Are you using the feature that syncs our Music Teachers Helper (MTH) calendar with Google Calendar? I’m sure I’m not alone in being interested to hear how you are making use of it. Please add a comment at the end of this post to tell us about it.
This sync feature came at a great time for me – just when I was upgrading my cellphone, and also at a time when I was going to be out of town a lot. While upgrading my phone, I added a feature for $10 to have access to mobile internet and email on my cellphone. The link to Google Calendar allows me to easily check my teaching schedule (or any other events I put on my MTH calendar) at any time, from anywhere. It’s very efficient: since I put in regular work to keep my MTH calendar up to date, why repeat that effort by entering it somewhere else as well? The sync feature does it for me.
The sync allows me to have simple access to my MTH calendar on my phone, without the high cost and impracticality of using a cellphone for real web access, which I would need in order to actually use MTH online. I did look into that possibility but phones are not quite there yet for me. I’d love to have a little netbook with the cellphone internet access, but can’t afford that setup…
There are always moments when I’m really glad I can quickly check my calendar on my phone. Sometimes there is an odd lesson time I didn’t keep in mind. Sometimes a student has taken advantage of the fact that I post my available lesson times on MTH, and they schedule a lesson at a special time. When asked by my wife or a student about my schedule, it’s really nice to be certain about it, with 3 clicks on my phone.
I set up my phone so that I have a shortcut to the mobile web with one click, a second click to see my favorites, and one more to see my calendar.
Still, for when I’m teaching, I like to have a printout of my Daily Summary Report, so that I have at hand what I did with a student last time (and the date of the last lesson), how much they owe or have credit for, and their phone number. This printout also gives me a good place to make notes about the current lesson, to enter into MTH later.
I have often been grateful that I could work with my MTH website online from different computers, whether from home, teaching studio, or for that matter, out of the country, as I was recently. Now I can consult my schedule from anywhere on my phone as well, via the Google calendar sync.
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.
by Jane Potter Baumer — Mon Nov 2, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
by Ed Pearlman — Mon Nov 2, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
Question though... if I add something to the google MTH calendar will it show up on the MTH website calendar of is this a one-way sync?
by maria d'aura — Wed Nov 4, 2009 @ 12:25 pm
by Ed Pearlman — Thu Nov 5, 2009 @ 1:31 am
by Kirsten — Tue Dec 1, 2009 @ 2:52 am