But Facebook is rife with privacy issues.  If you’re going to post personal items on Facebook, you must be vigilant about using discretion and privacy settings.  After all, some, if not all, of your posts may end up in Google searches.  You also need to watch that some distant relative doesn’t tag you in an unflattering photo from your third cousin’s wedding.  It might reflect poorly on the image you are hoping to portray to your private lesson students.  Avoid posting anything that you don’t want the entire world to know or see.  Don’t post rants about people or places, instead, keep your posts positive, fun, and inspiring.  Better yet, create a separate page based on your studio website.  You can invite all your students to visit, as well as post events, ads, or information that you want your students to see.  It’s a great place to offer an incentive for referrals.  You can also join Facebook groups such as your local high school band page or church page.  From there, you can meet new poeple and make new connections.  Don’t forget to ask people to ‘like’ your page so they can find you later or share you with their friends.

www.facebook.com

LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a more professional venue, and a great way to network with other private teachers, businessman, and other professionals.  It’s a great way to get your resume and credentials out there, as well as advertise your studio website.  You’re not likely to find young students on LinkedIn, but you will be able to network with people who can lead you to new students (such as their professionally employed parents).  Be wary of attaching your Twitter and Facebook accounts to LinkedIn.  It’s much safer to keep this account strictly professional with no personal references.  Include a great looking head shot so people remember you as a person, not just a name on the computer screen.  You can also join various discussion groups through LinkedIn, so you can find job openings or people looking to find a private music teacher.  Don’t forget to link your profile to your free Music Teacher’s Helper website.

www.linkedin.com.

Twitter.    The key to Twitter is in being succinct.  You only have 140 characters to get your message out there, so the more concise you can be, the better.  You can invite your friends and family to follow you on Twitter, and you can gain followers by following people you like.  Whenever you tweet, you should add a hashtag that compliments your tweet.  So if you tweet about piano practice, you may want to end your tweet with #piano or #musicpractice.  A hashtag is like  a keyword.  Other Twitter users can search for keywords, and hopefully, your tweet will come up.  Again, make sure to link your account with your Music Teacher’s Website.  Be careful of privacy issues, and keep an eye on your followers.  It is polite and expected to follow back appropriate followers on Twitter.

www.twitter.com

Google+.  Google plus is like Facebook without all the fancy bells and whistles (and with less privacy problems, too).  It’s a great networking tool, and I’m sure it will be gaining popularity as time goes on.  Invite your friends and family to join, and create ‘circles’ to categorize them in.  You can then associate with people that are in their circles, and thereby expand your own.  Being so concise will inspire your creative writing, too. www.google.com.

There are a few tricks to good, social networking.  First, post often, but don’t spam.  I love hearing what local business men and women are doing, but I get annoyed by the people that post every half hour.  I just don’t have time for that!  If your are networking to advertise, post things that are relevant to your studio, such as practice tips, composer tidbits, and available lesson spots.  It’s also a great place to offer incentives or advertise specials, if you have them.   Routinely look for new people to connect with by checking your family and friend’s pages and searching for groups and individuals.  Avoid ranting and raving or gossipping in your posts.  Keep your comments positive and helpful.  If you are going to post about your students, make sure you have their parents permission.  People love to see photographs, but be very careful what you post and who you tag.  If you want to post photos of your students, you should probably get written permission first.  Lastly, always be aware of privacy concerns.  If you don’t want the entire world to know, play it safe and just don’t post it.  Link your accounts to your free Music Teacher’s Helper Website so people know where to find you.

Tip #1:  How to find the invoicing function.

Invoicing functions are found under the Billing tab, where you can select Invoicing and view Invoice History, Create Invoice(s), or work with Automatic Invoicing.

Tip #2:  Preview everything.

Any time you make use of invoicing, first preview your invoice(s) by clicking the “Preview or Print” button. You need to see what the student will be seeing – does the invoice show the right dates, the right events, and does it add up to what you expect? If not, see Tip #4. Also, make sure only the invoices you want to create are showing – if there’s more than one invoice, there will be more than one page to preview.

