Teaching is more than just student contact time

School officially starts one week from tomorrow, but today was the first day back for teachers. The "real" teachers spent part of the day in meetings and then had professional development time. I'm techincally a "private contractor" so I didn't have to go to the meetings, but I did spend several hours getting ready for school.

Have you ever stopped to consider how much time you spend on things other than the lessons themselves? There is so much more to teaching than just showing up for the lessons. Think of the prep work, the scheduling, the invoicing, communicating with parents, etc. I spent most of my summer getting my website ready to go. Included in that time was the revising of all of my handouts and posting them on the website so that the students can download them after they login. Today I turned in all the copying that needs to be done. I'm making fewer copies of most things this year since I'm just making a classroom set that students can refer to while in lessons. Still, that was a lot of stuff to get organized.

When I attended a business seminar this summer, they reminded us to figure in all the "other" stuff when setting tuition rates. Monica K. Allen gave us this list of questions:
1. How many hours do you spend with students per week?
2. How many hours do you spend on prep time per week?
3. How many hours do you spend on administrative duties per week?
4. How many hours do you spend on marketing per week?
5. How many hours do you spend on professional development per week?
6. How many hours do you spend practicing each week?
7. How many total hours are you working each week?
8. Do your tuition rates reflect this?

I loved these questions, not just because they help me justify my fees, but because they reminded me of all the things that really do go into being a good teacher. Here's a little about how I will spend my time in each of these areas.

1. Time with Students
This is always a little tricky. I'm trying to get as many students as possible during the school day so that I don't have to stay as late at night. We'll see how that all works out. I'm shooting for no more than 40 hours per week at the school (and that includes some of the admin stuff.)

2. Prep time
This varies a lot for me, but I'd like to start spending 30-45 minutes before I start lessons warming up and getting ready for the day's lessons. Yes, warming up is prep time. Also, I did a lot of the general prepping and organizing this summer, so this time in the morning will be thinking about where I want to go with each student and how I want to approach his or her music.

3. Administrative duties
This is the one that sucks up all the time. I'm hoping that using the Music Teacher's Helper system will make the day to day business (recording attendance, payments, etc.) much quicker. Returning emails and phone calls still requires time.

4. Marketing
At the beginning of the school year I go to Freshmen Orientation and the Parent Open House to talk to people about voice lessons. We also do a day where we talk to each of the choir classes. Beyond that, I don't do much with marketing. I rely a lot on referrals to fill the after school spots.

5. Professional Development

During the 2009-2010 school year (and the following summer) I will be doing the following professional development activities:

• Preparing a recital. This process will include both long hours of my own practicing and work with my accompanist/coach.
• Attending the North Central ACDA convention in Minneapolis. It's a great time to get back into ACDA. I let my membership lapse, but I'm looking forward to getting involved again. Although I'm not currently conducting a choir, I work with choral people and need to keep involved in the choral world.
• Attending the MMTA Convention. The vocal area is small, but growing and this has been a great networking opportunity for me in the past.
• Attending the NATS Convention in Salt Lake City. I've been to 1 ICVT convention and 1 NATS Convention and loved both of them. It's such a great way to get recharged.
• I don't know if I can make the dates and work, but I would also like to attend the Classical Singer Convention.

If you're like I used to be, you might think, "I can't afford to go to conventions. They cost money and I lose money since I can't teach during that time." Both of those things are absolutely true, but it is totally worth it. I am a better teacher because of these chances to network, recharge, get new ideas, etc. It's also nice to hear "famous" people talk about the same things you tell your students every day. It's very affirming. If money is an issue, try setting aside a little from each deposit you make. Or find ways to cut expenses in other others. Just find a way and go. It's good for you and your students.

6. Practicing

This summer has been great for my own personal practice and I hope to continue that during the school year. My students are really overscheduled, but I ask them to find at least a few minutes to connect with their music everyday, whether it's listening to a professional recording, or going over the words once, or actually doing real practice. If I'm asking them to do it, I'm going to do it as well. My biggest problem is that once I get started, practicing is too much fun. Then by the time I'm done, I don't have the time or energy left to go to the gym, which I also really need to do and enjoy doing.

7. Total hours

As I mentioned before, I don't want to be at school for more than 40 hours, but I can see myself easily doing another 5-10 at home with the practicing and administrative stuff.

8. Do my rates reflect all of the above?

I wish that what I make per hour of student contact time was what I made per hour of work time. 50 hours at my rates would be awesome. I would feel comfortable charging more, but we try to keep the rates reasonable so that we can have more kids involved. We also try to stay pretty close to what the other schools in the district are charging. I think that how much you charge should reflect the things listed above, plus your education and experience, plus take into account the local economy.

How much time do you spend working outside of lessons? Do your rates reflect this?

The secret to successful memorization

There is a fool proof way to make your memorization easy and secure. Are you ready for me to reveal this amazing knowledge? Get ready. Here it is...

Find what works for you.

Sorry to disappoint you. There is not one fantastic method that works for everyone. However, that does not mean that you shouldn't try all those wonderful things that people "guarantee" will work. One of the many ideas out there or a combination of ideas will work for you. I firmly believe that people that think that they can't memorize just haven't found the right strategy yet.

