A Fun Resource

Hi Everyone!

I’m still on leave, but thought I’d give a quick plug to a resource I’ve found that is pretty awesome.

I recently found a news service called “Pulse” that I downloaded onto my Android phone.  I’m a little bit of a news junky.  There are two categories of news where I’ve found some really useful tips, “Business” and “Tech.”  I’ve found several articles about entrepreneurship, start-up and small business ideas, and tips for maximizing social media.  They've got some ideas I plan to try out to get more exposure for my studio.  As I vet things, I’ll be sure to share what works, but in the meantime, if you’re interested in sifting through all the info they have, you may find some tips!

Back to gigging this weekend and teaching next week!  I’ve missed my students!

Going on Maternity Leave!

So, my due date for kid #2 is one week from today.  That means I might not have a blog next week.  I’ll miss you all and I hope you’ll miss hearing from me for the next week or two, though this little girl seems comfy and not interested in moving out!  Of course I’m concerned about what’s going to happen to my studio and my students while I’m out.  I don’t want to “lose” anyone literally or figuratively while I’m out, so I’ll be relying heavily on my website to keep us moving forward (prepare for shameless plug!)

For the entire month of June, LessonSpark.com will be my only contact with most of my students.  I’m going to be relying heavily on the practice diary and repertoire tools to keep everyone on track.  A new baby has no schedule, so I may be checking in on student updates in the middle of the night, but at least I can give some guidance and identify if there are problems without the kids having to wait a month for feedback.  I just don’t want anyone to lose momentum or motivation for lack of lessons for a month, but I’ll really need the time off!

Anyway, music friends (or just friends in general), if you haven’t at least checked it out, please do.  Let me know your feedback!  Tell your other friends, and encourage them to join too!

What Do We Do About Summer?

I love summer!  I love the changing seasons in general, but I really love summer.  I love the sunshine.  I love the thunderstorms that roll in on hot evenings.  I love the heat.  I love cooking out, and trips to the playground and the beach and most other things you can think of about summer.  The only drawback is what to do about lessons!  Some kids want to take time off.  Even though they have more time to practice, some students practice less because their routines change, which can be frustrating.  And worst of all, my high school seniors leave me for college!  So what can we do?

This summer is going to be different for me.  We’re expecting our second daughter in less than two weeks now, so I’ll be taking some time off this summer too.  But it’s important to me not to leave my students hanging for the whole summer and to keep up their momentum.  I also don’t want to lose the growth trend I’ve been having in my studio.  So what to do?

Normally, I’d do some kind of Flute Camp or summer workshop, not just for my students, but my co-teacher and I try to get as many as we can from the area.  This year, we’re not doing the camp, so I’m planning on having a short workshop with just my students sometime once I’m back into the swing of things.  I also am advertising for summer only lessons; some of these you can convert to regular students so it’s worth it.  Kids, especially those in school band may have to audition for chairs or to be section leader, and I can help them with that.  I also start advertising for district band/orchestra audition preparation.  The audition pieces for my area just came out, and it’s very competitive, so now is the time for them to get coaching if they don’t already have a teacher. 

As far as students taking time off, from a business perspective it isn’t great for me.  I have absences and scheduling spelled out pretty well in my studio contract to prevent too much loss of income.  But, kids work hard all year at lessons and at school, and if they need two weeks off to go to the Grand Canyon with their family, I’m happy for them.  I also find it easier to schedule performing gigs in the summer to make up for some of the income as well.

Mostly, I’m just looking forward to meeting my new little one and enjoying the summer!

You Can’t…or Can You?

A high school career counselor told me that I was most suited to being a waitress or a greeting card editor.  This was after I had taken some weird skill assessment test.  “No, I’m going to study music and be a musician,” I said.  She told me that according to the test, I didn’t have the “manual dexterity” to be successful at something as complicated as playing a musical instrument.  The implication was that my life would be unhappy if I dared take a path other than the one designed by the testing machine.  There were others that warned me off for other reasons as well, but I was young and foolish and could not be dissuaded.  And here I am twenty years later doing exactly what I said I would.

I have a former student/friend I see from time to time for lunch and we play for fun.  During a recent visit the topic came up of whether a music teacher is doing a disservice to a student by not telling them if they don’t have “it.”  Making a living as a professional musician is tough.  There’s the constant hustle to win auditions, book gigs, and attract students, all for what may not amount to enough to live on, at least for a long time.  But there is a huge amount of freedom.  You can make your own schedule, be your own boss if you want, and some people thrive on the competition aspect of it, whether that’s building a teaching studio or winning an audition.  And if you're passionate about music, it's a great life.

