At Studio Helper, we’re always working hard to bring you new improvements and make our program even better, based on the feedback we receive from our customers. Be sure and go to Uservoice and vote on Hot Ideas that Studio Helper Members have suggested. We are also working on the Recurring Billing Feature.

Below is a list of the new features we released in February, 2012.

New Features

• You can now include the lesson costs in the Lessons Taught report. Enable the ‘Show Lesson Cost’ checkbox to make it appear.
• New Feature: You may now delete expense categories. Go to Money > Expenses > Expense Categories to clean up old records.

Bug Fixes

• Students with absent lessons were not charged automatically when creating a new invoice. This is now fixed.
• Sometimes error messages appeared on the pdf of the billing statement. This is now fixed.
• Quickbooks was not importing invoices correctly. This is now fixed.
• Outstanding Invoices list on the profile’s money tab was missing when the primary billing parent is logged in. This is now fixed.
• Permission is denied error occurred when a teacher or staff tried to save in Teacher Availability tab. This is now fixed.
• Recurring expense amount rounded off automatically after saving. This is now fixed.
• Lending Library’s navigation links did not work when returned items are viewed. This is now fixed.
• Error messages appeared when an expense without vendor is saved. This is now fixed.

February was a bit of a stressful month around my studio. Many of my students were preparing to participate in our local National Federation of Music Clubs’ Junior Festival. And as nervous as they were about playing, I think I was even more nervous for them.

Needless to say, we’re all a bit more relaxed now that Festival is over, but I like to help ease my students back into their normal routine So how do you unwind after an event such as this — or similarly, a recital or big audition?

Here are a few of my favorite ways to do so.

1. Read the rest of this entry »

What do you do in your studio for summer? Do you teach? Do you take the summer off? How do you support yourself during the lean summer months?

Perhaps a summer camp is an option to fill the void. If so, now is the time to start thinking about summer. In the past, I have not required that students take lessons during the summer. Typically, I teach six weeks during the summer and students who do take must have at least four lessons during that time. I do this primarily because I like my summer free time! However, I see how it negatively effects those who do not take lessons (not to mention how it negatively effects my pocketbook!) and I may decide to take the plunge this year and require that students either a) Sign up for at least four lessons, b) Sign up for a studio music camp or special class offering, c) Attend a summer music institute or camp of some kind outside my studio, or d) All of the above! Realizing the importance of continuing music study during the summer months, those students taking summer lessons, camps or classes would be guaranteed a reserved lesson time in the fall.

I researched several piano pedagogy textbooks on summer camps and found a plethora of ideas in Beth Gigante’s book, The Independent PIano Teacher’s Textbook. She gives the best advice I could find on researching, developing and organizing a summer a summer music camp. Here is a series of steps I developed for myself in creating a summer program for my studio:
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I recently came upon an article entitled 10 Tips for Engaging a Volunteer Community. The article piqued my interest and led me to Jeffery Cufaude’s blog. Here is a quick summary of his work;

Jeffrey Cufaude is an architect of ideas …custom-designing keynotes, workshops, and leadership conferences that promote learning and community.

What most impresses me about the blog is not that Jeffrey is a musician, a teacher, or even in the arts. And yet his articles are relevant and to the point. As an “ideas architect” (something I had never heard of before), his topics are broad enough to appeal to the masses but specific enough to be useful in my day to day work. Read the rest of this entry »

Owning your own studio can be a bit lonely.  Especially if your studio is small, and you don’t have other employees and aides with whom you interact regularly.  But being a studio owner doesn’t need to be isolating.  There are many professional organizations out there that can provide opportunities for comraderie and collaboration and the reasons to join them are many.

Networking

When I first knew our family would be moving, I contacted the president of the local music teachers organization from the area where we were relocating.  When I got to town, I had coffee with her and discussed ways to get started with students.  She was incredibly helpful in helping me understand the market in my new town, and since her studio was full, she referred three students my way.  Through word of mouth, these three students grew to twelve students in a few short months.  Another teacher in our organization gave my name out to a local school, where I also picked up several students.  I have done my best to pay it forward; now that I have a waiting list, I have sent students to new teachers in our group and I know that they, too, have been grateful for the referrals.  It is my experience that teachers in these groups want to support one another and help each other grow their studios whenever possible. Read the rest of this entry »

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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