Trying something new…

I’ve been working on promoting and building my studio for the past month.  I got MANY great ideas at the Classical Singer Convention in Chicago at the end of May, thanks to Cynthia Vaughn at Magnolia Music Studio in Fort Collins, CO.  Cynthia has SO many amazing ideas and she worked with several other voice teachers to try to get as many as possible so that we could benefit from all this experience.

Several points were made:

• Attract & Retain students

• Show progress with

• quantifiable advances

• awards/competitions

• roles/solos - community based

• technical goals achieved

• Have a Student Achievement Page on the studio website

• Relevance - non-quantifiable advances in:

• enjoyment

• validation

• feedback/applause - studio class BEFORE a recital!

• Added Value:

• Options in scheduling and payment (check/credit card)

• bonuses - register early, get 10% off, register for summer & get free lesson

• performance opportunities - find out who has space you can use!

• Gain New Students
  • Word of mouth through different circles
  • teach styles OTHER than Classical/Musical Theater
• Marketing:
  • Bold, creative, SELECTIVE (no mass emails!)
  • Distinctive logo (see my new logo here!) & business cards

• www.vistaprint.com

• www.imagemedia.com

• Online Business Links

• Facebook, LinkedIn

• www.getlessonsnow.com ($49/yr)

• www.teachstreet.com (free listing)

• GOOGLE yourself & find out where you are listed - you might be surprised at what’s there AND what’s not! (I have an OLD listing that I’m trying to modify - the web address leads nowhere)

o   Advertising??

• Facebook Advertising - can limit yourself to a small daily $$ & focus the market

• Facebook Fan Page

• I’ve tried Craigslist & gotten several spam emails and one VERY rude call from a potential student (she decided I was too far away - but by the 3^rd word I’d decided I didn’t want to teach her)

o   EASY website address

o   Ask friends from around the country to come in & do special classes.  Just ask, “What would it take to get you here?”

o   Sight-reading workshops, songwriters, ticketed events => benefits? (get tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com)

o   Making Music Magazine - they’ll send a free subscription for you to hand out to your students

o   Logo products and merchandise - it’s free marketing!! $15/ea or $25/2, tote bags & t-shirts

o   advertise in an opera/community/young people’s theater program (maybe not as expensive as you might think)

“Voice Lessons may be your students’ hobby, but you can never treat it like a hobby.  It’s a BUSINESS and maybe, even a calling.”                                                                — Cynthia Vaughn

You must let your students know:

• I am reliable, I almost never cancel lessons
• I attend my students’ concerts & other performances
• I appreciate the personality that makes them unique

You are the CEO of your own business.

Show you are a community asset.

• support/join other arts organizations
• collaborate with other teachers
• join the local business organizations - often musicians are “foreign” to them!! J
• Chamber of Commerce?
• Get a state sales tax license for selling the logo merchandise (even if it’s just for pennies)
• MTNA (Music Teachers National Association)
• Federation of Music Clubs

Other ideas I’ve gotten from friends who’ve responded to the Facebook postings I’ve done are:

• Get the book by Philip Johnston Promoting your Teaching Studio.
  • In late summer connect with music teachers in the local schools. Offer to do a fall workshop to kick start the choral programs. Advertise in the programs of any events your students are performing in (concerts, musicals, etc.)
  • Advertise in Christmas & year-end concerts at local schools
  • Discount summer rates/gift certificate if current students refer a new student who signs up for a minimum number of lessons (6 or so)
  • Attend as many performances as possible and congratulate students & the director in person. Directors and parents will consider you highly when asked for a referral if you support their program. If need to reschedule students, offer to take those students with you to see other studio mates in action!