Once you take a look at the preview, click “Go Back to Invoicing Creation” at the top of the page, so you can either revise the invoice or send/print/record it. But beware! When you go back to the Invoicing Creation page, all the boxes you checked are still checked. This includes all students boxes, which might not all be visible if you have more than 5 students. This means that if you preview one student’s invoice and then go back to check out another student’s invoice, you have to make sure to uncheck the first student or else you’ll be creating an invoice for him/her again.

Tip #3: Invoice vs Statement.

Know the difference between an invoice and a statement. The system is set up by default to create an invoice, which is a bill for services – only what the student owes during the time period selected (by default, the current month). But if you check off the right boxes, it can be set up to display a statement, which is a record of everything the student did financially during that time period – how much they owed at the beginning of the period, what they are being charged, how much they’ve paid, and what they currently owe as a result of all this.

An invoice will show what the student owes, but not what they’ve paid. This is easily remedied, if you wish – just check off the box “Show Payments.” If you want to show how much they owed at the beginning of the period, check off the box “Show Previous Balance and Date Range.” You really have to check off this box if the student owes something, or has a credit, going into the current month (or the time period you’ve selected); otherwise the invoice will only show what they owe this month regardless of any previous balance. All the option boxes that you can check off in creating an invoice are explained in the Help section’s Knowledge Base at this link.

But remember Tip #2! If you check off boxes, be sure to preview before sending the invoice!

If you send invoices to all of your students, you will probably want to set up the invoice as a statement, including the previous balance, and all payments and charges. Unless you check off the box “Create invoices/statements even if amount due is zero”, the only invoices that will be created are the ones where a student owes you, or has a credit.

Tip #4:  Accuracy counts.

Be sure the invoice shows the correct events and amounts. A student’s invoice will display all of that student’s lessons/classes for the month (or other time period selected). Make sure you entered them all! The invoice is not just for asking for money but also for displaying what the student is paying for. It can serve to confirm the lessons that have been scheduled. Make sure those lessons are entered with the correct amount due for each one – each lesson and amount owed will show up under “Lesson Charges” on the invoice. Or perhaps you charge a flat rate for the month – this shows up above “Lesson Charges” in the “Fees and Credits” section. Both these options come from the profile of the student, where you can choose to set either a flat rate or a per-lesson charge.

If after previewing the invoice, you find some errors in events, whether in amounts charged or in the descriptions or dates of the events, just go back to the calendar and fix those entries, and try again. No harm done (unless you clicked “Do it!” to save the invoice (or email it to the student). If you hit “Do it!” by accident, see Tip #5.

Tip #5: Viewing/deleting Invoices.

When you click “Do it!” your invoice(s) will be saved and if you checked off the radio button to email it to your student, that will be done as well. To look at the invoice, or to see if it was made, go to Billing tab, Invoicing, Invoice History. Here you can see what invoices you created, when, and when they were sent to the student. You’ll want to click the “View” link to see the invoice, and that’s when you can delete the invoice if you need to, by using the Options box to the right.

Tip #6: Invoice everyone or only as needed?

If you send invoices/statements to all your students every month, you probably will want to set this up to happen automatically. I personally only use automatic invoicing for a few students who have a flat monthly rate and requested the invoices so they can pay online (the “Make Payment” link at the bottom right of the invoice makes this easy and accurate). I send manual invoices to students who have missed a payment or are confused about charges.

An invoice serves many purposes: it’s a request for money, an explanation of charges, an easy way for a student to pay you online, and makes it easy for a student to mail you a check, since your name and address is displayed in the upper left.

For manual invoices, I usually send a separate email to the student telling them I sent the invoice and that there is a payment link in the lower right corner.

Tip #7: Automatic invoicing.

This can be found under the Create Invoice(s) option. Once you are familiar with creating invoices, this option is fairly self-explanatory, but be careful to keep in mind the date range you set for your automatic invoices. I had one student who hadn’t paid by mid-month and he normally gets an automatic invoice the first of the month. I realized later that the date range for his automatic invoices had expired!