The problem remains:  Is it a teacher’s job to warn off a student from going down the path of becoming a professional musician (or other things) if we believe they aren’t suited to it?  I still don’t know, and I think it keeps coming up because there isn’t a pat answer.  On the one hand, I don’t have a lot of respect for the people that discouraged me from doing something I’m passionate about.  I wonder if they had been more supportive if I might have learned more from them.  On the other hand, their lack of faith in me was a motivator that fueled me to try harder.   But I struggle with this with my own students?  Is it worth their anger/disappointment with me now to save them from something I might think is a mistake?

I just can’t squash someone’s dreams.  I think if this life isn’t right for them, that’s something they have to learn on their own.  And if that’s what they decide, I’ll support them in that decision too.  Am I doing the right thing?  I don’t know.  All I know is the people that told me I couldn’t do it were wrong.  I’d rather be wrong for believing in somebody than be right about their dreams being out of reach.

Recital Time!

I held my Spring studio recital this past Sunday afternoon, and I am so proud of all my students! 

I love doing recitals with them, but they are a little high stress.  This one was a little moreso.  As those of you that have been following me know, I recently left a teaching position, so I’ve been building my studio at the institute and at home.  As a result, many of my performers were beginners, performing for the first time.  I think it’s important for them to have a positive experience performing, especially the younger ones.  I get terrible stage fright, always have.  I worry that my students will be overwhelmed by it and not have fun.  There was a little stage fright, but everyone played really well in spite of it.

It also struck me once again, how difficult it is to just let them go.  It’s my job week after week to be not only the cheerleader of their successes, but also to evaluate their playing and critique and fix problems.  But at recital time, I’m in the audience.  I have to let them just do their own thing and sit back and enjoy, and do something else I find difficult – relax! 

Anyway, I’m glad it’s over and went well.  That doesn't mean we slow down....It's time for new music for everyone!  That's always fun!

Skill Vs. Will

I had a mentor (back when I had a “day job”) that talked and taught “skill vs. will,” and it’s always stuck with me that it really applies to so many things.  I’ve applied it to my teaching, and it has really changed my approach to performance issues.   The basic concept is that there are two components to being successful at any endeavor, skill and will.  The skill part comprises of knowing how to do what it takes to accomplish a goal.  The will part is having the drive to do what it takes meet the goal.  Skills can be taught.  Will is a much more difficult problem. 

Who of us hasn’t struggled with this very problem?  We know exactly what we need to do, but actually doing it is overwhelming, unappealing, or just plain scary.  So we avoid it or skip over it and maybe we promise ourselves we’ll come back to whatever “it” is later.  And sometimes we do, but sometimes we don’t.  Every student I’ve ever had has struggled with this as well.  They struggle with the same few measures of a piece for weeks simply because they don’t make the effort to fix the problem.  Or they use the wrong fingering for a note over and over because it’s easier to do it the way they way they always have, even if they squeak every time and it sounds terrible.

Once you know that they know what to do, and just aren’t doing it, it’s a question of throwing a little extra motivation at them to solve the problem.  Who doesn’t need a little extra motivation now and then? 

A New Way to Get Paid – Part 2

I promised I’d let you know how I was making out with Square, the credit card processing tool that attaches to a smart phone.

The answer is GREAT!  I gave all of my students notice that beginning in April, I could start taking payment via credit card.  Many of them showed up with card in hand, happy not to need to write a check.  A few of them forgot it was payment time, but had a card on them.

I had ZERO late payments this month.  How awesome is that?  I didn’t have to hound anyone, we just took care of business.  The fees are really minimal, and I can deduct them as an expense, so I’m really not losing anything.  The money is automatically transferred directly to my bank account within 1-3 days, so I don’t have to even drive to the bank to deposit checks and wait for them to clear.  Plus, I don’t have to juggle anything in my own household budget while I wait for people to remember their checks!

If anyone is looking at this as a tool to use with their teaching studio or other small business, go for it!

What’s Going on Between Lessons?

“We’ll just call this a complete failure.  I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong?” 

I’ve mentioned my website www.LessonSpark.com a few times here.  One of the features is a Practice Diary that students update with their daily practice activities so their teacher can see what they are doing between lessons.  The quote above was the entry of one of my students this week, and exemplifies why I built the site in the first place.

Teaching good practice skills and keeping students motivated throughout the week is one of the toughest things we do as music teachers.  We can all tell when a student has practiced or not, and we can probe about what is actually happening, but how can we really know?  We only see them for a short time once a week or so, then send them off to do most of the learning on their own through daily practice.  I remember times when I was a kid being frustrated because I didn’t understand something I was supposed to practice, and I honestly don’t think I learned good practice skills until college.  I want my students to have a different experience. 

