Music Teachers Blog

In writing my last article, suggesting ideas about promoting a music class, I realized it might be useful to be specific and tell you how I make flyers publicizing the classes.  While you might not do it my way, this might still give you some ideas to explore.

The major tool I use for making flyers is graphics software called PagePlus Publisher – and here’s a link for you if you’re interested.  I’ve used it for many years, through many versions.  It’s easy, powerful, inexpensive, and not very well known, at least in the USA, which may be why it costs about one-tenth of what the big name graphics programs cost.  Below, I will also tell about how I scan and copy things for use in flyers, also with a link, in case you’re looking for info on that.

At left is a fancy flyer I made with PagePlus, though I sometimes make simpler ones in black & white, which I copy onto colored paper.  After making a flyer, I use PagePlus to save it in the PDF format, and then email it to Staples or another copy place.  This way they get the original with perfect quality, much better than if I print it myself first; and they can print it directly to their b&w or color printer.

Before describing more about using the software, let me give you an example of how I use it in teaching.  After teaching a tune to a class, I can go home and scan the sheet music (see below about scanning) into PagePlus, resize it, add a title and text, and sometimes even a picture or some markings like slurs.  Then I save it as a PDF.  (I can also make a tune with music software and paste a screenshot of it into PagePlus, where I can crop it and enlarge it to look right.)  I go to Music Teachers Helper and email it to my class.  I like to put the class name in the “instruments” box in the  miscellaneous info for each student, so that when I am in the email area, I can type the class name into “instruments” and all the emails for that class show up; I select them all, attach the PDF, and send it off to them.

In PagePlus, you can bring in pictures, put in text, shapes, lines, and enlarge or reduce everything, rotate things, overlap items, place them anywhere you want on the page.  Then you can save whatever you make as a PDF, which can easily be emailed and viewed by anyone.  Of course you can print it, or save it to edit later in PagePlus, or export any part of a page to make it into a JPEG or GIF or other graphic format (useful for preparing pictures for your MTH website).  You can even save it as HTML and email it as a flyer or put it up to a website.  By the way, you can also import any PDF and edit it if you like.

What I like about it is that it’s easy to see what you’re doing.  For example, in a text box I can type something and then highlight the text and using the mouse, I can move a slider to sample the text in different sizes, fonts (lots of fonts), with different spacing between letters or between lines, or make letters wider or slimmer, or slant them forward or back.  You can crop anything, such as a scanned piece of music or a screenshot, to show only what you want, and then enlarge it to fill space.  You can even crop something to fit its shape, and you can flow text around pictures.  There’s way more it can do, such as create books, artistic lettering and effects, but these are some of the basics.

For scanning as well as printing, I’ve been really happy for a long time with my all-in-one printer/scanner/copier by HP.  My version isn’t made anymore but a similar one is available, also by HP, and here’s a link
if you’re interested.  For only about $65, it’s pretty amazing – compact size, quick color or black & white printing, scanning, and photocopying, which is very handy for music, whether I need a copy for a student or a rehearsal, or if I quickly want to copy an original so I can cut and paste it onto a page with some other music.  Because scanning is pretty quick, I rarely cut and paste paper anymore – I scan it in and arrange the music with text or other musical selections on a page, using the PagePlus software.  Then I can print it or save it as a PDF and email it, etc.

These are examples for you to explore; they happen to be tools I use.  If you’ve found other ways to make flyers or scan music, etc., please feel free to share your ideas below in a comment.  Thanks!

Posted in Music & Technology, Promoting Your Studio |

About the Author

Ed Pearlman has focused on performing, teaching, and judging fiddle music for over 30 years, offering performances and workshops throughout the USA and in Canada and Scotland. His original training was with members of the Chicago and Boston Symphonies, and he played with orchestras and chamber groups at Yale and in Boston. He currently teaches privately at two music schools affiliated with music stores in Maine. Ed directed the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club in monthly workshops for 18 years, directed major concerts and festivals, and recorded 2 solo CDs and several with a fiddle orchestra and top soloists. In addition to Scottish and Cape Breton fiddle styles, Ed plays other Celtic, American, and Canadian fiddle music, classical and some jazz, klez and Hungarian. Ed created and for 11 years ran a CD distribution company to bring music to the USA from Scotland, Atlantic Canada, Ireland, Brittany and Wales. He's the music columnist for Scottish Life magazine.