Valerie Kampmeier

Wanting more balance in your life?

February 29th, 2012 by

Photo by SeeMidTN.com

Are you feeling rested and relaxed? Having fun with friends as much as you’d like? Are you feeling fit and healthy? For many of us, the answers to these questions may often be no.

As a freelance musician for many years, I frequently experienced a sense of overwhelm and a lack of balance in my life. I was a professional accompanist (aka collaborative pianist), and as such had an active and varied musical life. I gave recitals with singers and instrumentalists, accompanied singing lessons, played for choir rehearsals, was a repetiteur for opera companies, taught piano, conducted several choirs and eventually also taught bachelor of music students in a major conservatory. I used to fret when I was overloaded with work. I used to worry when not enough work was coming in.

Some colleagues I knew worked seven days a week, month after month, unwilling to say no to any commitments for fear of being short of money, or missing out on a great opportunity. I myself worked six days a week and three evenings, and considered myself lucky to keep Sundays free, a practice that took a lot of discipline. There were always going to be missed opportunities. There were always going to be disappointed potential clients. But I knew if I didn’t take one day a week to myself, I would be heading for burnout. Read more…

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Posted in Professional Development, Studio Management

Rachel Velarde

Do not…or do? Advice to Music Teachers

February 29th, 2012 by

Something I’ve been working on in studio lately is how to make sure the students really understand what to do and how to practice.  To that end, I’ve been re-evaluating how I’m telling students information.  The realization I came up with is simple:

Don’t do… = MANY options to replace the undesired behavior.

Do… = ONE option for the student to accomplish.

How much more efficient would our lessons be, and how much more productive would our students’ practice be, if we focused on this one small aspect of our teaching language: always tell your students what to do and how to accomplish it, rather than what not to do?

Especially as a voice teacher, I find that this little instruction helps to clarify (along with my recent posting on asking students “What does it mean to you when I say that?”) information for the students.

I then write this information into the student notes that I take on my computer as I teach.  At the end of the lesson, I copy the notes from the student’s computer file and paste them into the “Reconcile lesson” function in Music Teachers Helper.  Voila! The student has a reminder, I have a reminder of the language that worked for the student, so I can use it next week, and the student has a clear understanding of what to practice doing, rather than what to avoid.

What kinds of language do you use in your music teaching?  Have you changed any approaches recently?  Why or why not?

Happy music making!

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Posted in Practicing, Teaching Tips

Brandon Pearce

iPhone App is Live and other Updates

February 26th, 2012 by

We’re pleased to announce that the Music Teacher’s Helper iPhone app is now live!! You can download it free from the iTunes App store here. Please let us know what you think, what additional features you’d like to see included in the app, and give us a 5-star review if you feel so inclined. :)

What’s next? Based on your feedback from Uservoice, we’re working on updating the website themes to allow you to customize the colors and photos, and will also be adding some new themes. Remember to vote for the features you’d like to see us implement next here.

Here are the latest updates from February, 2012:

  • The Daily Summary report was very slow after a recent update — sometimes it took 3 minutes. This is now fixed.
  • Line breaks entered by the teacher in Daily Summary email were not displayed. This is now fixed.
  • All day event reminder emails displayed start time of 12am. This is now fixed.
  • Teachers who were on special offer plans got the wrong monthly terms when switching from credit card to Paypal. This is now fixed.
  • A rare glitch when a credit card got charged twice after a failed payment. This is now fixed.
  • Malaysian Ringgit is now included in the currency list.
  • Studio names with an apostrophe. e.g. John Doe’s Studio appeared with garbled codes in invoice emails. This is now fixed.
  • The link for the file area was invalid in Website > Website Pages > Resources. This is now fixed.

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Posted in Site Announcements

Yiyi Ku

Make-up Lessons – To Give, or Not To Give, That is The Question

February 22nd, 2012 by

When I first started teaching (many years ago), I did not have a make-up policy, and was charging by the lesson. No show = no pay. (Yes, fellow teachers, I can sense your horror and disapproval!) Alas, those days are over; I now charge a monthly fee, and have a make-up policy. Still, the issue of make-up lessons comes up from time to time, and is one I find most frustrating to deal with as a private music teacher.