So I created www.LessonSpark.com.  Teachers can post lesson assignments so students know what it expected, and they can see what is happening with their students between lessons in their practice diaries.  Of course, some of my students are better than others about updating their diaries, but at least I have a window into what they are doing.  I can encourage them, give them praise, and help them when there are problems rather than waiting to find out at their next lesson and responding on the fly.  It doesn’t take a lot of time, just a few minutes every day or two to check in and maybe send a message, but I think it goes a long way to helping my students learn.

The student that posted the entry above was unable to play for a few weeks and last week was our first real lesson in a month.  If you’ve ever been unable to play for whatever reason for a period of time, you understand her frustration.  I got this message 2 days after her last lesson, so I was able to reach out and provide some encouragement and guidance to get her through the rest of the week.  That makes all the effort worth it.

Getting Students to REALLY Listen to Themselves

Technology has made it so easy to evaluate ourselves as performers.  I record myself a lot.  Listening to myself on a recording feels like looking at my face with a magnifying glass.  There’s more there than meets the naked eye.  I always catch mistakes, weird movements that are affecting my playing, or some other problem.  It’s just impossible to focus on doing your best playing and catch every little thing you could improve.

I record my students for the same reason, and I encourage them to record themselves at home if they are able.  The biggest error that happens that kids can identify through the recordings are stops and starts in their playing.  Often students will think they’ve performed a piece perfectly, not realizing until they hear themselves that they are stopping for an extra beat every time they breathe or have to change hand positions.  Or we get so used to making the same error that we don’t catch it until we are listening to ourselves and watching the score.  Listening to the recording gives them the opportunity to self-evaluate and find their own errors, and I’m a big fan of self-discovery in learning.

Back when I started teaching, we had tape-recorders, which were pretty low quality.  Today, there are some really great options.  I have Garage Band on the iMac in my teaching studio, and I find the recording quality pretty good and it’s really easy to use.  Apple also offers Garage Band as an App for iPad.  On the notebook PC that I use for outside lessons, I’ve been able to use the web cam function.  And for recording “emergencies”, you can use the video function on a smart phone or iPhone.  All of these things came pre-loaded on the equipment, so I haven’t had to invest any money to do this.  There are also other apps you can download for Droid, though the quality isn’t as good as the other options.

Given the ease of access and use of all of the recording options I’ve listed, it really just makes sense to get kids listening to themselves play early on.   Once recording becomes a habit, lessons tend to be geared toward questions related to something a student heard or saw.  And students that are directing their learning are more engaged and likely to be happy with their progress.

BY THE WAY… I have streamlined the pricing and sign up for student subscriptions to LessonSpark.com so I am extending the “Grand Opening” promotion to "lock in your subscription rate for life" until May 31,2011.  Anyone that signs up between now and the end of May will never pay more to use the service as long as you remain a member.  This is in addition to the 30 day free trial.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do! It's full of tools to help teachers and students get the most out of lessons. And, we've taken care to make sure the site is COPPA (Child Online Privacy & Protection Act) compliant.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

A New Way to Get Paid

Lately, I’ve been having problems getting paid for lessons.  I have a pretty clear policy that all my students’ parents signed agreeing that monthly tuition is due at or before the first lesson of the month.  But lately, I’ve had to chase some folks down to get paid.  Up until now, I’ve only accepted cash or check.   I HATE chasing after people for money.   Look, I’m not greedy I just want to get paid so I can focus on teaching my students.

Charging a late fee doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent.  When I do finally get paid, they forget to pay the late fee and I end up having to chase to collect that fee so I gave that up a long time ago.  I don’t encourage post-dated checks for a year or semester to maintain the flexibility to upsell to longer or more frequent lessons.  I’ve also not had much success with directing them to PayPal, because once the lesson is over, they forget and I’m back to repeating my request for payment again.

A package came in the mail the other day, and I’m hoping it will be the solution to my problem.  It contained a little tiny credit card reader from Square that attaches to my Android phone.  I've heard good things about it from friends who've used it for other things like craft shows.  I have a personal account set up so now when someone says “I forgot my checkbook” I can swipe a credit card.  The device is free and processing fees are minimal.  Most everyone I know carries around a credit card or has a debit card with a Visa or Mastercard logo on it.  And if this doesn’t work, I’m going to change my parent/student contract next year to require everyone to keep a credit card on file with me that I can charge automatically if payment is late.

I’ll keep you posted on how this goes.  I suspect I may have some students that just opt to pay by credit card rather than check.  Once I’ve tested it with my current students, I plan to market my studio as accepting credit cards.  It may attract some new students.  At the very least, I’ll hopefully get paid on time with more consistency and without having ruffle feathers by “hounding” my students or their parents for payment.  I can keep the lessons for learning!

