Music Teacher's Helper: Tricks and Tips Part 1

On Monday, June 10th, I'll be leading a discussion session at MMTA Convention about using Music Teacher's Helper (MTH).  I've been using the system since 2009, but I'm still learning and I'm still slowly adding features to how I regularly use it.  This post will cover a few basics and then some of the latest tips I've learned.  

First, although I tend to have an easier time figuring things out on my own rather than following instructions, I did learn a few new things from watching the videos that MTH has produced.  You can view them here.

Second, the support options MTH offers are wonderful.  You can check search FAQS or the Knowledge Base.  You can get ideas from other teachers by participating in the Community Forum. And of course, there are ways to contact MTH directly, by email or phone number to get help with your specific issues.  I've called a couple of times when I had a time sensitive question.  Most of the time I email and receive a helpful answer often within an hour,  and if not that soon, within the same day.  Following their blog is another way to learn more about how to make MTH work for you.  

Third, MTH is willing to listen if you have problems with the way the system currently works or suggestions for improvements.  Go here to suggest an idea, vote on someone else's suggestion, or comment on suggestions.  

As I mentioned before, I'm still incorporating some features into how I use the system.  This year, I started using make up credits.  There are some improvements I've commented on and hope they consider, but even with it's flaws, I've found it very helpful.  

Make up credits

When reconciling a missed or cancelled lesson, I just click the option to issue a make up lesson credit.  Then when the student does reschedule, I just select the make-up credit that I want to use for that lesson and the credit is closed.  You can search closed and pending credits by date and by student to see how you or your students are doing with keeping up with make up lessons.  By using this feature this year, I learned that I am far too lenient with offering make up lessons, and the students only made up about half of the lessons that I offered credits for.  The suggestion that I'm really hoping to see incorporated is to have an automatic expiration date for these so I don't have to close them individually.  That suggestion is currently under review.  

Lending Library

Another great feature of the system is the Lending Library.  It was time consuming to enter all the books and sheet music that I have available to loan out, but now that the date has been entered, I can check things out with just a few simple clicks.  I like the fact that I can select a due date and have an automatic reminder send to the student.  

Repertoire Tracker

I would love to use the Repertoire Tracker more, but I find it's current setup too time consuming.  If anyone has any great suggestions, please let me know.  I would love to keep track of scores and ratings for MMTA contests and exams, as well as school events like Solo and Ensemble Contests, and have it all in one handy place.  

Practice Log

Another feature I haven't really pushed with the students is the Practice Log.  Have any of you found this helpful?  How do you encourage kids to use it?

Calendar

The calendar is probably the most important item.  Here are some tricks I've recently learned:

• Have students register for studio classes, recitals, and other events.  
• To allows students to sign up for their own lesson times, post events as "Open", require registration, and then limit the number of registrants to 1.  I'm trying this out over the summer.  
• I love click and drag (and wish I could do it for more than one entry at a time).  
• I used to delete the events individually or have to delete the whole day and then add back in the few students that I was teaching.  Now, if I need to delete part of a day, but not every lesson, I drag the entries I want to delete to a Sunday (when I don't teach), and then click delete all events for that day.  I used to delete the events individually or have to delete the whole day and then add back in the few students that I was teaching.  
• You can change how your calendar is set up by clicking settings, and then going to the calendar tab.  I've always just used the month view, because the day and week views were hard to read because my lessons during the school year don't start on the hour.  A few quick clicks and now all the views are easier for me to use.  I wish I had known about this earlier.  
• When you click and drag within the week view, it changes the time too.  When you do this on the month view, you have to go in and edit the time.  
• I'm now using the MTH calendar as my everything calendar.  The tai chi studio I work with is listed as one of my students and classes that I am assisting in are one color and classes I'm subbing for are another.  I also added myself as a student (with my own special color) so I can add personal items such as doctor visits, etc.  
• I learned how to sync my MTH and iCal calendars.  (Again, click settings and then the calendar tab after you click settings).  

Online payments

I just signed up for PayPal and enabled online payments on my website.  I'm going to try it out for the summer to see how often it is used and how much it actually ends up costing me.  I'll let you know how that goes.  

Affiliate Program

I also just signed up for the Affiliate Program so I can earn money when a friend or colleague opens a new account.  (I wish I'd had it earlier.  I was among the first of my colleagues to get in to this system.)

I'm currently offering 10% off your first month.  Click here or on the banner you see in the sidebar if you are not yet using MTH and would like to give it a try.  

Please comment to share how you use Music Teacher's Helper, and check back next week for a report on what we discussed at the convention.  

The Glenda Files Entry #3: A Glowing Ball of Light

While searching some old notebooks for something else, I found a few short paragraphs I had written long ago about my teaching philosophy.  The wise woman I stole this concept from was Glenda, which is why this is posted under The Glenda Files.  I hope you enjoy it.