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You may well have other tips, or comments, or questions – if so, please add a comment below! I look forward to hearing from you.

Overall, I have banned the words “good” and “bad” because neither tell you what to continue working with and what to try to fix. I also try to always use only positive directives. We’ll identify both what behavior we want to replace and then what we want to happen instead. Focus is then on what we WANT to happen, rather than what we don’t want.

These are questions I have routinely asked my students, but thanks to a conversation I had on Google+ with Wendy Stevens,composer/pianist/teacher, in response to her blog post, “Never Ask This,” I’ve changed my approach even more.  My husband had once asked me why I asked “Does that make sense?” so often, but it didn’t hit me how easily students cop out of answering that question until Wendy wrote her post.

Since Wendy’s post, I’ve been MUCH more aware of how I phrase things and how I ask students to respond.  Much of the time I try to say, “When I say XX, what does that mean to you?”  I also ask students how they would like me to write down something in the lesson notes; I take notes on my computer during lessons to copy & paste into lesson reconciliation on MTH at the end of each lesson.  Each student also has their own file, so I can easily call up what we’ve done since their first lesson.

What kinds of questions do YOU ask your students to try to make them think and personalize your teaching?

This list of recommended performances is included in my first newsletter of the year. I write a brief blurb about each concert, making reference to the style or genre and the performer, so that parents can decide if the performance is appropriate for their child. In the weeks leading up to a concert that I think is particularly of interest, I will often send out a reminder group email. This is very easy to do via the Music Teachers Helper email function. Using this function, I can also glance through my list of students and ‘tick the box’ of the students who I believe would most benefit from a particular performance. I also like to include YouTube links of the performer or repertoire in these emails.

As a follow up to these performances, I always discuss them with my students in the next lesson. If any students are interested, they are welcome to contribute a short review of the performance in my next newsletter. This helps students to think critically about the music they have heard and aids in developing a musical vocabulary to express their ideas.

If you have any further ideas on developing a concert attendance culture in your studio, please leave a comment below.

Image: nuchylee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1824

Based on a Novel Idea by Wendy Stevens.

In her recent website newsletter, Wendy Stevens described a holiday project she designed. She asked her piano students to learn the theme of the “Jingle Bell” chorus and create a variation. Each arranger was filmed debuting his/her arrangement and made into a lovely video.

Fortunately, Wendy shares her marvelous teaching ideas and inspirations on her unique website www.composecreate.com. Subscribing to her free newsletter provides me with numerous ideas and resources. I must give full credit to her for the subject of this blog and am so thankful to find her as a continual resource of inspiration.

The Plot

When preparing for the upcoming holiday recital, lesson time can be zapped by ironing out wrinkles in performance pieces or drilling the performance etiquette routine. Little time is left for covering new concepts or new pieces. This calls for an assignment that captures the students’ attention, challenges their creativity and that can be accomplished in a short amount of time.

 The Production

The following steps were taken to prepare students:

1) A lead sheet featuring the melody and chord symbols was reviewed. Early level students were provided with a simple LH version.

2)  For inspiration, students were asked to listen to Mozart’s Twelve Variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” and follow along with the score. Next they watched the youtube video of Wendy’s students. (As I offer 30-minute lessons with a 30-minute lab time, this was assigned during the lab time and did not take away from lesson time.)

3) A checklist of composition devices was given to charge up the creative juices. About 5 minutes of lesson time was taken to prod students’ idea bank. We looked over a list of various moods that sparked the imagination engines. Most were inspired to borrow ideas from their current pieces which boosted their confidence as they were not starting with a blank slate. Additional ideas included varying the melody with neighbor tones, repeated notes, rhythmic changes and using standard LH patterns they encounter on a regular basis. Students were encouraged to keep it simple. However, they know I am a huge fan of intros and outros (codas), so most added them to please the teacher

4) Pianists (arrangers) were asked to return to the next lesson with a completed variation.