If you’re interested in learning more about Square for yourself, you can check them out at https://Squareup.com.  You just need an Android or iPhone to get started.

More on Ending Discomfort in Playing

Let's talk about relaxation.  How often have you been told, or even told a student to “relax!”  What exactly does it mean to “relax.”  I’m a big believer that you have to be able to explain anything you instruct a student to do, and instructing them to relax is no exception. 

Being able to physically relax, and relax in a way that is appropriate for your instrument (or voice) is a skill that can be learned.  For the purposes of playing a musical instrument, it comes down to understanding a little bit about how muscles work.  Muscles work in pairs or in groups.  The easiest example is to flex your bicep.  When it is flexed, the tricep on the back of your arm is loose, but when you straighten your arm, your tricep flexes, and your bicep gets loose.  If you keep your arm straight for an extended period of time, your tricep fatigues, but your bicep feels nothing.  Relaxing your arm is finding a balance between the two muscles so that neither is working harder than the other.

I can’t begin to tell you exactly what muscles are affected for every instrument.  My best advice if you are having specific muscle pain is to visit a physical therapist or medical massage therapist and show them what you are doing when you feel it.  Ask them to explain to you which muscles are overworking, and which muscles will balance them out.  When you're playing an instrument you're inevitably going to be out of balance with some muscle group or another, the key is not going more out of balance than necessary.  Overall fitness helps as well.  If your body is in good physical shape, it can handle more stress and strain.   If you’ve got the time, you can also do some research on anatomy to learn more for yourself how muscles work together.  Something I’ve done with good success is to just close my eyes and be aware of what muscles are working.  I’m someone that carries tension in my shoulders, so when I work on a tough piece of music, my shoulders sometimes head for the sky.  By focusing on the muscles that I feel when I lower my shoulders, it helps me to relax.   Since I’ve learned about this, I no longer feel like I’ve been in a wrestling match after a long practice or rehearsal.  Even more than myself, by being aware of this with my students, I can actually see habits that could be causing them discomfort or will in the future and help them change those habits early.

If you or your student has an injury, please see a doctor.  I’m a musician, sharing what works for me.  I tend to be drawn to the minutia of how things work and this is what has worked for me.  I think that relaxing appropriately for your instrument or voice is a skill, and mastering it can give you many more hours of practice and play without discomfort.  Hope that helps!

Practicing, Teaching, and Performing – Without Pain or Discomfort

Playing any instrument or singing is an incredibly physical endeavor.  I don't know a musician that hasn't struggled with some ache or pain that stems from what we do.  For those of you that don’t know, right now, I’m six months pregnant with our second daughter.  We couldn’t be more excited!  But anyone that has been pregnant knows that it comes with certain discomforts.  So I find myself now more than ever concerned with issues of practicing and playing with discomfort or even pain.  Sitting through two hour rehearsals or three or four hours of back to back lessons can be stressful when you aren’t making a person! 

I consider one of my key responsibilities as a music teacher is to teach good posture and technique, not just because my students will play better if they do, but also because they will be healthier for it.  In the short term good technique and posture will give students more stamina to stick with practicing for longer periods without tiring.  In the long term, using good posture and technique can help stave off repetitive stress injuries or carpal tunnel (which runs in my family – ugh).  Let me make clear:  I am not a doctor, or medical practitioner of any kind.  I am not giving medical advice.  By taking care of ourselves and our students in small ways we can encourage and help them to practice in a more healthy way.

Mr. Miyagi had the answer all along!  It’s all about balance and it starts with overall full body balance.  If you’re standing to play, your feet need to be apart directly under your shoulders, with your knees and hips loose.  If you are sitting, your weight should be centered over your two derriere bones.  If you play an instrument you pick up, bring the instrument to you, don’t lean into the instrument.  Try lifting the instrument with your eyes closed and see if it makes a difference in your posture. You just can’t ever be lazy about good balance, or you’ll feel it!

Here’s a balancing exercise I use:

1.       Roll your head forward to backward, chin down to chin up.  You want to feel the stretch, but don’t push to the point it hurts.  Do this a few times, then bring your head back to center.

2.       Now turn your head from side to side, looking over your right shoulder, then your left shoulder.  Do this a few times, then bring your head back to center.

That’s it.  I usually feel taller after this, and I feel balanced and everything is aligned.

There are lots of paths to help you get to balance – Yoga, Alexander Technique, Feldenkreis, physical therapy, and others.  I tend to think the more simple you can keep it, the easier it is to stick to.  Full-body balance is just one component.  Next, I’ll talk about some other things you can do to prevent pain and discomfort in practice!