WHAT I’VE DONE to promote my own studio:

• New Studio Logo
• Easy website name.  My studio website hosted & designed by www.musicteachershelper.com.  My website adress with them is www.rachelvelarde.musicteachershelper.com, which is extremely long & awkward when telling a prospective student your website over the phone.  You can purchase a short domain name for about $10/yr which will then FORWARD to your chosen site.  I’ve now chosen www.velardevoice.com, which I got from GoDaddy.  It also came with one free email, so my studio email is now rachel@velardevoice.com.  Consistency is the name of the game (plus, I have all of my email addresses dumped into www.gmail.com where I have the option of replying using the address the email was sent to - no one knows that I’m really using one email client to manage my mail, but I have everything in one place).
• Advertising on Facebook (I’ve set a $1.50/day limit, but I’ve gotten interest & I can track how many clicks people use on the ad)
• Advertising in the Family Market programs in the Phoenix Area - turns out most of the bigger Children’s Theater companies (there are 4 major ones here) use the same company to produce their programs. The programs are paid for solely from advertising & then are provided free to the community. So, I’m supporting the arts & advertising at the same time. Those will begin running in October. (Thanks, Dad, for that small business loan!)
• Signing up for websites: www.GetLessonsNow.com, www.Teachstreet.com, Facebook Fan page for the studio, www.vocalist.org.
• Going to my social media websites every day to click on the links - the more “cross-linking” you have the higher up in the search engines they’ll show. This takes about 10 minutes daily, but I think it’s worth it!  Put links for your teaching site on your solo site, and vice versa.  I also have a “button” for my Facebook Fan Page on the front of my studio Home Page.   It’s not that hard to do.
• Consistent branding with my logo - I have business cards, a promotional flyer, car door magnets & a downloaded logo to use on anything I do (including throughout my web presence) thanks for www.vistaprint.com (if you even MIGHT be in the market for any of these things, go to Vistaprint & sign up for the promotional emails - they give GREAT deals & then when you check out they always offer you more, so under order!)
• Free Google local business listing - choose your keywords wisely
• I’m looking into forming an LLC that will cover my voice studio, my solo performing & anything else I do that is music - that will most likely have to wait until fall, but I think it’s a good idea to create that kind of umbrella.

Good luck with your own studio promotions!  People ARE looking to get lessons, they just need to know where to go & how to go about it.  Let me know what you end up doing by commenting here on the blog.  I’m posting this at www.rachelvelarde.com AND at www.musicteachershelper.com blogs.  This is good information for everyone.

Any more ideas???

Over the past several weeks I have asked my colleagues in person and via Facebook and Twitter: “During the Symphony for the Schools concert this morning at the beginning the kids applauded at 4-5 places during “Ride of the Valkyries” (1st piece). They were naturally applauding high points in the music. It made me start wondering. But, by the end, they weren’t applauding but were sitting restlessly. SHOULD we be so sure of ourselves & the importance of our presentation that we don’t allow the audience to participate in one of the only acceptable ways they have - applause? I’d LOVE to continue this conversation. I know I hate not being able to hear all the nuances of the music, but are we helping put the elitist label on classical music by proscribing when audiences can submit their input on the performance?”

Here is my Facebook Summary of responses:

“It’s always been weird but like with a cycle or set applause between each song would be tedious and also be distracting to the performer. So we hold off.”

“What if they want to applaud while you’re singing, like on American Idol or Sabado Gigante?”

“Yeah that’s annoying. I hate when you can’t hear them singing.”

“Amen!”

My Twitter responses:

“Mixed feelings — don’t want to impose rules/restrictions that will turn off new audiences. Sometimes that silence is golden.  I guess they need to know it’s okay to be stunned to shout (Bravo) and stunned to silence.  Yes?”

“Just wanted to totally agree with you!”

“It’s a silly custom isn’t it? Last Sat after huge standing ova I said to audience, “hope someone does that for u someday”  This custom seems to have been promoted by the non-musician. Don’t you agree.”

“Good question! I read that it was a 19thC trend relating to “Kunstreligion” - not applauding = adoration/respect. it sure doesn’t help. in Mozart’s time people applauded indiv. mvmts and asked for encores!!  absolutely. we need a balance between spontaneity and actually interrupting the performance …”

“But in pop music, people just sing, no problems. Abt. singing anthem in tune, etc., was it any different in past generations?”

