When I wrap up another year of lessons, I always like to send out a studio report to my current students, and post a link to it on my website and studio Facebook page for prospective students to see. I do this for many reasons. At the end of the year, some students are feeling burned out with school, end of the year recitals and activities, and feel a bit down on themselves. I find that reminding them of all their accomplishments from the past year can help them feel proud and encouraged rather than stressed out and anxious. As current and prospective parents consider lessons for the following year, I also like to remind them about what my studio has to offer, and what sorts of things they have to look forward to in the year ahead. Read the rest of this entry »

We at Studio Helper are actively campaigning for your ideas on ways to increase students in your studio. With summer around the corner, and a suffering economy, we all need to be proactive in working together on this project. We look forward to your comments and success stories, and will post your comments, stories and suggestions on the Studio Helper Facebook and Twitter page as well.

Below is a new feature and a bug fix in April, 2012:

• New Feature: Added Filipino Peso (PHP) as an option in the currency list.
• BugFix: Some recently created invoices were missing the “Balance Due” amount. This is now fixed.

We at Studio Helper are working hard to bring you new improvements and make Studio Helper even better, based on the feedback we receive from you. Be sure and go to Uservoice and vote on Hot Ideas that  members have suggested.

April is an interesting month in my studio. My students’ spring breaks fall on different weeks throughout the month, so each week is a little lighter than usual.

But what’s most interesting is that when they come back, they’re just a little bit more focused and motivated than usual.

The same goes for me when I return from vacation. As much as I love spending some time in the sun with no responsibilities, it’s that refreshed and recharged feeling I have when I return that I like the most.

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In March, I traveled to New York City for the Music Teachers National Conference. Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, gave the keynote address on themes from the book that he and his wife wrote entitled, “The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life.” A colleague and I arrived early for the session and were greeted warmly with a friendly smile and handshake by Zander himself! He inquired where we were from and took a sincere interest in us. I knew at that moment that this would be a special session. And it was – it was truly transformational.

Zander began his talk unconventionally by walking from the front to the back of the room. He mentioned why people choose to sit in the back or the front row. Often, people won’t choose to be in the front row because they think it is saved for V.I.P. “Back rowers” like to be able to make a quick exit, sleep or text. Those who choose to be in the front row are open to receive (we had hesitantly chosen to sit in the front row!). Since the front row seats were not full, he invited folks to move up into them.

We all have the choice to be in the front row of our lives. According to Zander, our choices can be boiled down to either an upward or downward spiral (winning or losing, succes or failure), or the “radiating circle of possibility.” He said, “The world will show up entirely in the way you create it.” In other words, the secret of life is that, “It is all invented.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Do you offer make-up lessons? Do you require 24-hour advanced notice? Are there make-up lessons built into your semester or yearly calendar? Do your make-up lessons ever bleed over into summer lessons eating away at your precious summer income? Do make-up lessons make you feel stressed, overworked or manipulated?

In teacher training classes, at conferences, and among music teacher friends, this is one of the most heated topics I hear about. Most people have a strong opinion one way or another. If you are an active performer and expect lots of flexibility from your students to accommodate your performing schedule, you may be one of the teachers IN FAVOR of make-up lessons. If you, on the other hand, are someone with a tight child-care schedule or teaching space limitations, you may be COMPLETELY AGAINST make-up lessons. For community music schools, preparatory divisions, or multi-teacher co-operatives, the topic of make-up lessons probably fuels many of your faculty meetings.

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One of my goals as a piano teacher–and probably one of the goals of many teachers and studio owners out there–is to avoid student turnover.  I understand that many students who quit piano at a young age will go on to have regrets as adults for not sticking with music lessons longer, which I find heartbreaking.  I enjoy transitioning students from elementary level music to intermediate and advanced repertoire, and if a student quits music lessons too soon, I don’t get to experience this with them.   I also truly believe having happy students (and experiencing little student turnover as a result) is the best marketing strategy out there.  If students are happy, they are less likely to quit and leave me to quickly find a replacement before it causes too much of a financial strain.  And, if students are happy, they will provide excellent word-of-mouth references in my community–free advertising!

So far, I have managed to avoid much student turnover and my returning student rate each fall has been between 90 and 95%.  I have found the following strategies to be successful in helping me to achieve this rate: Read the rest of this entry »

Below is a list of the bug fixes in March, 2012.

• On People > Families, deleting a family did not delete the entire family. This is now fixed.
• When a new expense is added and the vendor is new, an error message appeared saying you must choose a vendor. This is now fixed.
• Parent and students did not receive any email confirmation when they registered online. This is now fixed.
• The mini calendar on the calendar’s sidebar did not work for parents. This is now fixed.
• On the create invoice page when automatic billing is used. The Lesson details were not sorted by date. This is now fixed.
• Lessons Taught report did not display the lesson notes. This is now fixed.

About six months prior to making the leap from running my studio part-time to full-time, I decided it was time for an upgrade. For the past three years, my studio had been located at the front of my house, meaning my students would enter through the front door and parents would wait in the living room.

This worked very well for a while, but as my teaching hours grew longer, this set-up interfered with my family. It was definitely time for a change.

So I made plans to turn the two spare bedrooms into a new studio and waiting room and add a dedicated entrance off of the garage. The next four months were spent turning my plans into a reality (with the help of contractors), and my new studio was ready just in time for the start of the summer 2011 session.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spring has definitely sprung! Soon your phone will be ringing (or your inbox will by chiming!) with parents of prospective students. How do you handle a transfer from a different teacher? If handled poorly, you lose respect among your colleagues. I have experienced both sides of the transfer student dilemma. When faced with this circumstance, one must practice integrity. Webster’s defines integrity as “a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.”

The Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) provides a Code ot Ethics that addresses this issue in its Commitment to Colleagues section:

The teacher shall maintain a professional attitude and shall act with integrity in regard to colleagues in the profession.

Furthermore, the last two bullets in the Commitment to Colleagues section speak to the ethics involved in transfer situations among students, parents and teachers:

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As the end of March approaches, I am aware that there are just a few short months until summer. For music teachers, summer brings change. It may mean more work, it may mean less, it may be a stressful time because of money worries, or a relaxed time because of advanced planning and clear expectations. But no matter what your summer holds for you this year, chances are that it will be a break from your typical weekly music teaching schedule.

From the time we were young children, going to school was a given, an expectation. For many of us, that pattern of school year/summer break continued well into adulthood with college and often, further advanced degrees. But then, one day, it stopped. No more required exams. No more automatic private lessons on our instrument. No more crunch time at the end of each semester. Most of us breathed a sigh of relief. We began working, teaching, performing, auditioning, all the while acquiring new skills as we began our professional music careers.

Then one day we all come to a point of feeling comfortable in our career. We know the landscape. We are good, solid teachers and performers. We have enough students and gigs to pay the bills. But is “comfortable” enough? Do you feel knowledgable about the new technology available to music teachers? Have you expanded your repertoire of music, of teaching ideas, of different learning styles? Are you caught up on the current music education research and methodologies? Read the rest of this entry »