YouTube as a Lesson Tool

What an invention!  A place where you can post video and audio of just about anything in the world.  I find myself using it with increasing frequency with my students.  Gone are the days when our students' ability to listen to good examples of their instruments or voice are limited by proximity and cost.  I wore out the few tapes and CD’s I had growing up.  I eventually learned every song on them and would play along.  But I wasn’t rich, and lived in the boonies, so getting new quality recordings wasn't easy.  How great is it to have a tool on the internet where you can find examples of just about anything you or your students would want to play?  Here are some ways I’ve found to use YouTube in lessons.

·         Practice – I think it’s really important for my students to listen to examples of good players, especially examples of things they are working on.  As many good performances as there are, there are also some that aren’t great, so it’s important to screen the videos you recommend.  I post recommended links in their online lesson notes for that day. 

·         Confidence – I have found that when a student runs up against a mental block about playing a piece, finding a video of someone like them who was able to accomplish the same piece shows them they can too.  For those of you that aren’t Suzuki teachers, it is customary to have a student perform a graduation recital after mastering each book.  There are many YouTube videos of these graduations, children and adults.  I think it’s helpful for my students to see others their own age succeeding at the same things they are working on, especially when they become discouraged.

·         Inspiration – I encourage my students to look around and try out new things.  If they find a composer they like, they can find examples on YouTube of pieces they’ve written.  Perhaps there is a style of music they want to learn.  Once they have some ideas, we can order music, work on skills and learn pieces that the students are excited to learn. 

·         Performance – I invite my students whenever I perform somewhere they can go, and I recommend the free concerts of the ensembles and the junior and senior solo recitals at Moravian so they can see “music in action.”  And some go, but often it doesn’t work with schedules or other siblings’ activities, or just family downtime.  YouTube is the next best alternative to live performances.  You can review do’s and don’ts.  You can show good examples and bad examples.  Knowing what to expect on stage can help with stage fright for recitals or other performances, and can help them feel polished in their own performance.

I know others that use YouTube tutorials for some of their students.  I’ll be honest, I feel like it’s my responsibility to do the teaching.  I’ve had students try out tutorials on their own, and learn bad habits.  It isn’t even that the videos they watched were bad, but because the learning was one-way they thought they were doing what was instructed when they weren’t.  That said, if I found something that was really worthwhile, I wouldn’t rule out using it.

All that said, I think YouTube is a great tool in support of lessons.  I use it myself to find examples of pieces I’m working on or identify new pieces I might want to do.  I think it's great that students today have such a resource that can help them learn and help keep them excited to learn more.  They can be exposed to so many good and bad examples and with guidance, they can learn from what they find there.

3 Keys to Evaluating Your Success as a Teacher

Or: How to keep your students coming back....

Running a teaching studio is a business.  It takes time and money to attract new students.  It is far more cost-efficient to just keep the good students that you have.  In addition, having a high rate of turn-over in students may mean that there is a disconnect between you and your students.  Here are three ways I evaluate my teaching to make sure I’m focused on keeping students engaged and to keep them coming back.

My students know what I expect of them:  I start with general practice guidelines, how long and how often.  I post their practice assignments online so they always have access.  I set the expectation that they will post a message or call me if they can’t remember how to do something.  I use a reward system for my younger students when they keep their online diaries updated and come to lessons prepared.  I’m a firm believer that people will rise to the level of expectation that is set for them; an exceptional few will set their own standards higher.

My students feel like they have input into their lessons:   I ask young students simple things like “Do you want to tap the rhythm or read the note names first?”  For older students, instead of assigning a piece I give a choice of two or three things in the style of or by a specific composer, and then let them choose the one they connect with.  I encourage them to bring in pieces they want to do in addition to their regular assignments.  I’m still providing the skills and repertoire they must learn, but they have some control over what they are doing as well.

My students are able to recognize their own success:  I very rarely give my opinion on a student’s performance until they’ve self-critiqued.  First I ask what they think they did well, then what they wish they had done better.  We work on what they’ve identified as problematic before I throw in any other critique of my own.  Six days a week they have to self-critique when they practice, and they can be more productive if they know how to evaluate their own performance.  I give lots of positive feedback but if the student can’t recognize their own success, they won’t feel the long term satisfaction that comes with knowing you are good and getting better at something. 

Notice that all three of these things are about empowering students with control over their own success.  It requires them to be active learners, not just passively absorbing the information and skills you teach. If students know what is expected, feel confident to offer input, and can evaluate their own success, they can better manage the learning that happens between lessons.  Regardless of what books you teach from, methods you use, or rewards you give, I think if you are hitting on these three points, you are setting your students up for success.  Students that do well keep coming back and will tell their friends about you! 