Action!

The following week was like Christmas as each student “unwrapped” his/her variation for me. Some were perfected and camera-ready, some even had more than one variation, while others needed last-minute tweaking to work out rhythm or harmony issues.

Recording each student usually took more than one “take” but they did seem relieved to know that only their hands would be filmed. They were all reminded to use their best hand position but  some were quite surprised with what they saw while watching their own video. (Note to self: pull out this camera more often–a picture can say so much more than words!)

Cut!

After accumulating the clips, they all headed to the editing table (iMovie). Every student who participated was included in the final cut, however there were so many that a ‘sequel’ was needed.

The Editor’s cut features the top twelve variations (yes, it was hard to choose!). It was just added to my Music Teachers Helper website, a great way to showcase the latest studio activities.

This is the first of MANY similar projects. It offered an opportunity to cover theory topics like the theme and variation form, primary chords, secondary chords, modality, composition techniques…the list goes on. The students enjoyed the creativity and seeing their names and hands “up in lights”–watch out Hollywood!

My MTH day begins at 5am the previous day – that’s when my automatic email reminders go out, and when I learn which notifications have been sent to people. (Several times I’ve been asked why I was up at 5am sending those reminders out!)

No matter how long it’s been since a lesson or class, I know students will receive a notice about their appointments the day ahead of time. Not only does this avoid missed lessons and all the hassle or disputes that can go with them, it also serves to put student and teacher on the same page. There have been times when a student and I agreed to change a lesson time, but I failed to change the calendar, or times when a student proposed a change of time but did not follow up on it – in these cases, the reminder prompts the student to get in touch with me and say, “Really? Do we have a lesson scheduled then?” and I can look it up and sort out any misunderstanding before anyone misses a lesson, or before I find myself waiting for a no-show.

If you’re not using automatic reminders, you can set them up by clicking on “Settings” at the top right of the screen, and going to the “Email Notifications” tab. Check off “Remind my students of scheduled
events” and then select which categories send reminders. You can also determine how many days before the event you would like the reminder to go out. My reminders are all sent 1 day in advance.

Don’t forget to edit the way your notifications come across. It’s important to me that the tone of my emails to students are not overly formal, so I have edited the email notifications to my taste. You can do this by looking under the Students tab – hold the mouse over “Email Students” and select “System Email Templates”.

The Lesson Notifications that are sent to me by email tell me which reminders were sent to whom. I hang onto these just to be able to double check if a reminder was sent or not, especially if someone doesn’t show up or claims not to have received a notice – which hasn’t really happened as yet. However, it could also help you do a little detective work – keep in mind that students can turn off their ability to receive reminders at any time, from within their profile.

Here are a few other uses I make of the email reminders. Since I have made a “student” out of myself, with my email address, I can add myself to any event that I might like to receive a reminder for, such as personal rehearsals or events where I’d like a reminder emailed to me the day before. Another use for me has to do with my website, where I offer Tunelearning Pages that people can subscribe to for a period of 4 months. When someone subscribes, I enter them as a student and have a special category for online subscriptions, so that they can be reminded when their subscription is ending – and I add myself to that event so that I am reminded, and can contact them to see if they wish to renew, before ending their subscription.

Some of my event categories do not send reminders. For example, if I know a student doesn’t like reminders, I can choose a lesson category that does not send them (I can also let them know how to turn reminders off). If a lesson is set up the same day or day before, it’s too late for a reminder to go out, so I use a category without reminder. Also, if I want to enter a new student before they or I have had a chance to collect and enter their profile information, I will create an event with myself as the student, and write in the Event Title the name and phone of the student, and in the Description I can enter any info I may need about that student. If the lesson is to take place more than a day away, I can select the category so that I get an email reminder about this new student’s appointment. When the student does enter profile information, I add their name to the event and remove mine.

