Author: cconrad

charityEach December, I like for my students to participate in some type of performance for charity. This year, we held our second annual “Piano Play-a-thon“, where students put together a program of up to five minutes, solicited sponsors to donate money to a local organization, and performed their pieces at a casual recital. This year, we raised almost $1,000 for a local non-profit who provides in-home services for families of children with special needs and had the chance to perform at a fantastic coffee shop. I love being able to rally some community support and bring attention to one of the many fantastic charities and the work they are doing in our area.

I think there are so many ways that we can use our studios to give back to our communities. Not only is performing a great way to motivate students to work hard, but charity events teach them the ways they can use their gifts to serve others. As a bonus, you’ll also be reaching members of your community with your studio’s name and services!

music workshopAs a piano teacher, the bulk of my job is offering weekly lessons to my students. But if I stopped at that, I wouldn’t be setting my studio apart in my community or creating a wholistic learning experience for students of my studio.

Yes, learning technique, repertoire and theory on a weekly basis is of the utmost important. But I also need to provide my students with opportunities to perform, compete, create and engage with other music students and music professionals and in doing so, expose them to a variety of things within my scope. This creates well-rounded, motivated students and lets my students, their families and the community know that I am an active and thriving studio.

Here are some suggestions for things we can offer to our students that go above and beyond weekly lessons:

practicingWith a new school year in full swing, fall is a great time to motivate students and build strong practice habits. Many students are new and are highly motivated and looking for guidance. Returning students might feel renewed to do better than last year, perhaps re-energized after a summer off.

Capitalize on this “new year” mentality! Here are some ideas for setting up incentives and goals for the first few month’s of your students school year:

SH is pleased to announce that the calendar issues with the attendance, the reports section are now fixed. If you have experienced problems with this, please check to make sure everything is working correctly. Please don't hesitate to let us know if you notice anything not working correctly. Thank you for your patience in this matter. Cathy Conrad Manager support@studiohelper.com...

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happy faceOne of the things that I think is so important as a music teacher, is to understand the end goal of the majority of our students. Most parents don’t enroll their students in lessons because they think they have the next Mozart on their hands (though you may end up having a few concert pianists in your bunch!) — they enroll them in lessons for the many benefits of learning a musical instrument, not the least of which is a richer and fuller life.

Keeping this in mind, it is important to inspire our students and help foster a love and appreciation for music. In order to do this, it’s vital to create a positive studio atmosphere. While you may have students who dread practicing (don’t we all?!), we want them to look forward to their time in the studio and be proud of what they accomplished.