My voice teacher’s gut reaction is that if there is too much applause then the integrity of the performance will be lost - a lot of the musical contrasts (loud®soft) will be lost, as well as the rhythmic integrity of the music.  Possibly, the crowd could get unruly as at a football game - during speeches hecklers are thrown out because they are disturbing the ability of fellow audience members to hear.  There is no difference, to her, with “extraneous” (my words) applause.  She concedes my point that it IS a bit of a stifling of immediate reaction, but that is NOW the tradition and should be upheld.

Emanuel Ax has 2 blog postings on the subject “When to Applaud” and “A Few More Thoughts on Applause.”

Stephen Hough also has a recent article that he wrote, entitled “Clap between movements?  PLEASE!”

I don’t know.  I’m of two minds - as a performer I want the immediate feedback, but I also want to be able to know that my performing subtleties will be heard.  What do you think?  What is YOUR opinion?  Let me know.

Thanks!

UPDATE 6/29/09: Zack Hayhurst, in his blog “Artistic Discourse” tackled this subject today in his posting “Please hold your applause…until you feel compelled to do so.” His posting includes several other links to sites where you can find useful information.  Enjoy!

1. That my studio would grow so quickly – I could have been more selective about the type of students I decided to take on.

2. That teaching is my livelihood and that it is vital to have a steadfast policy from the start – this would have saved so much hassle with lack of payment and ridiculous catch-up schedules and missed lessons.

3. If you lower your expectations, so will your students – if you keep saying it is okay when no practice has been done, students will not start to practice efficiently.

4. Importance of educating parents as much as the child students – parental involvement is critical for a young child’s success.

5. Play up to natural motivations rather than trying to bribe students to do just what you think is important.

6. It’s not all about the written music – from the start it is about exploratory games and the essence of music, not just learning the notes on the pages.

7. You can say ‘no’ to students – whether it is taking them on as a student, requests outside of your studio policy, or requests for pieces of music that are obviously outside of their current playing standard – and your reputation will not be brought into question, as long as you are reasonable in your response.

8. A student’s goals do not have to match yours. If you understand their motivations for wanting to learn, your relationship will be a lot more successful.

9. You can’t practice for the student. This is one that I still have trouble with - even though it is such an obvious statement. I guess that only those who have been there know how much you can actually achieve when you put in the effort. All we can do is help to motivate and cultivate the desire to want to play.

10. Have designated ‘work’ hours, or it can totally consume you.

If I had known all these things from the start, I don’t think I would have been as good a teacher as I am now through learning these things along the way, as it is experience that shapes you more than knowledge.

Now it’s your turn - are there any things that you wished you had known before you started teaching that aren’t listed here? Do you agree with the above list?

After last month’s article, are you still looking for:

• A few ideas for a fresh new way to start off a lesson?
• A few quick improv games to use in a group setting?
• A reward activity for a student’s hard work on an assignment?
• Starter ideas for the next composition:

In each part of this series, we are exploring a different angle in the music creativity process. So, today we are going to explore improvisation with an activity I call…

“Walking the Dog!”

Excuse Me? You may be wondering what exercising your pet has to do with improvisation techniques? I have found this to be one of the best and ways to help my students to understand and practice development of motifs and phrases. Most people can relate to having a new pet with fond recollection, and so you’ll immediately have their eager attention to try this exercise when you greet them with “Today we’re walking the dog!”

The Motif: A Mini Melody

I first ask the student to play a mini, or baby melody, 3 or 4 notes (recommend mostly steps and maybe one larger interval). They can be played in any order and rhythm. Once he has done this, I ask him to repeat it a few times (so that it works its way into the memory). You may have them name their motif, preferable a dog’s name! (I know this sounds like I’m talking to a little kid, but older students…even adults, seem to relate fine!)

Learn Some New Tricks!

Next, we will explore different ways to manipulate the motif (turn it upside-down, play it backwards, repeat on different registers of the instrument, try it in different keys for more advanced players, now try to sequence several motifs together, moving up or down on the scale.) Here the younger students (and many of the older ones) will enjoy thinking of this process as teaching your puppy some new tricks. This may be a good place to stop, sending them home to “practice with the new puppy”.