One important category that sends no reminders is my “Available” category. This is an event on the calendar which displays times I have available for lessons. This allows me to invite students looking for a lesson time to simply check the online calendar for available slots, instead of engaging in a game of email or phone tag about it. Because I allow someone to register for Available time slots, students can even click on an Available slot and sign up for it. In the description, I’m a little sneaky because a typical entry is “to 5:00, open for lessons” – the reason for this is that MTH displays first the time and then the description. Because I start with the words “to 5:00 …” the resulting description will read something like “4:00pm to 5:00pm” and I write, “open for lessons.”

I have set my Available colors to an aqua text that is legible but does not compete with the solid colors of my regularly scheduled lessons and classes. Any time you create or edit an event on the calendar, you can create or edit categories, including colors, by clicking the link to the right of the box showing the category. Here is also where you can create or edit locations, by using the link to the right of the box displaying the location.

Speaking of colors, I like to have different colors for lessons vs. classes so that they are easy to distinguish at a glance. I use a different colors for events, and for biweekly and specially scheduled lessons as opposed to weekly ones. My daughter has substitute taught for me sometimes when I’m out of town, so I created two categories for her lessons that are of a different color, making them easy to spot. Keep in mind that the calendar is not only for the teacher’s eyes, so the text should be legible on the students’ calendars – I used to have my Availables colors too light for people to easily read, so I had to adjust them after a few complaints alerted me to the problem.

I look forward to hearing from you if you have additional or different approaches to emailed reminders and categories – or if you have questions. Until next post…

Google is practically my BFF. Anytime I want to know something, go somewhere, or learn about someone I hit up Google. It’s fast and it’s easy. Better yet, I can Google at my leisure, whether its first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night. And, I gravitate towards businesses with a web presence because I can learn all about them before I ever set foot on their doorstep. So when I really decided to take my piano teaching studio seriously, I figured out that I needed my own studio website.

Lucky for me, Music Teacher’s Helper makes it super easy and fast to set up your web presence. You don’t have to use up a ton of precious teaching hours to do it. No fumbling with html, web servers, or domain hosts. Music Teacher’s Helper provides templates, backgrounds, and even web addresses. All you do is fill in the content. So what content should be on your studio website?

Home page. This is the first thing people see when they find your website. Your web address will probably be www.whateveryoumakeit.musicteachershelper.com. Of course, if that doesn’t suit you, you can easily go to a domain name provider, such as www.godaddy.com, and register for a domain of your choosing. Then you just have Go Daddy point that domain directly to your Music Teacher’s Helper address. It’s pretty simple.

About the Studio. This page is the most important page of your entire web site. This is where everyone finds out what sets your studio apart from the one around the corner. Show off whatever makes you and your studio special. It’s a great place for your studio’s theme or mission statement, teacher bios, work experience, etc. I think it’s important to show that you’re a real person, too. Let your personality show through because it will help prospective students know what you are like. It is essential to include your location and contact information.

Pictures. I think it’s nice to have some pictures from your teaching studio. Of course, if you’re going to be including pictures of your students, you need to make sure you get the proper permissions. Students usually enjoy seeing pictures of themselves making music and prospective students need to see that your students are having fun. Use real photos, not purchased pictures of someone else making music. You want web visitors to feel like they’re getting to know the real you. Include a picture of the front entrance to your studio, so new students know what to look for when they arrive for their first lesson.

Fun Stuff. Everyone needs to have fun with music, so be sure to include something fun on this page. Maybe a music game, a silly story, or even congratulations for students who have hit new milestones in their music lessons. I have a couple of down loadable songs for the students that visit my Fun Stuff page. YouTube has a plethora of inspirational videos you could use for your students. Make sure you watch the video before posting it on your site. If you want a You Tube video to play automatically when the site is opened, you can use code from YouTube to insert it into your website space.

Theory and technique. There are tons of theory and technique websites floating around on the World Wide Web. Not all of them are good. On this page, you can post links to favorite theory and technique sites, or post down loadable worksheets for your students. You can even post your own weekly lessons if you like.

Links. A simple links page with links to your fav music sites. Don’t post too many or your students will get overwhelmed. Or they’ll spend all their practice time surfing instead of working on their assignments.

