Holidays in the Studio: Halloween

The holidays are the perfect time to utilize fun and original ideas and enhance performances, lessons and even marketing. Halloween is a popular, kid-friendly holiday that lends itself to some exciting opportunities for the studio.

Performances

This year my collaborative fall recital with other teachers in my local association fell three days before Halloween. The students that performed from my studio played a variety of Halloween-themed pieces, with a duet of Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King as the grand finale — performed by two pianists dressed as trolls, of course. Allowing your student to play “scary” music or dress up when they perform helps motivate a student to prepare a piece and also adds some fun and humor to a performance, easing the performance anxiety for your nervous performers.

Lessons

My piano and music classes loved having a “party” during Halloween week. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t learning! We tapped along with our castanets using quarter, half and whole note beats to the Addam’s Family theme song, students received pumpkin stickers for pieces they passed off, and we danced and moved around the room with scarves to the Munster’s theme song. And yes, I wore a costume to class.

Marketing

A fellow teacher told me of a brilliant marketing strategy for her studio. Since she recently moved and wanted the kids in her neighborhood to know she was a piano teacher. She attached a business card to each fun-sized candy bar by tying a ribbon around the two and distributing to trick-or-treaters. I contacted her just a few days after her trick-or-treating experiment to find out if her experiment was succesful–and she had already filled her studio and now has a waiting list.