- Have a Vision and Stick to it. Know what your Niche is. What are you offering? Who are you serving? Who will be your ideal student? What are their attributes? The clearer you are, the more chance you’ll attract the right students to your studio. Once you’ve ironed out what it is that you do well and want to focus on, then you need to communicate this to your audience as clearly as possible. This is where most people get a little side tracked. In our attempt to be all inclusive, we oftentimes send confusing and conflicting messages. In other words, sometimes we say one thing, and do another.
You need to realize that everything you do: e-mails, newsletters, website, studio set-up, phone calls, zoom meetings, how you dress, your studio policies– communicate what is important to you. So you want to make sure all of these aspects are aligned with your focus, and your branding. Ask yourself, what type of experience do you want your students and parents to have when working alongside you. Make it all about them. Pick 3-5 things, that are important for you to communicate, and stick to it. It’s ok, if you need to limit the scope of students you teach, it’s actually more beneficial to both you and the student!
So really try to do some soul-searching and get to the heart of it. We often think we are being clear. Maybe ask a friend or a colleague to audit your website or act as a sounding board to bounce ideas off of. They will tell you what comes across clearly. You can also survey the parents of your students, and simply ask what their first impressions were.
- Get the Parents involved. This will involve some parent education on your part. You may have to even teach the parent a few lessons, but believe me the results are well worth the time spent. If you’ve ever wished you had more parental support from the get-go, here’s your chance. So let’s get everyone on the same page, and set the student up for success. Once you do this, the benefits are three-fold. You benefit from having your instructions followed. The parents benefit because, now that they are invested and have taken responsibility for the results. They also feel much more equipped to help with the practice at home. There are fewer arguments over what the assignment was because the parents were right there in class with the student. Likewise, the students feel supported at home the other 5-6 days you don’t get to see them. They progress quite rapidly, because they are doing their assignments every week, and most importantly, they see that this is important to the parent(s), so it must be important to them as well. It’s as simple as that. Young children, don’t really know what they like or dislike until they’ve experienced enough to tell the difference. They want to be like their parents or teachers, and they learn by following the leader, so it’s up to us to be good role models and set the best example for them. No matter how much the child loves lessons with you, your influence will never be as great as the parents, and nor should it be, so let’s get them onboard!
- Set Clear Expectations. Everyone needs to have a studio policy in place when you meet and great new students. It may be something you even want returning students to review and sign. (I’ve found the wisdom in this reminder over the years.) My best advice would be to make it concise. No one wants to read a novel in that initial e-mail. Most studio policies will include some or all of these topics: the enrollment process, payment options, the academic calendar, make-up policy, sickness guidelines, materials needed, set-up/technology requirements (if you are teaching on-line), privacy policy, and your Rules and Expectations form that should be signed by the parent and student and returned to you at their first lesson. Enough cannot be said about the importance of being clear about your policies right from the start. If you are clear, and they’ve signed a document stating that they understood your policies, then there will be a lot less miscommunications and administrative headaches.
- Build your teaching atmosphere. As always, we want to base our teaching on well-founded pedagogical thinking, but a lot of this atmosphere needs to be created before you even sit down with the student. (Hence the former topics on this list.) If you’ve communicated your expectations clearly and have the parents on-board, congratulations, you are more than half way there. Next, you need to base your lesson planning off of those 3-5 things that were important to you, or the attributes or skills you want your students to eventually possess. Try to balance the activities within the lesson. Try to involve as many senses in this process as you can. The more variety, and creativity, the better, and the kids will love you for it, but the balance of the activities is key.
- Insist on lessons twice a week. One private and one group class. Group class provides opportunities that aren’t necessarily possible at the private lesson and vice versa. It also ensures the social aspect of making music remains intact for beginning artists, which is so important for kids of any age. You’ll suddenly have more time to “fit it all in,” and the kids will progress twice as fast since they are coming twice a week! It’s a WIN-WIN.
- Combine all the aspects of music into 1 package. Technique, ear training, music theory, analysis, sightreading, ensemble playing, disciplined practice, performance; all of these make up the total sum of a student’s overall musicianship. Despite the growing list, I’d say we can no longer afford to separate topics out into curriculum, that most kids won’t sign-up for. They just don’t have enough time in the day or the week to cover all of these topics individually, unless they are in a music conservatory at a very young age. But in truth, all of these skills are required for music literacy. So, I ask you, do we just want our students to be good vocalists or instrumentalists, or do we want them to be fluent in music for life? How do we create this life-long love of music? Is it just good enough that they can do addition and subtraction? Do they really need higher level calculus or even algebra? Do we just want them to be able to read books in literature class and stop there? Why should music be any different? We all know how essential music is in a child’s education and development. Even though it’s an advocation, why would we just teach the technical aspect without understanding the concepts behind it?