Policies. If you’re anything like me, you dread talking about music studio policies. If you want people to know exactly what to expect when they take lessons from you, put it here. How many times may students cancel during a semester? What is your feeling on tardiness? What kinds of payments do you accept? These are all questions to answer on this page. Make your policies fair to you and fair to your students, and stand by them. If you’re more comfortable with the idea, you can post the information for students to see after they’ve registered and been approved by you.

Music Store. Amazon Affiliates allows you to create your own virtual store which you can then post to your website. I love this idea, because I can pick out products that I feel are best for my students and share them by directing my students right to my website: “Oh, Suzy, you need a metronome? Great – I posted a few of my favorites on my website. You can easily order right from there.” It also works if a student requests a specific book. “Jack, you want to study the works of Prokofiev? I’ll post a few ideas that will work for you and you can pick the one you like best.” I can select items such as supplemental music books, metronomes, music toys, and gift ideas and post them all in once place. Bonus: I get a small commission when anyone purchases through my Amazon account. It’s really a win-win.

Registration /Log-in. Make sure you include a registration page and a log-in area. Once someone registers, you’ll get their info, so you can contact them directly.

Your website doesn’t have to be full of widgets and gizmos, nor does it have to be fancy and frilly. Keep it simple, clean, and professional. Choose the content that lets your personality shine!

In July, I posted some unique features of my studio after a parent mentioned that my lesson notes “set my studio apart.” Below is a continuation of the list of features which concludes with (as this parent indicated) perhaps the most important element–Accountability.

VersatilitY

Personalities and learning styles vary and so must each lesson. Spontaneity seems to be key. Activities within lessons are chosen to suit individual needs.

By holding daytime Exploring Music Classes for 4-5 year olds and seeking adult students, not only do teaching hours and student numbers increase but my capacity to meet the needs of a variety of ages and levels expands as well.

Providing quarterly group lessons and workshops offers a break from the routine of weekly private lessons and time for performance opportunities.

By summer time, lesson options like Piano Olympics, Invention Camp, Composition lessons, Improvisation lessons provide everyone (me included) a fresh venue for learning. These options have attracted ‘drop-ins’ which provide extra income in the summer and expand my wait list.

FlexibilitY

As a parent, I appreciate flexibility so I have carved that into my policies. Two excused absences are offered between August and May. With one week’s notice, students may cancel a lesson and will receive credit towards the next tuition invoice.

ProductivitY

With a hefty price tag, parents and students expect results. So I find a good portion of the lesson is devoted to how to practice for success between lessons. Good practice habits will lead to quality performances.

Performance opportunities provide motivation and dividends on investments. One of the students’ favorite venues to “practice” performing is the local Whole Foods down the street from my home. This casual “coffee-house” environment helps students practice performing and instills the confidence needed for more formal recital settings.

Performing on a weekly basis at my church position keeps my skills and practice strategies strong. Personal performance deadlines enable me to effectively coach and motivate others towards their performance goals. As making music is a lifetime passion for me, I find this appreciation bubbles over to my students–usually for a lifetime.

AccountabilitY

Thanks to www.MusicTeachersHelper.com, all scheduled events must be reconciled which provides an opportunity to email lesson notes to parents and students. These notes offer an avenue of accountability for me as the teacher to communicate what happens at the lesson and assignments for the week. Parents are held accountable for reading the notes and passing them  along to their child. Students have access to assignments on the assignment sheet and online (and on smart phones) and therefore have no excuses for not knowing what to practice!

FYI…

All lesson notes are written in TextEdit or Notepad. A file folder on my desktop holds a file for each day of  the week. Within each day’s file, I have designed a simple template that is used for each student scheduled that day. Notes from the week before are kept so that it is easy to copy, paste, add and subtract assignments. This prompts my failing memory as notes are usually written hours after the lesson occurred. The notes are then copied and pasted when reconciling lessons at www.musicteachershelper.com.