If you are reading this, you have probably come across the famous article “Make-up Lessons from an Economist’s Point of View” written by a parent. (If you have not read it before, it is a great email-forward to parents asking for make-ups!) I want to know who is that lucky teacher mentioned in the article?! In my experience, most parents do not think like this economist. I am sure we have all received the phone call that goes like “so-and-so can not come to lesson because of such-and-such, so can we have a make-up on this-particular-day from this-particular-time to that-particular-time because that is what suits us the best!”

Read more…

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Posted in Financial Business, Studio Management

Bella Payne

Keeping It Fresh

February 19th, 2012 by

I am close to reaching my 8th year as a private music teacher. At this point, it is very easy to get a little too comfortable and just assume there will always be work. Well, last week I lost 2 students! TWO! That is a lot! I am used to telling people “Sorry I’m full. Can’t take any new students.” My popularity was such a luxury and I began to think it would always carry me through.  Now don’t worry… 2 lost students will not put me in a financial decline, but it is enough to shake me up and make me remember what made me popular to begin with. And also.. to evaluate what may have gone wrong.

2011 was a tough year for me. A divorce and 2 apartment moves. “Unsettling” does not begin to describe what this past year felt like.  So I can see how my normal excitement for creating innovative lesson plans took a back seat to simple daily survival. But alas, I am now settled into a wonderful new life, and I am ready to take charge again.  After 8 years, things can get stale, but just like a relationship, you need to do whatever it takes to keep the spark alive. So here are the best of my ideas for doing just that: Read more…

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Posted in Teaching Tips

Amanda Furbeck

Stepping Up Your Studio.

February 16th, 2012 by

How to look like a professional private music teacher even if you don’t feel like one.

Piano

Copywright www.morguefile.com talldude07

My first experience as a private piano teacher was in a music store.  It was a great experience- I met a lot of great musicians, had access to any materials that I needed, was given free advertising, and enjoyed plenty of help and emotional support.  Those early days in the noisy, damp basement of that music store taught me a lot about the business, about working with people, and about being professional.  Here are a few ideas that I’ve used to increase the professionalism in my own private teaching studio. Read more…

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Posted in Financial Business, Studio Management, Using Music Teacher's Helper

Ronnie Currey (Editor)

Helping Parents Find Affordable Instruments

February 16th, 2012 by

This is an article by guest author Amanda Tradwick

Often, the cost of a new instrument can be prohibitive for some parents
whose children want to start learning how to play an instrument.
However, there are many options for finding affordable instruments to make
it possible for any family budget to accommodate these musical aspirations.
As a music teacher, you can help parents understand these options. Here are
some ideas:

Rentals
Some music stores offer rental programs for their instruments, which
some parents might find more financially accessible. Rentals are also
a good option for parents who aren’t sure that their children are
serious about their musical studies. They can rent the instrument while their child
determines if it’s the right instrument to study. The student may lose
interest or could decide that another instrument is more appealing.
Parents should be sure to choose a reputable store and should limit
the overall length of time of the rental. Prolonged renting will make
the instrument cost more than purchasing it.

Used Instruments
Many quality used instruments are available through a number of Read more…

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Posted in Practicing, Teaching Tips

Leila Viss

Digital Music from Down Under

February 15th, 2012 by

In need of energetic, supplemental piano repertoire to “save a student” or “please that hard-to-please boy?”  Interested in digital editions that can be downloaded with ease? You might consider Danial McFarlane’s collections entitled Soundscapes, Soundwaves and Supersonics.

Here are some thoughts after a brief encounter with these sizable collections:

What You Will Find

Sounds: As the titles indicate, the collections contain pupil-pleasing, contrasting images of sound. Each piece is aptly titled and the fonts for titles are cleverly matched.

Style: These accessible “sounds” capture various current styles–salsa, ragtime, funk, boogie, new age…with distinct rhythm patterns and unique, catchy motives.

Syncopation: McFarlane has a vast rhythmic imagination–get your counting skills out and tune them up.

Etudes: Each piece provides technical challenges within fun patterns (many times for the LH!).