As teachers, we compartmentalize subjects for lesson planning purposes, and that will still happen, but if music is indeed like learning a foreign language, then we all know that immersion is the best way to go. All of these musical concepts overlap and effect each another, so we must find ways to approach and deal with the material AS WELL AS the effects and overlap. This immersion I speak of, is called experience-based learning. Just about all of early childhood methodologies speak to this with great importance. Children, or even adults for that matter, learn best by DOING. That means they learn by experiencing first, and then a conscious naming of the topic, or discussion can take place about the nuts and bolts. Otherwise, they do not make the connection between the concept and the experience. The result of this approach is that the depth of knowledge is much more profound, and the student has it for keeps. To use an example in every day speech, “it’s like riding a bike, you never forget it.” Think about that, and you’ll begin to draw connections between this type of learning and music.
- Emphasize Depth rather than Volume. Now you may say, wait a minute, you just told us we have to fit it all in! You’ve convinced us, so now you say…what??#@. It’s true, there is definitely some secrets to teaching this approach, which hopefully I’ll be able to shed some light on over the course of the next few weeks. If you’re reading this, then you’re in the right place! The purpose of this statement is to highlight that it’s not just what you teach, meaning all the breadth of subjects we cover weekly, but how in depth you teach it. I’ve already mentioned experienced based learning, but we also need to NOT BE AFRAID to really linger on topics and let them soak in. This includes approaching a subject from multiple viewpoints and angles. The more depth of exposure the student receives on a topic, the more chance they will be able to recall the information and apply it to new situations. This is the true test of knowledge. “Ok you know it, you may even understand it, but do you know what to do with it? That is the burning question.
In order to tell whether or not we are being effective as teachers, we need to put several evaluation methods in place. Of course, the written type of evaluation has been around the longest, but that’s not what I’m truly getting at here. I’m talking about providing students ample opportunity to discover, discuss, and show or explain what it is that they know. Once they do that consistently, in varying types of situations, then they may be ready for a more abstract challenge that will involve applying that knowledge. (i.g. in a composition, in an ensemble, while analyzing a piece of music, or showing how that knowledge affects their performance practice, etc.). Getting to the essence of the music is what it’s all about. And what better way to help guide them towards freedom of expression as a human being, than through music!
- Value your time. In our excitement to implement new concepts, we may try to do everything for everyone all at once. It’s in our nature as nurturing individuals. So it is equally, if not more important that you practice good boundaries, and self-care. I put this in the top 10, because I don’t think this is discussed enough. It really should be no. 1, right? But we’re always focused on what we can do more of, what we can do better. But how can we teach at our best, if we are not well ourselves? This, of course, is going to mean different things to different people, but the bottom line, is YOU are so important! You need to respect your limitations, and schedule breaks and rests as needed; especially with the whole shift on-line! I’ve spoken to many colleagues over the past year, who’ve felt mentally drained because they are constantly on their device. If you are experiencing leg cramps, stiff joints, back issues, head-aches, upset stomach, irritability when you’re normally easy going during lessons, these are all signs that you are spending too many hours sitting in the same place. You may have zoom fatigue, or just fatigue in general, and no amount of money is worth that. I have to admit, that I’m still working on this work-life balance thing myself, but some things that have really helped me are: taking a walk, being out in nature, focusing on a hobby outside of music that relaxes you, creating, meditation, aroma therapy, Alexander or Feldenkrais technique, yoga, regular exercise, and a good nights sleep. These are all things we don’t do enough of, and we really need to start taking better care of ourselves. And sometimes….we just need to do NOTHING! Come on now, let’s all give ourselves permission, right now to make that change. Just try implementing 1-2 things and you’ll be AMAZED at the difference!
- Have a Community Presence. Get out there with your students and do some demonstrations! They don’t just have to be high level competitions and exams for people to see what your studio is all about. Have them do outreach concerts at nursing homes, festivals, state fairs, play at church, play background music, play in an ensemble or accompany, etc. These are brilliant low-key performance opportunities for students, and it also provides some much-needed connection through music and community service. You could even put a “themed” concert together and stream it live. Although not ideal, one nice thing about remote concerts is that we can reach far more people, and friends and family members can join from anywhere!
- Be Genuine and Teach to Your Strengths. Children can always tell, when we are not being genuine, or if we ourselves are uninterested in a topic or a piece of music. If that is the case, then DON’T teach that, choose another selection, or another way to teach that subject the fits with your style. At the end of the day, you can only be you, and I know that you are a unique individual my friend. So it’s always best to know yourself first and then teach to your strengths. Yes, we are striving to be better, and it’s wonderful to know that we will never run out of things to learn. But you need to incorporate whatever teaching techniques you are using into your whole presence and being. That’s going to mean something different to each person.
Ok, Mini-Pep Talk!
You’ve already done what most other teachers have not—which is simply TRY to make your intentions clear and seek out new information when it presents itself. You are reading this, so that is so incredibly encouraging. I know that many of the topics covered in this list are topics that have been on the scene for while, but hopefully, there were a few other take always you can now consider or reconsider. Remember, nothing is set in stone. If you are starting a studio for the first time, or jumpstarting your studio again, then anything you try out just becomes more information to build upon. You’ll naturally tweak things along the way and make it better and better. So for now, just find 1-2 things to insert or change over the next few weeks and see how it goes. What’s the worse that can happen? This is an ongoing process, and there really are no failures, only more feedback.