It’s early June and the countdown is on to finish school-year lessons! Recitals, awards and studio graduates all figure into our plans. On the horizon, after a well-deserved {short} break, are summer lessons, new student inquiries, and planning for the fall.
With a few extra non-student hours in each day, summer is a great season to shake up the status quo and do something different. Unleash your creativity and brainstorm ideas for new incentive programs, annual themes, and group activities. If you’re checklist-motivated, here are some ideas to add to yours:
- Update (or inaugurate) your studio website. Many site-hosting services provide professional templates to add your content to. An AI agent can often assist you for fast results. Just be sure to check AI-generated content and photos for any “weirdness” you’ll need to correct (I’m looking at you, fingers!).
- Use the “WSMTA Music Literacy Program Guide: Vocal and Instrumental” to plan your music-theory teaching for the coming year.
- Check options for participating in the WSMTA Music Artistry Program with your vocal/instrumental students. Remember that the MTNA eFestival is another option for remote evaluations on almost any instrument.
- Expand your student-repertoire library. The online instrument-specific syllabi from RCM (rcmusic.com) and ABRSM.org contain hundreds of carefully-leveled repertoire selections, many from current and/or underrepresented composers.
- Read a good book to spark your teaching creativity. WSMTA’s own Bonnie Blanchard wrote “Making Music and Enriching Lives: A Guide for All Music Teachers,” full of teaching tips and tricks and humorous anecdotes (if you know Bonnie, you know why!). You might also enjoy “The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills” by Daniel Coyle.
- Rather listen than read? Subscribe to Noa Kageyama’s “The Bulletproof Musician” podcast.
- Take care of annual instrument-maintenance tasks and remind students to do so as well: re-hair bows, clean and repair wind instruments, etc.
- Refresh your referral list: If you get a lesson inquiry for an instrument you don’t teach, or if your studio is full, have your WSMTA colleagues’ contact info on hand to pass the query along. Bonus points if you know something about your colleagues’ teaching styles and their locations so you can send a student to their most convenient and qualified option. Ask your colleagues to do the same for you – provide them with a brief description of your studio and teaching approach, and maybe some business cards.
- Do you have business cards? They’re easy to self-produce with a service like VistaPrint.com.
- Attend the ASTA “Virtual String Teachers Summit” in July! MTNA members can register at the discounted ASTA member rate. (Look for an email that MTNA sent you last February.) If you participate in this conference, be sure to let MTNA know, and thank them for co-sponsoring. Let’s encourage MTNA to provide even more programs for vocal and instrumental teachers in the coming year.
–Jane Melin, NCTM
WSMTA Vocal & Instrumental Chair