Ready to Explore?

By now, hopefully, manipulating the motif has become fun and more easily done. It’s time to take the puppy out and introduce him to the outdoors. Use the motif as a starting point, taking off from there into a longer musical expression. I have the student imagine taking the new puppy for short walk around your yard. You may choose to give them an example, playing a musical idea roughly 4 measures in length. Once the student has accomplished the “walk around the yard” ask him to play the phrase again, matching it as closely as possible to the first time. Explain that the puppy needs to get familiar with his own yard, so we’ll do a couple of walks around the yard.

Now let’s take the puppy exploring to the neighbors! Here I find it’s important to not strictly time the phrase, as this time you will encourage the student to start on a musical journey that will take off from the original phrase, and go someplace further away…someplace new, exciting and different! (The phrase will probably get longer and that’s OK!) For building a nice first section to a piece, we would now go back again and do a trip around the puppy’s yard, to give a nicely rounded A B A form.

Now Keep it Going!

For the sake of learning to further develop an idea, and extending or “spinning out” a melody, instead of going back again to the original phrase, now ask the student to take the puppy down the block, and then around the block, and now to the next neighborhood over, around town, etc.

Go give it a try! Always offer positive comments when teaching improvisation! Encourage the student to play through and not stop to fix things, as there are no wrong answers possible! Build on the things that are done well, and encourage growth where it is most needed!

PLEASE RESPOND with your results and ideas, so that in the next few months we will have a nice collection to draw from and get some creativity going in our music studios. I can’t wait to hear your ideas!! Check in again soon for my next one!

Thanks for checking in, and have a GREAT day!

For more ideas and tools for teaching music creativity, check out my teaching materials at www.PiacerePress.com!

]]> http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/%e2%80%9cget-it-going%e2%80%9d-improvisation-mini-series-part-2/feed/ http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/improvements-to-music-teachers-helper-in-june-2009/ http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/improvements-to-music-teachers-helper-in-june-2009/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:42:37 +0000 Brandon Pearce (Support) http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/?p=709 Here is the list of things we’ve improved on Music Teacher’s Helper the past month or so, based on requests and feedback we’ve had from our members. These improvements aren’t as numerous as last month, but they certainly aren’t any less spectacular. Thanks for all your great feedback!

• Feature: Make-up Lessons! You can now track how many make-up lessons each student has, and use up those make-up credits when creating or editing an event. To give a make-up lesson credit, choose the “Issue Credit” checkbox when reconciling the lesson. Then click “Issue Make-up Credit”. You can see your list of make-up credits under Lessons -> Make-up Lesson Credits. To use up a credit, click the checkbox that says, “This is a make-up lesson” when creating or editing an event. Enjoy!
• Feature: Calendar Repeating Events by Day of the Week. For example, you can now create an event that repeats on the “2nd Tuesday of every month”.
  
• Feature: Mileage Report! See a history of the miles or kilometers you’ve traveled within a specific date range. You can find this under the Reports page.
• Feature: The Daily Summary Report now e-mails the report to each teacher between 4:00-5:00am in their time zone, rather than Eastern Time. You can set your time zone from Home -> Preferences.
• Feature: Added currency option for Filipino Peso.
• Feature: Added a link to our Twitter account on the Blog sidebar.
• BugFix: New Custom Registration Form Fields weren’t saving properly.
• BugFix: When a student fills out the registration form on your studio website, the notification that it was successful now appears larger and more clearly.

It is quite easy to make these changes, as well as other changes, to your existing web  site. Go to (Home -> My Studio Website -> Website Preferences). On this page you can make either of the above changes as well as insert a quotation for your homepage, or show/hide the login sidebar and/or announcements.

If you have any questions on how to do this or anything else on your webpage, please do not hesitate to contact our fine support team, who stay on top of your questions 24/7.

Start or make over a work out

Any way you can take time for yourself is a good thing, but working out is good for a lot of reasons. It raises your endorphins, which are the feel good hormones. It helps reduce stress. Plus you will increase your lung capacity and stamina. Even getting out and going for a bike ride or a walk will improve your outlook.