5 Things you can do now to attract more students

I live in Bethlehem, PA, a small city of around 75,000 people at the heart of the Lehigh Valley.  We have a really great arts community here.  It has attracted a lot of really talented people, which is great.  But having all these great musicians makes attracting students competitive.  I’m not an expert, but here are 5 things that you can try that have helped me to attract new students, even in a highly competitive environment….

1.       Advertise the old fashioned way – Hang up flyers in places where your target student is likely to see it.  Libraries, schools, churches, community centers, and music stores are great places to hang signs or put out business cards.  Don’t discount the old methods, they still can work.

2.       Specialize – Go after a niche group.  For me at the Music Institute, it’s Suzuki flute.  I’m specifically trying to attract very young students.  You have to go out of town to find another teacher who is active with the Suzuki Association of America so I’ve set myself apart from other local teachers in this way.

3.       Leverage – What is going on in your area that you could provide coaching for?  Is there an audition coming up?  Maybe there is a musical that young vocalists will be auditioning for, or a scholarship competition for young musicians.  Every year when District Band/Chorus audition materials are announced, I immediately start advertising specifically for audition preparation and I always get at least one if not two or three students this way. 

4.       Get out there – Find places to perform where there will be a lot of potential students then talk to them.  Offer to go to a school and do a workshop with the kids studying your instrument or voice.  Perform at a church then hang around to talk to people after to attract students. 

5.       Get all over the web –Build yourself a website, it doesn’t have to be fancy.  If you have high speed internet, you may already have web space and web building tools available to you.  Get in the Yellow Pages online (prices start at free!).  Get yourself on Craigslist - some people are against it for advertising music lessons, but for some people it is the first place they go whenever they need anything, so don’t miss out.  Get yourself on a teacher listing website.  I just started one of these:  www.lessonspark.com, (which also has other studio management tools).  Don’t be afraid to pay a little bit for some listings, the return will be worth it.  The more places and ways you get yourself listed, the more likely you’ll be to eventually show up at the top of a Google search. But make sure whatever you do, link it back to your own site.  Having your own site creates a sense of an established business.   At the very least your site should include your bio and a way to get in contact with you.  All of my ads direct students to my studio website, so most of my inquiries come from the “contact me” form I have on the site.

The key is to be consistent and methodical about getting your studio out there.  I do a monthly review to see if I need to re-word anything, change or renew an ad, or add a promotion related to some new change in the community music scene.  Persistence pays off!

The Big Launch

Hello Friends!  Today is Launch Day! Today is the day I open up my website http://www.lessonspark.com/ to the world.  Many of my friends already know about it, and some of you have tried it (thanks!).  So what is this all about?

One of the things I’ve noticed in the years I’ve been teaching is how much more technologically savvy kids are these days.  Kids play virtual guitars instead of real ones, they talk to friends online that they may or may not have ever met in person.  And yet, they come to their lessons with notebooks (unless they forgot, again!), and they report to us what they did since the last time we saw them.  I thought there must be a better way!  I tried several existing online resources, and found they were overpriced and generally didn’t do much to improve over a lesson notebook. 

I had a vision of what I wanted, so it hit me - I should create it myself. The idea was to create an online tool that was easy to use and help students and teachers stay better engaged. I started with an effective if poorly executed database I created myself.  I built lists, queries, and forms, trying to figure out exactly what I wanted.  If I couldn’t program a function myself, I drew schematics for it. 

Once I had the basic ideas down, I engaged a great group of developers to help me build it, and http://www.lessonspark.com/ is the result.  It accomplishes all of the basic things I set out to do.  It provides teachers with recruiting and studio management.  With it, I can provide my students with more thorough and up to the minute feedback, and they have ownership of tracking their practice. It has a repertoire tracker with archiving capability so they can easily find and refer to prior accomplishments.  The best thing it does is improve communication between the student and the teacher.  Some of my students’ parents said that their children seemed more engaged, and they felt like they were getting more from their lessons.  I don’t have to spend a lot of time monitoring, but it does a great deal for my students’ confidence to get a note from me helping with a problem or congratulating them on good practice.

So to celebrate the launch, and because of my confidence in the site, I am running a promotion from now until March 31, 2011.  In addition to the free 30 day trial, anyone that signs up during this period will lock in the current subscription rate for life!  As long as you remain a member, your subscription rates will never increase.  Right now, the monthly rates are less than the cost of a sandwich at a fast food restaurant and you get a discount for annual membership, so what do you have to lose?  This goes for students or teachers, and there is no limit on the number of people that can sign up so tell your friends too!  Go to the site, take the tour and sign up for a free 30 day membership to try it out.   I’m available for questions or comments, so I hope you like it!