This is not my own metaphor--I learned it from a very wise woman--but I have embellished it so much and told it so many times that I can no longer tell you what is hers and what is mine.  I believe that the voice is not something you build, as if you had been given a deluxe set of legos.  Each person's voice comes complete and intact, a glowing ball of light.  The size and color vary from person to person, but all of us have one of the beautiful glowing globes.  

Voice lessons are about gradually removing the layers of material that life creates to cover that light.  (I've always imagined the material covering my light as layers and layers of papier-mâché.)  Little by little we peel away the layers revealing the beauty beneath.

Layers may include fear, misconceptions, over thinking, over working, and a host of issues whose origin we may not be able to identify, but must learn to deal with anyway.  As a bonus, we discover that much more is revealed than just a voice; you cannot reveal the beauty of the voice without revealing the beauty of the person in whom that voice is housed.

The Glenda Files: Online Edition

In grad school, I frequently wrote personal journal entries about my experiences with my voice teacher. I also began printing copies of our correspondence and putting them in what I called my "Glenda File". Yesterday, when I found out that she had died, for a second I thought that it was really time to close the Glenda Files.  But then I realized that I will never be time to close the files.  She will continue to be a presence in my life because of the things I learned from her.  So today, The Glenda Files move to my blog.  I won't be sharing previous entries, but I think it will be good for me to write about the things I have learned.  

The Glenda Files:  Online Edition--Entry 1.  
Yesterday shortly after I heard the news, I was helping a student to find a new song.  We were singing "Only Hope" and I got to the line that says, "At the top of my lungs I'm giving it back," and I had to fight back the tears.  Everyday in my teaching, I am giving it back and paying it forward.  Glenda lives on in every lesson that each of her students teach.  

This was my Facebook post yesterday:

When I first started grad school, I would sit in the library and listen to classical singers while I did my homework. It was a great way to multi-task. But there was one singer whose performances drew me in so much that I stopped everything else to listen. 
She was my teacher, my mentor, and my friend. I am a better singer, teacher, and person because of her influence. Glenda Maurice will be greatly missed.

The Glenda Files Entry #2

Just to be clear, the very first thing I shared about Glenda was her amazing performance of Befreit.  So hopefully she will forgive the reference to a pop song in the last entry and this entry that is musical theatre.

I shared this with Glenda at her retirement party.  It really does describe us.  Our relationship had it's ups and downs and was far from perfect, but she changed me.  And I'm better for it.

This week in my studio

As we prepare for Solo and Ensemble Contest, I'm exploring ways to engage the students more in the learning process.

Last week, students evaluated their own performances using the Solo and Ensemble Adjudication Form.  I've had them assign points and give comments on good things as well as things that they can improve on.  If a student wants to work on breath support, I ask what exercises, images, etc. they already know that can help that.  Then I remind them of one or more approaches we've already discussed and maybe give them a new concept if they are ready for it.

At their next lessons, students will again evaluate themselves and come up with solutions to problems, but this time, they will be evaluating based on an audio recording of them singing.  At the following lesson, we will do video recording and have them evaluate that.

My job as a teacher is to impart new knowledge, but it is also to get students to understand and apply the knowledge they have already been given.  As one of my teachers told me, the job of a good voice teacher is to make his or her job obsolete.

Process

Read this great post by Jeannette LoVetri about singing.
http://lovetri-post.blogspot.com/2013/02/goals-versus-process.html

Here's my favorite quote:

Process oriented training takes longer and maybe isn't as glamorous in the moments when it seems like you aren't really "getting there" but if you don't rush, if you take time to absorb, experiment, listen, explore, examine, question, try and maybe even fall a bit here and there, what you learn will stick.  It will be yours forever and it will be appropriate.  

It's so nice when I find people that affirm what I have been saying for years.   Now if I could only convince my high school students whose whole lives revolve around whether or not they get a solo.  Voice lessons are not about getting a solo in the big high school show.  25 years from now that will not matter.  But the vocal skills you learned, if you were really learning them (exploring and finding ways to make them work for you), will be with you forever.

Dealing with Disappointment

For all those students who didn't get what they want, this is my advice.

First, skip criticizing the directors or judges.  It doesn't do any good.

Second, avoid tearing down the people that got what you wanted.

Third, evaulate.

• Did you invest everything in preparing for this audition/performance opportunity? 
• Did you really practice?   
• Did you practice frequently, efficiently, effectively?  
• Did you record yourself (both audio and video) practicing your performance and then listen/watch taking notes of things that you think you could have improved?  

If the answers are yes, then remind yourself that you did your best and the rest is out of your control.  Keep up the good work.  Keep digging into the details of technique and interpretation.  Keep putting yourself out there.  It may not be now or soon, but you will see the results.  

If the answers are no, then ask yourself another question.

• Was what you did instead of really refining your performance worth not getting this particular thing that you wanted?  

Sometimes the answer is yes, and if that's the case, just let go of the disappointment. You can't do everything perfectly, and you chose something that was more important to you. Priorities are good things.  If your answer was no, what can you change to make the next experience more successful?