Students know there will always be 5 items to practice and these must be practiced at least 5x between lessons. Here’s a sample lesson note…

Hello Pianist,

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SESSION THEME: Make it EASY, THEN practice HARD

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WEEKLY ADVICE: Practice Smart–Bring your Brain

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PROGRESS SCORE: 3–will be a 4 next time if you count aloud each time you practice. Great work on moving to section B on your own!

Rating Scale

5 = WOW = exceeded MY highest expectations, all goals were met and then some

4 = EXCELLENT = all goals were met and progress made by consistent practice

3 = NICE = most goals were met but some were not, due to lack of time, goals stated unclearly, goals set were too difficult to meet…

2 = OK = some goals were met, but practice between lessons was not sufficient for much progress

1 = HO HUM = looks like last weeks goals will be repeated as little or no practice occurred and little progress made

*What is this? It is clear to me when a student has practiced appropriately because the five goals or lesson assignments are met or exceeded. This weekly progress score will help YOU, the parents, and YOU the pianist, understand expectations and provide feedback for all of us on how successful practice efforts are between each lesson.

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YOUR FIVE ASSIGNMENTS:

1) Technique Tune-Up: Complete Exercise #1 (in all keys listed) in levels using metronome at 100 .

2) Solo: Master sections A and B. Use the LH easy rhythm to help learn the rhythm of the RH. Practice in small chunks, HT, to gain confidence.

3) Lesson Book: p 13 Play the E minor scale and I and V7 chords at least 3x each day. Watch for perfect hand position.

4) Lesson Book: p 14 –play HA counting aloud each day, then HT using the easy post-it strategy.

5) Duet: play each line HA 3x, then HT in small chunks 3x. Aim for no errors by the 3rd time.

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LAB TIME

Drills to increase grand staff reading accuracy and speed were assigned.

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METRONOME

This is a required tool for your pianist. If you are in need of one, here are some options:

1) Check out this inexpensive one from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Korg-MA-30-Compact-Digital-Metronome/dp/B0002E2O2Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313441656&sr=8-1

2) App: Steinway has a free app–as do many other companies for your iPhone, iPad, iPod…

3) Music n Arts and The Music Box stores sell them as well.

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See you next week!

SummarY

I have thoroughly enjoyed mixing experience, personality, priorities, technology, accountability and resources like  www.MusicTeachersHelper.com to create a unique ”brand” of teaching. How do you set your studio apart? How do you use lesson notes to enhance your teaching?

PS–How do you encourage your families to visit your website?

However, I’ve found that a student’s path from initial contact to full studio registration can be more complex. This year I’ve devised several more categories in order to more efficiently track students at every stage in their path through my studio.

Here are the categories you can use:

1. Uncontacted. These are the students you’ve either received referrals for or who have contacted you. The people on this list are the ones you need to call or email for the first time.

2. To Meet. These are students you’ve contacted and would like to get together for an initial interview.

3. Undecided. After an initial meeting, many students (or their parents) still aren’t ready to commit. These students are to be followed up at a later date. Eventually they’ll either be registered, dropped from your studio list, or placed on the waiting list.

4. Waiting List. If your studio is completely full, these are the students to be notified if openings come available.

5. Returning/Unconfirmed. Many students intend to register for the next year but are late confirming their return to your studio.

6. Registered. These are the students who have committed to your studio, have paid, and have set a time. Registered students get first dibs on your studio schedule. If you teach at more than one location or work for more than one employer, you should make a separate Registered list for each one.

7. Former students. The final resting place of students on your lists.

Lists 1-4 should correspond to students on your MTH Waiting List. Depending on how you run your studio, the students on the Returning/Unconfirmed list will be on either your Active Students or Waiting List category. Registered students should always be on your Active Students list and should be removed from it as soon as they withdraw.

This system requires an extra level of organization on top of your MTH account, but it should clarify the status of each student as you move into the critical late August – early September registration period. You can easily implement this system using sticky notes, a whiteboard, a notebook, or a spreadsheet.

How do these registration stages work for your studio? What other categories would you recommend?