Technology in the studio: apps and web assets for a successful and profitable studio CFMTA

This workshop will present inexpensive and mostly easy tactics on staying relevant in 2013.

Part One:

My portable teaching gear: iPhone, iRig, Speaker, Guitar, Cajon, Snare Drum and High Hat

Apps and kids: Keeners verses cruisers, different reactions. The Dads and the technology connection, iPad jam band

• Garageband and Piano jam: I, IV, I, V in the key of C (Harmony, Ear Training, Creativity)
  
  
• Music Reading Essentials: hands on demonstration (Beat the best score)
  
  
• Music Theory Pro: Guess the tempo (very flexible and programmable in creating learning modules)
  
  
• iRealb: C Jam Blues (Ensemble skills, improvisation, ear training, stylistic awareness)
  
  
• Score cleaner: Ode to Joy (timing and pitch, composition, creativity)
  
  
• Figure: Just Silly Fun
  
  

Adults apps and software:  The Eleanor Gow story

Collaborative learning a quick survey of 21st century curriculum and teaching methods for different constituencies.

• Game based and/or collaborative learning approaches  
  
  
• Contemporary Idioms from Conservatory Canada
  
  
• Keyboard ensembles, Collaborative learning at the Conservatory Canada Kanata Keyboard Camp
  
  
• Teaching students from cultures different than your own. Understanding the different motivations of parents and students. (The cognitive development group vs. the “I just want my kid to have fun crowd”. There are other groups as well. Including my favourite, the preteen, “I wanna be famous” cohort.)
  
  

Part Two:

Assuming you wish to grow profits, ask yourself this. “Why do I find myself in my current situation?” An honest answer will help you plan a realistically.

• Goals the what, why, how, and when? I hope the following helps.
  
  

Marketing 101: Tips from my business coach

• What is your USP? (why should they pick you and not someone else?)
  
  
• Model success (see the Yost book listed below)
  
  
• Marketing is a daily effort (make selling a positive exercise)
  
  
• Build a success library (knowledge allows us to act with confidence)
  
  
• Know your customers (demographics count)
  
  
• Build your network of colleagues and community leaders (reference group)
  
  
• Stay on top of your numbers (accounts, sales calls inbound and outbound, closing, etc.)
  
  

A few of my favorite Marketing books and authors

• How I made $100,000 My First Year as a Piano Teacher By Kristin Yost (really!)
  
  
• Recreational Music Making Handbook for Piano Teachers from Alfred Publishers
  
  
• Profits Aren't Everything, They're the Only Thing by George Cloutier (reality check)
  
  
• The Music Lesson by Victor L. Wooten (thinking outside the score)
  
  
• The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua (funny and informative)
  
  
• Success Magazine (my monthly inspiration for a quarter century)
  
  
• Brian Tracy International (I reread Time Power twice or more a year)
  
  
• The Little Big Things by Tom Peters (my best pick me up when I’m discouraged)
  
  
• Any book  by Seth Godin (daily blog too.)
  
  

Web assets

• Webpage SEO improves if there is frequent content change on a webpage, Dead pages rank lower. Algorithms change frequently.
  
  
• A good hosting service will show you the search terms people used to find your web presence.
  
  
• Domain name is important. www.davidstory.ca
  
  
• An email signature is important to drive traffic to your blogs and webpages.
  
  
• I have good results with Blogs, Facebook, Soundcloud, and Youtube, less with Linkedin and Twitter.
  
  

Final Tip: Consider learning a new musical instrument and sharing your progress with your students.