So if we know that our best strategy exists out there, why do we declare we can't memorize, or stick with less efficient methods?

In Clifton Ware's Adventures in Singing, he outlines 4 basic learning modes (Visual, Aural, Kinesthetic, and Analytical) and their relationships to learning to sing and to learning music. Some people fall strictly in to one category, but most of us learn using some combination of those modes. People who are primarily visual learn best by seeing things. These students benefit from teaching styles that encourage reading, imagery, note taking, etc. Aural learners need to hear things. Some of my students can't sight-read to save their lives (we're working on that), but if they hear a melody once, they have it. Kinesthetic learners need physical motion to reinforce their learning. These are also the singers that respond best when you talk about how correct singing feels. Analytical learners like to break things down, analyze component parts, understand structure.

Understanding your learning mode or modes can be a key to helping you find your best ways to memorize. But even so, I think many people are just content to do what they have always done whether it works well or not. I give my students a handout that has more than a page of memorization strategies including ones that address every kind of learning style, but most of them just want to sing the song over and over until they think they are memorized.

I will agree that maybe for a few people, this is the most efficient method of memoriztion, but I seriously doubt that that is the case for the 98% that claim it. First of all, singing it over and over is extremely boring. Secondly, it only puts the information into your brain in one way. Where's the backup? What happens if that fails?

I encourage students to memorize using several methods. This way, if one method fails, another will step up and take care of you. For example, I'm a very visual learner and when I memorize piano music, I basically see it in my head. But what do I do if I get to a spot where all I see is a blank staff? Yes, I must admit I panic a little, but then my fingers find the right notes and go on. How can they do that? They do that because they know how that particular passages feels in my hands (kinesthetic learning), my brain also understands the chordal structure of the piece (analytical learning), and finally, I know what that passage is supposed to sound like (aural learning).

I regularly work with students with "learning disabilities". I've put the term in quotes first, because I can't remember if that is the PC term right now and second, because I believe it is an inaccurate description for most of these people. If we define a disability as not being able to do things in the "normal" way, then sure, lots of people are disabled. If we instead look at it as functioning in a different, but completely valid way I think the concept of disability melts away. Feel free to correct me if you have more education in this area or experience a "disability" yourself. My point here is that I believe that everyone can learn, but we learn at different paces and in different methods. Sometimes the pace and methods are extreme, but we are all progressing and moving forward. In my studio, a disability is not an excuse to not try, but a challenge for both the singer and teacher to find something that works and not become discouraged if the pace is slow.

That was a long introduction to the real topic of this post--my discovery of my best memorization strategy. Actually, this is the core of my strategy, but it is supplemented and reinforced with other methods as well.

I'm currently putting together a recital and as I've worked, I've discovered that I'm learning and memorizing the music so much quicker than I did when I was much younger and in school. It's been a pleasant surprise. Shouldn't young minds learn faster? Shouldn't the fuzzy thinking often associated with my fibromyalgia get in the way? How can I do this? I can do it, because I've found the approach that works for me at this point in my life. Here it is...

I learn best when I have a translation of the song before I even start to learn notes. My word-by-word translation, my IPA transcription, and my music sit side by side as I work. I play a phrase or two of the music several times, thinking the words as I play. Then I do lip buzz (AKA lip trill) on the pitches as I think the words. When the melody is secure without the piano, I sing that section. Sometimes I start with just one vowel and sometimes I use the words. If I'm having trouble lining things up, I definitely work that section on a single vowel. As I work on the technical and interpretive aspects of the phrase, I do not look at the music. If I'm struggling with a few notes of the melody, I play the accompaniment and see how the melody fits into the harmonic and rhythmic structure of the piano part. When I feel like I have a firm grasp on the notes, rhythms, words, technique and interpretation of that section, I move on to another.

Re-reading that last paragraph, it seems like quite a laborious process, but for me, it is quite enjoyable and has actually dramatically reduced the amount of time it takes me to learn and memorize a song. I'm nearly 40 and discovering new things about how I learn. I love it! Maybe it took me a little longer than it takes other people, but that's OK. It's not about how fast you progress. It's about moving forward.

So how do you learn and memorize? Please share.

Studio Website

I finally have text on the home page of my website. Yeah! I also spent time refining my bio. If you get a chance, check it out. Please let me know if you find typos or serious grammar issues.

The easy way to get to the website is www.jeanninerobinett.com. It will be a few days though before that will work. For now, use www.jeanninerobinettmusicstudio.musicteachershelper.com.
Aren't you glad I'm buying the shorter domain name?

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to my voice blog, where I'll share my joys and frustrations of being a singer and a teacher of singers.

Today I had a wonderful practice session. I worked mostly on my Brahms set for the recital. I love these songs and they love me. It's amazing how easy it is to sing when you find the rep that really fits your voice. Plus, I just love lieder. I've said it before and I'll say it again-- although there is a lot of wonderful music in the world, as a singer, I could be perfectly happy if music began with Schubert and ended with the death of Richard Strauss.