We hope your year is off to a great start. Here is the list of new features and bug fixes we released in January.

New Features

• On Money > Statements, we added the link “Click here to pay for invoice <invoice number>”
• We added UAE Dirhams (AED) to the list of currencies.
• Added a total sum at the bottom of the Family Accounts report.

Bug Fixes

• Teacher view in calendar was broken in Google Chrome. This is now fixed.
• Event Locations page only displayed 20 entries with no option to go to next page. The list wasn’t sorted either. This is now fixed.
• When creating an invoice, automatic billing from calendar option was taking to long to load. This is now fixed.
• Video tutorials did not work on Internet Explorer. This is now fixed.
• When creating new Invoices, the package select pull down menu did not work in Safari. This is now fixed.
• Details were missing when importing invoices in Quickbooks. This is now fixed.
• Permission denied appeared when a Teacher tried to create an Event Category even if permissions are correct. This is now fixed. Please re-save your permissions to reset.
• On the student cancellation page, the “Never mind” button did not work. This is now fixed.
• On the Location view of the calendar, lessons did not appear if they were at the same time and location. This is now fixed.
• When exporting contact lists, the notes section did not appear for teachers and parents. This is now fixed.

For the most part, my students are blessed with incredibly supportive parents, siblings, and other family members…many of whom accompany them to their lessons and cheer them on before and afterwards.

And while I very much appreciate that parents are not just cheerleaders — they are also responsible for setting expectations and enforcing regular practice — it makes me sad to hear from students that their parents have criticized them as being “no good”, “untalented” and used other negative language regarding their musical skill.

As a teacher, how do you deal with the repercussions of this?

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How do you teach music? When do you start teaching musicality? What is musicality? What is music? In his book, The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, Victor Wooten, five-time Grammy Award winner bass guitarist, gives many avenues for discovery into these questions. I found it to be a very provocative book and plan to read it again. Those who have read Richard Bach’s Illusions will find this story very similar. Additionally, there is an audio book available that is excellent and was named as a 2011 Audie finalist.

In Measure One (chapter one), Victor, a struggling bass guitarist finds himself low on income with no upcoming performance engagements and decides that he better “practice.” Practicing scales, chords, and arpeggios, he quickly loses interest and gets sleepy. Suddenly, the teacher appears, dressed in a NASA-style blue jumpsuit with a motorcycle helmet on his head, carrying a skateboard in one hand and a burlap sack on his back. His name is Michael and he states that he is a teacher. When asked of what, he replies, “a teacher of nothing.” The discussion winds its way around to music, and Michael asks the student, “What is music?” After more dialogue, Michael finally says, “Music comes from the word mu which is the ancient word for mother; sic is an abbreviation of science. Therefore, music is the mother of all sciences.” “Music is important.”
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Many years ago I instituted a policy in my studio about playing in outside ensembles. The policy states that beginning in 6th grade, every student must commit to a weekly ensemble experience outside of lessons and group classes (my core program includes a weekly private lesson and bi-weekly flute group classes). School band or orchestra, local area chamber music, youth symphony or wind ensemble, even a group of kids forming a rock band that agrees to meet regularly, all ensemble opportunities “count”.

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Two common struggles of teachers/studio owners are motivating students and keeping students long-term.   These are, of course, related to each other.  A student who isn’t motivated to practice his instrument probably isn’t enjoying the experience and isn’t progressing, and it’s likely that it won’t be long before his family feels the investment is a waste of money and decides to pull their child out of lessons. 

That said, I’ve never been one to implement reward programs to try to motivate a student.  I’ve known teachers who provide prizes or even monetary rewards for students who practice a certain number of times per week, but in my experience these can be ineffective and expensive.  Instead, I have found that providing students with performance opportunities motivates students to practice and in doing so, helps encourage a long-term relationship with the student and his family.