Meditation

Meditation helps you to relax it has been shown to increase immunity. The best part is that if you have a regular practice, the effects last longer. I’ve noticed that when I regularly do yoga and meditation, I experience less performance anxiety, less stress in rush hour traffic, more patience in lessons or stressful situations and more.

Yoga

Yoga has many benefits. Some of them are the same as meditation. Since yoga requires diaphragmatic breathing, it is great for breath support. It also helps to improve range of motion and flexibility. It has helped me to get rid of tension in many places. Deep breathing for an 20 minutes to an hour helps to reduce stress as well. Yoga is a moving practice, so it is great if you aren’t good at sitting still for meditation.

Massage

Massage is great for reducing stress and getting rid of pain or stiffness. Some forms are even good for improving flexibility. I know that I feel like a million bucks after getting a massage (even if I was in complete melt down mode when I went to the massage.)

Mini Vacation

Take a day off. No cleaning, studio work or anything allowed. Sleep in, go somewhere fun or just stay home and watch all the movies that you have been dying to see. Sometimes a real vacation can cause more stress then it alleviates. A day or two off at home can make you feel like a million bucks. If staying home is too stressful (with all of its visual reminders of things that need to be done, phone calls and chores), stay for a day or two at a hotel nearby. While you are there book a couple of hours at a spa.

Inspiriational CD, book or seminar

Listening to inspirational books on CD, reading a book, or going to a seminar on motivation are all great ways to improve your outlook. Here are a few to get you started.

Zig Ziglar - Better Than Good, Creating the Life you Can’t Wait to Live.

Anthony Robbins - Awakening the Giant Within.

Julia Cameron - The Artist’s Way

Eloise Ristad - A Soprano on Her Head

Read for fun

Take a look at the list of recommended books from your library. Pick something fun that you might read if you were a kid. (no self help books, educational reading or anything else applies.) Spend as much time as you can getting lost in the book (no guilt allowed either.)

Try to pick one or two of these to add into your week. If you add them in weekly or daily, it will help you to avoid burn out and have more energy to give to the others in your life.

Clark, F. (1992). Questions and answers: Practical advice for piano teachers. Northfield,Illinois: Instrumentalist Co.

Coats, S. (2006). Thinking as you play: Teaching piano in individual and group lessons. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Darling, E. (Ed.). (2005). A piano teacher’s legacy: Selected writings by Richard Chronister. Kingston, New Jersey: The Francis Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy.

Guy, S. (2006). If it’s not new and exciting, it’s old and boring. Keyboard Companion, 17(4),30-31.

Hisey, A. (2002). What is “fun?” Keyboard Companion 13(2), 25-26.

Huitt, W. (2001). Motivation to learn: An overview. Retrieved from Educational PsychologyInteractive: Motivation Web site: http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/motivation/motivate.html

Kreader, B. (2000). What do you do with a student who hates to play the piano? Keyboard Companion, 11(1), 5-7.

Lyke, J., & Enoch, Y. (1987). Creative piano teaching. Champaign, Illinois: Stipes.

Tollefson, M. (2000). How do you motivate a student who is not practicing? Keyboard Companion 11(1), 26-28.

Uszler, M, Gordon, S., & McBride Smith, S. (2000). The well-tempered keyboard teacher (2^nd ed.). New York: Schirmer Books.

I recommend that all teachers have a library of resources on which to draw to further their insight into learning styles and teaching practices that can further their own teaching.

I’m sure most of you have demos and full length albums, and your students would just love to have a CD of your work. They will love playing it for their friends and family while bragging “This is my teacher!”. So take 3 of your recorded songs, burn them to a bunch of CDRs, slap on a label with a note that says something like “It’s been fun teaching you this year. I’m looking forward to next year. Have a great Summer! Sincerely, Michelle Payne, (insert email address).”

I did this for my students last year, and it was a hit. The kids all put the songs on their iPods and listened to them in the car and shared it with everyone. The other plus is that someone’s friend is bound to hear your CD and be impressed enough to inquire about lessons. 

If you try this out, please post back and let me know how it goes!