The Top 7 Apps Every Studio Teacher Needs

Whether you’ve just started your own teaching studio, or you’ve been teaching for years, here are some of the must-have apps for every studio teacher.

Instagram/Facebook

Potential students may find you through word of mouth, or Google, but if you want to stand out from the crowd, we recommend using Instagram and Facebook to build a following and your personal brand. If you haven’t considered Instagram or Facebook for your business, both apps offer great tools to help grow your business, including advertising and content scheduling. Using these apps can be a great way to connect with potential students, show off the achievements of your current students, share tips and advice and even help your students connect with one another.

According to the folks at Instagram, their social media presence currently brings with it over 800 million active users. Over 500 million are on the platform on a daily basis, with 80 percent of them being outside of the United States, 34 percent of them being millennials and 38 percent checking the site multiple times each day. With that many eyeballs, there’s no reason to not give it a go! We recommend posting on a regular schedule, so your followers can know when to expect a post from you.

Cost: Free!

Canva

Canva is a fantastic, easy to use tool that allows you to create graphics, videos and more, that you can use on your website and social media channels. Canva users can choose from many professional designed templates, and edit the designs and upload their own photos through a drag and drop interface. Canva is free to use, and if you want to print off posters or flyers, you can do so easily within the app.

You don’t need to be a graphic designer to use Canva - you don’t need design skills at all! If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to branding, there are not only free templates within Canva itself, but lots of affordable Canva templates available for sale from other small business owners, that you can purchase and use to develop your own branding. It’s a great way to show off your personality and methodology to potential students.

Cost: Free, with premium subscriptions available.

 

My Music Staff

Don’t be a slave to lesson reminders, invoicing and scheduling! My Music Staff comes to us highly recommended by some fantastic studio teachers in Brisbane.

My Music Staff helps you with scheduling (SMS and email lesson reminders, scheduling private or group lessons, managing multiple teachers), students (online resources, parent/student portal, lesson registration/cancellation), billing (online payments, auto-invoicing, calender-based billing), branding (host your own website, SEO) and much more.

Cost: $16.95 per month for one teacher.

Invoice2go

If you’re currently working with only a few students, Invoice2go is a great way to send invoices and accept payment. It is an easy to use app, coming in highly recommended by the teachers in the Simply for Strings team.

When founder Chris Strode couldn't find an invoicing application that suited his needs, he began coding his own solution. As a small business owner, Strode aimed to solve the challenges that he knew other business owners faced, developing a product that met the need for immediacy and simplicity in an accounting software.

Cost: 4 different subscription plans available, depending on your invoicing needs.

Zoom

Many studio teachers are now offering students across Australia online lessons. You just need an internet connection, a tablet or computer with speakers and built-in microphone, and you can get set up easily.

You’re doing big things, and organising tech doesn’t need to be one of them! It’s one click to start or join any meeting, and Zoom provides easy collaboration and participant controls. Zoom lets you easily share your screen with your students, which can be great when working on theory lessons. Zoom has certainly become one of the must-have apps during lockdown!

Cost: Free! If using Zoom for group lessons, 3 or more participants, prices start at $209 for the year.

Google Maps

Google My Business gives you the power to attract and engage customers when they search for your business on Google. Your Business Profile gives you a presence on Google Search and Maps, allowing you to respond to Reviews, post photos of products or special offers and add/edit your business details. Your Google business website lets you present your business professionally online, showcasing your photos and business details in a beautiful way. Insights shows you how you can optimise your customer engagement for better results, and you can encourage more engagement by interacting with your customers from the Customers tab.

Australia wide, there are at least 30 to 40 searchers per day for ‘violin teacher’ - having a Google Maps listing is an easy way for potential students to find you. Using Google My Business, you can upload your teaching studio address, a contact phone number and more. Google will also give you data so you can see exactly how many people are searching for your business name each month and clicking through to your website.

Cost: Free.

Notion

With a little bit of organisation, Notion is a fantastic alternative to My Music Staff. Notion provides the building blocks and you can create your own layouts and toolkit to get work done. Notion is an application that provides components such as databases, kanban boards, wikis, calendars and reminders. Users can connect these components to create their own systems for knowledge management, note taking, data management, project management, among others. For studio teachers, Notion is a great way to build and share a knowledge and resource hub for students. There are heaps of tutorials on YouTube which can help you get started!

Check out how Simply for Strings uses Notion here, by visiting our Music Educators Online Resource Hub.

Cost: Free for individuals sharing with 5 guests, $4 per month to share with unlimited guests.

Music Apps our Favourite Teachers Love!

Flashnote Derby

Flashnote Derby is a fun way for kids to learn and practice reading music notes. Each race is a timed test in which the student identifies different notes in order to urge their horse on towards the finish line. Answering quickly and correctly will cause their horse to gain ground, while incorrect answers will cause it to fall behind. At the end of each race, students can review the notes they missed and see the correct answers. Players can respond to flashcards by simply playing the note on their acoustic or MIDI instrument. They can also choose to answer by tapping letter buttons or playing a key on an on-screen piano. The game is fully customizable to allow for any desired notes in the treble, bass, alto, or tenor clefs to be included. You can select ranges of notes, or several individual notes to focus on specific areas that need work. Notes can be shown with sharps and flats and key signatures can even be added to increase the challenge for more advanced students. The amount of time the player is given for each flashcard can be increased or decreased depending upon their age and level of experience. Drills can start out simply, with only a handful of notes, and gradually be made more challenging until the full staff is mastered (up to five and a half ledger lines above or below the staff.) The more difficult the settings, the more points are awarded. The 'high score' is tracked so that players always have a goal to shoot for. As a bonus, over a dozen instructional video lessons are easily accessible from right inside the app! Even children with no prior music instruction can start using Flashnote Derby right away to begin learning about the music alphabet, the staff, and how to identify different notes.

Because it can be set up so quickly, Flashnote Derby provides a perfect motivational tool for music teachers to use with students, even for just a minute or two of each lesson. Teachers have the ability to email homework assignments to their students for them to play on their own devices at home. Each player's performance is recorded so that their progress can be tracked. You can easily see which notes are most in need of review.

When students give up on their music lessons, it's usually because they find it too difficult. Learning basic skills early is key to laying the groundwork for future success. Flashnote Derby makes this process more enjoyable and helps students stay motivated in their music learning.

Cost: $7.99 on the App store.

StaffWars

StaffWars is a game designed to help beginning and intermediate musicians learn, practice and woodshed the note names of the treble, alto and bass clefs. This has come highly recommended to us by a number of teachers!

Cost: Free Desktop app.

What’s your must have app? Let us know and we’ll add it to our list!