Good Things Are Happening

When I started this blog a few weeks ago, I was actually in the midst of personal turmoil about a teaching position I was in.  I was teaching for a music store somewhat out of my area.  I loved my students, but I had lost all but two of them.  A couple of them moved away, others I lost to “the economy.”  And of course, some I lost because they just weren’t into it.  The two remaining students were the first two I started with there, and I didn’t want to “abandon” them.  But for various reasons, it was obvious that no matter what I did, I wouldn’t be able to re-build the studio, and I was essentially losing money traveling there every week for two lessons.  So I resigned.

I was relieved to make the decision, but I had my doubts.  Had I done the wrong thing?  Who was going to replace me with my old students, and would they teach them well?  My resignation wasn’t exactly warmly received, so had I ruined my reputation in that area for other things like my summer camp or workshops I do?

I had my answer pretty quickly.  Within days, I had lined up more new students at my home studio than I had lost.  Things unexpectedly picked up for me at the Music Institute as well, which I’m really happy about.  I finally was able to accomplish some real work towards launching my website www.LessonSpark.com to a wider audience (look out on January 31!).  And, I started this blog!

As tough as it was to decide to make that move to resign from a not-so-great teaching job, it seems to have started good things in motion.  It could just as easily have gone the other way, but I choose to think positively.  I’m going to keep this momentum going.  I choose to believe that I can keep making good things happen, in my teaching and in everything I do!

Where are all the Teaching Jobs? Where are all the Teachers? Part 2

Last week I talked about schools and music stores as potential places to teach music lessons.  So this week I’m going to tackle online referral services and going it alone.

I should start by saying I have never worked for an online service. The services that I am talking about here are where you work for an online company that matches teachers and students.  The students pay the online service, and the teacher then gets a paycheck from the online service.   I’m basing my assessment here on the experience of others and my own research.  I’m not going to name any names, but based on all I’ve learned, I am not a fan. 

The only “pro’s” I’ve been able to identify with these is that they handle all payments from students and to teachers, and they refer students to you.  If you are in a major metropolitan area or new to the business, this may be an okay way to break in. 

The “cons” are big as far as I’m concerned.  Once you are conditionally hired, you may be charged fees to have a background check or for other “paperwork” they have to do to get you on their service.  Sometimes the fees are annual!  Just for the privilege of being listed on their service.  After all of that, you aren’t guaranteed any referrals.  If you do get any students, you may be paid just a small fraction of what the student is paying the service (and you’re not supposed to ask them what they are paying).   Oh, and you may be a contractor, so you’re playing self-employment tax on your small share of the fees.  Not to mention, you will be required to either drive to students’ homes, or provide studio space, and you’ll be required to cover your own expenses on that front as well.

I’m sure there are some folks out there that have had a good experience working with an operation like this, and as a business model, it’s genius!  There aren’t a lot of products out there that you make money coming and going, with such a big profit margin.  That said, I don’t think these services offer enough value to the student to justify the mark-up they pay for the lessons, nor do they provide enough value in the form of referrals for what you lose in lesson fees.  That is why I have chosen to stay away from them.  I’d love to hear from anyone that has had a good experience!

So let’s move on to “Going it alone.”  In every city, town, and village throughout the country, there are all nature of private music teachers teaching out of their home or their car or a rented space.  There are a lot of benefits to starting your own music teaching business.  You decide your own schedule.  You set your own fees (which you get to keep!).  You choose your students.  You decide lesson policies.  You are your own boss.  The drawbacks are that you also assume all the risk and expense.  If you hate dealing with money, are very disorganized, and shy away from confrontation, you may not thrive on your own. 

I’ve maintained some form of independent teaching studio since college, and while I’ve struggled at times, it has been a great experience.  My business is self-determined, so I am able to balance my teaching with performing and with my family and personal life.  It feeds both my need to be teaching and involved in music, and my entrepreneurial spirit to feel like I’m building something uniquely my own.

So if you are looking to break into music teaching, hopefully I’ve given you some ideas of what’s out there.  I’ll be talking more in future weeks about managing your own studio.  There are so many things to think about, from organizing as a business, marketing yourself, designing policies.  That’s all before you even teach a lesson!  Talk to you next time!

Where are the teaching jobs? Where are all the teachers? Part 1

This week, I’ll begin discussing the various types of teaching opportunities and their benefits and pitfalls.  Hopefully those of you starting out or looking to make a change can benefit from my experience because I’ve tried just about everything – sometimes successfully and sometimes not.  I’ll share those insights as well as some things I’ve learned from friends in the business.  Part 1 will deal with music schools and music stores.