Inspiration: A fresh change for those who need a break from the classics, but hints of Bach and Beethoven, Chopin do appear occasionally.

Read more…

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Posted in Composing & Arranging, Music & Technology, Music News, Product Reviews, Teaching Tips

Ed Pearlman

Practice…How Many Minutes? 5 New Aphorisms

February 13th, 2012 by

How many minutes do you ask your students to practice?  I’ve come to this question from many angles–as a teacher, colleague, parent, and as a student (long ago!).  It has led me over many years to create a few new aphorisms in my teaching.

1. The more you play, the better you get

That’s a saying I’ve developed for my students.  I have seen some very fine players with terrible-looking technique, or at least technique I wouldn’t recommend.  So how did they get to be so good?  Because they love it, and they play a lot.  They’ve figured out how to adapt to the way they play, and make it work for them.

The student who is so afraid of making mistakes or getting stuck with bad habits that they just don’t play very much is simply not going to get much better.  I think some teachers may need to rethink the fear of bad habits.  It’s our job to reshape and improve how students play.  If progress in one area creates a bad habit in another, we fix it!  If students enjoy themselves by playing a lot and becoming more conversant with their instrument, but make some mistakes or build a bad habit — we fix it!  That is our job.  I do not think it’s our job as teachers to make a student so afraid of screwing up that they can’t experiment, or look ahead in their book, or try something new and different — as long as they honor our requests to practice what we ask of them.

2. The more efficiently you play, the faster you get better

This is the carrot for getting a student to understand and follow instructions.  It’s true that the more you play, the better you get, but if you pay attention to the teacher’s expertise and do things right, do them more efficiently, you’re going to get better a lot faster.

3. It’s not the minutes that count, but the consistency

If a student finds a time in their daily schedule to practice — even if only a few minutes — Read more…

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Posted in Practicing, Teaching Tips

Kerri Green

Review: My new friend, Mikey

January 31st, 2012 by

Meet the newest member of my studio: Mikey, by Blue Microphones. Mikey is quickly working his way into my heart as a where-have-you-been-all-of-my-life kind of tool.

Mikey is not my only recording friend. I have loved my Zoom H4 for the last few years. The Zoom is a handy companion. I loved being able to record accompaniments for my students, record them performing to burn CDs for presents for their parents, and record myself playing their repertoire pieces at different tempos to practice. But the interface leaves much to be desired, and the process from the first step of making the recording to handing a CD to a student or emailing them an MP3 file just took a few more steps than I would have liked.

Then Mikey entered my life as a thoughtful Christmas present from my husband. What do I like about him (Mikey, not my husband…)?

He’s plug and play. You plug him into an iPod (check this site for compatible iPods), and use Voice Memo or another recording application such as Evernote or Blue FiRe, check the gain (there are three to choose from. I’ve been happy with the lowest for recording at the piano), and push the record button on the iPod. Whammo. Done. If your students bring their iPods, they have a recording ready to use at home. If your student doesn’t have a compatible iPod, you can easily download the track to iTunes to burn to a CD or put in Dropbox or email.

How am I using Mikey? So far, my main use of Mikey so far has been to record festival pieces at different practice tempos. I don’t always encourage students to play with recordings rather than metronome, but some of them respond better to a performance than to the tick tick tick of the metronome. I have also recorded an accompaniment for an informal audition and recorded a student composition to burn a CD for a festival entry. I envision using him to record concerto accompaniments at different tempos and playing backgrounds for students to improvise with at home. My soprano friend records warmups onto her students’ iPods. I also may consider asking parents to think about buying a Mikey for their own homes, allowing students to record their own compositions or even portions of their practice sessions for me to check or for their own benefit.

Does Mikey take the place of the Zoom? No. The Zoom’s recording quality is higher end and will definitely be my recorder of choice for recitals and most CDs. But my husband bought Mikey for just under $40, and I see that the Zoom’s newer cousin (the H4n) is running around $300. For a low-ish price, great ease of use, and a decent sound quality, I highly recommend having Mikey come to play at your studio.

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Posted in Music & Technology, Teaching Tips, Uncategorized

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