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We hope your studio is off to a great start for the new year and wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Here is the list of updates we launched in December, 2011. We’re monitoring the votes on our feedback system and are looking into adding those with the most votes soon. If you haven’t voted the features you’d like to see implemented into Studio Helper, please do so now.

• The system now prevents duplicate invoices when a recurring invoice start date is later than the current date.
• We added Dominican Pesos to the currency list.
• On your studio website login form, students who typed incorrect passwords got redirected to the main Studio Helper Login page rather than your website. This is now fixed.
• The button “Save and add another” on the Receive Payment page did not work. This is now fixed.
• On the Permissions page, the checkbox always stayed checked on the question “Who should be able to delete students.” This now fixed.
• On the Invoice List, if sorted by Client, the alphabetical order was broken whenever an invoice was deleted. This is now fixed.

At the top of my list of to-do’s over the holiday break? Whipping my studio into shape for the new year. It was badly in need of reorganization after the end-of-semester frenzy — and I’m pretty sure mine isn’t the only one!

That, of course begs the question: is your studio ready for 2012?

I started to feel a little overwhelmed as I wrote down all the tasks involved, but actually tackling them one by one was surprisingly enjoyable. The very best and most satisfying part was crossing them off the list, which looked like this:

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Attention: Music Teachers! Do you know how your students can get to Carnegie Hall? Of course they have to “practice, practice, practice,” but you can increase their chances by recommending that they participate in The Carnegie Hall Royal Conservatory Achievement Program (TAP for short).

WHAT is it?

TAP provides a recognized national standard of musical success through an effectively sequenced course of study from beginner to advanced levels. First of all, a bit of recent history: last year The Royal Conservatory Program partnered with Carnegie Hall to create TAP. Prior to TAP, the program here in the United States was formerly called The National Music Certificate Program (NMCP) and before that, The Royal American Conservatory Examinations (RACE). Though it is fairly new here, the Royal Conservatory was founded in 1886 as the Toronto Conservatory of Music. Interestingly, its founder, Edward Fisher, was a young organist born in the U.S. The Conservatory offically opened in September of 1887 and is now celebrating its 125th year. The mission of The Royal Conservatory is “to develop human potential through music and the arts.” Notable alumni include Glenn Gould who graduated from the Conservatory with highest honors at age 12.

TAP encompasses four main areas: repertoire, technique, musicianship, and musical literacy. The program covers all instruments, voice, and the academic areas of theory, music history, and pedagogy. The Piano Syllabus consists of ten Grades with a theory assessment requirement beginning at Grade 5. Included also are elementary and intermediate piano pedagogy, as well as diplomas in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy.
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A month ago I added an iPad to the collection of devices in my house. It’s a fun toy and I have enjoyed adding apps, books, and games. But the real reason I am excited about my iPad is the almost endless ways I have begun to use it in my teaching studio.

For the past year I have been teaching with my computer in the studio. I use it to take care of the business of music teaching with Music Teachers Helper, to look up youtube videos with my students, and to listen to and play with the CD recordings I have downloaded into iTunes. Slowly I am becoming more comfortable with the blending of technology and more traditional music lessons. But having to turn to the computer and manipulate the keyboard often feels like an interruption to the flow of the lesson.

My excitement about the iPad stems from the fluid way that I have been using it during lessons. The iPad is small and can easily rest on my solid, black music stand. It requires touching rather than a keyboard. And, most of all, the kids LOVE it. It’s pretty and it’s fun. The apps feel like games even when they are covering challenging concepts.

What are my favorite apps so far? Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about ways to communicate with your customers.  I will now focus on specific ways the Internet alone makes contact with our clients simple and effective.  I firmly believe that keeping the lines of communication with our business contacts open not only results in a long-term relationship with our customers but also a more pleasant and effective relationship for all involved.

The Internet makes it simple to keep customers up-to-date on everything happening in your studio–events, continuing education, performance opportunities.  Using the Internet to frequently communicate information lets customers know that you are an active and involved teacher.

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