For me, teaching in a music program at a school has been a positive experience.  I’ve taught through a high school program at a private school and also at a college (my alma mater).  I like having a well defined program, and it’s someone else’s responsibility to handle lesson scheduling and payments, and I get paid no matter what.  Well established programs will have a constant stream of students coming in based on the reputation of the program.  A quality program will have teaching facilities, pianists for accompaniment, group practice rooms, and recital facilities.  Also the potential for collaboration between teachers is great for your own development.

But there are potential drawbacks to this type of arrangement, depending on your personality.  The first is the potential for a competitive environment.  You may not be the only teacher of your discipline in the program, so you may be competing for students with other more established teachers at the outset.  Also working within the confines of a well defined program might not work for everyone.  Perhaps the school will have policies you find unreasonable, or perhaps you will be required to follow a particular teaching method that you find restrictive.  These are things you will have to weigh in evaluating a school where you might plant your teaching roots.

Music stores provide another potential opportunity. Most communities have stores that offer lessons in conjunction with the sale of instruments.  The work environment is tougher to judge from the outside, and where a music school program is usually defined, a music store often takes on the personality of its ownership.  I’ve had both very good and very bad experiences teaching in music stores.  Here are some things you will want to consider when you evaluate a music store as a potential employer:

·         What is the focus of the store and what are they selling?  If you are a classical flute/piano teacher like me, and you walk into a store covered in Kiss and Metallica posters, guitars and amps, chances are your talents might not be well appreciated or sought after there.  Also, take a look at the quality of the merchandise they sell or rent.  Students will quit if their instruments are in poor condition.  I once had a first-time student have her rental instrument fall apart during the lesson.  Good quality instruments increase the likelihood of success and returning students.

·         What is their visible market presence?  This is probably your most important concern because your success will depend on the store’s ability to attract students.  It’s not enough to be in a good location. How easy are they to find on the Web?  Have your non-musician friends heard of the place?  What is its reputation? I knew an owner who didn’t believe in “free” advertising on the web, and built his own Website to save money.  There was no potential for growth because competitors were splashed across Craigslist and Google, and the website he built himself didn’t even feature the phone number on every page.  Conversely, I worked in a store on a side street without even an exterior sign, and business was fantastic because of its reputation.

·         What are their lesson policies? Do they balance respect for your time with meeting the needs of the student?  If you lose pay because their students cancel, run away. If you are there ready to reach, you should be paid for your time.

·         What are their teacher policies?  Will you have a contract and is it reasonable?  Things like a non-compete clause (an agreement not to teach in a direct competitive situation after separation, which are in most cases unenforceable), or responsibilities to be done on your own time without pay should send up a red flag.  Another thing to watch out for is “contract employee” status, which gets them out of paying payroll taxes on you, and makes you have to pay higher taxes as self-employed.  Lots of stores do this, and it will more be a problem for them than you because the IRS will get their money eventually one way or another.

Once you start working at a music store, pay close attention to the owner’s attitude toward teachers and students. One store I worked at held student events and teacher show-cases several times a year.  They had clear policies, and did everything they could to help me grow my studio.  At times I had a waiting list and the environment was great.  At another, the owner overcharged for sub-par instruments and wasn’t good at keeping his word. Once when he was unable to accommodate a student’s schedule, he told the parent that I was being inflexible – when I hadn’t even been consulted. If the environment is bad, you might find yourself (as I once did) staying longer than you should out of loyalty to the kids.  But keeping yourself and your students in a bad teaching environment doesn’t do anybody any favors.

Next week, I’ll talk about online referral services and teaching on your own.

Traditional Music Lessons in a 2.0 World

I started teaching private music lessons almost 15 years ago, right out of college.  In college, we had a “Mac Lab” which we thought was pretty awesome, and we used Eudora Light to retrieve email.  I had a great teacher in college who helped me get started by referring beginners to me that were looking for someone that would come to their houses.  From there, I got most of my students through referrals from current students.  Advertising consisted of reaching out to schools and asking to be put on their “teacher list” and flyers on community bulletin boards.  I left college well prepared to teach music, but not really prepared to be an entrepreneur, which I suddenly was.

Things have changed!  Now, I’ve made the decision to teach in my home studio and at a school, and I no longer travel to students’ homes.  I still get referrals, but I get just as many new students from the web.  There is so much technology available now, and it’s really helped build my studio and in some ways made me a better teacher.  But it’s also easy to get bogged down trying to figure out what to invest in, spend time on, or get involved in.  And, just because technology can help us be better teachers, improve our studio management and communication, we can’t forget about the tried and true methods that still work and can’t be beat. 

So what is this blog about?  My plan is to dig into private music study and teaching in the current environment.  I’ll cover topics that teachers, students, and parents can use to weigh all the various resources, technologies, and techniques, old and new, to make music lessons more effective and fun. Because at the end of the day, music should be fun!