Running an Audiation-Based Music School: Deep dive with Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie Part 2

In this episode, Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie continues the discussion with managing teachers and students, parental involvement in music lessons, the school's philosophy for practice, making music practice a habit, and the importance of discipline and joyful learning.

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Introduction to Audiation-based Piano Instruction and Music Moves for Piano

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Want to dive into audiation-based piano instruction? Check out Music Moves for Piano by Marilyn Lowe.

Transcript

Hannah: 1:14

Welcome to Keys to Music Learning. I'm Hannah Mayo of Mayo Piano.

Krista: 1:18

And I'm Krista Jadro of Music Learning Academy.

Hannah: 1:21

Join us as we discuss common goals and challenges in the piano studio and offer research based ideas and solutions to guide every one of your students to reach their full musical potential with audiation.

Krista: 1:34

We're back for part two with Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie. Enjoy!

Hannah: 1:40

So speaking of being hesitant about observing, and I get that too, I become a little bit of a different person, when someone is watching me, I feel like I kind of overdo it sometimes when someone is watching. But have there been any other sort of challenges or struggles or growing pains for your teachers?

Sarah: 2:03

I think that a lot of the challenges that come along with managing teachers is on the administrative side of things. So just onboarding a teacher and finding them the right clients and communicating the clients to them and their age. And all of that is a significant amount of work on the back end. And schedules change, which can be really difficult if a teacher all of a sudden needs to change for some reason, whether it's for the one class or for the entire school year. But I think managing sickness is really the hardest thing with teachers, because they're all getting very sick. I don't know how it is all over the country, but here in Minnesota, everyone is sick all the time. There was a horrible cough that just went around that lasted for weeks, actually. I had two teachers who couldn't sing for two weeks, and they are Music Play and Music Moves for Piano teachers. And that was just such a huge challenge rescheduling, and finding subs and all of this convincing other teachers to give their days off to sub all of that administrative side of things is really difficult. But I hope that the teachers I've hired feel the sense of community that we have within the school. And I think they do because one of them's out one day someone jumps in and covers for them. And then that person that jumped into cover for them is out the next week and so the other one gets them back. That side of it is worked out really well. And also one of the things I just came up with this year to help with teachers, specifically teacher sickness, especially that last minute teacher sickness that happens where you know, all morning, you're like, I think I'm going to be okay. And then as you get closer to your lessons, you're like, I'm not. Actually I have a fever of 102. I'm miserable, and I can't go teach. I have an emergency sub plan that I put together, which was a tremendous amount of work. But basically, it's like, if you're going to be out and you have two students, one of your students is going to go over here with Sarah and join her piano class and the other student's gonna go over here to Jessica and join her piano class. And we've had we've implemented this once this year. And it was really great, because we ended up having a lot of siblings together that were not normally together. And in some ways, like I think the parents were like, wow, this is so cool. Like, we didn't have to take care of the little one, while the big one went to his class, we could put them all together. And it ended up being kind of a special thing where the kids got to do extra special things, because the class was all of a sudden bigger. And so there's a lot of a lot of the challenges that came along with having this many teachers have sort of started to get a little easier with time, but it takes, like I said, it takes a lot of work, and a lot of creativity and trying to figure out how to navigate all of that.

Krista: 5:01

Yeah, so speaking of your students, Sarah, what's the relationship like between the schools and your families?

Sarah: 5:10

I think it's good. The relationship between the school and the family, it's kind of a tricky question. Because in some ways, I think this makes me a really good director because I am a parent myself, who's completely inundated with emails and information about my kids all the time. And then I'm also a director who needs to get that information out somehow. So that side of things can be a little tricky. I try to keep the communication with families really on as far as when we're closed or what's coming up or what's happening. It's also relying on parents to remember to check their email and to read their email and that's not always the case. So I've learned actually to go back to sometimes paper sending home things with kids to have their parents see. But our communication is really good specifically with the administrative side of things. And making sure that everybody has the information at their fingertips. And then on the back end, we're always here to answer the questions that come up when you don't have time to read all of that stuff. And so that happens throughout the year. And how involved are the parents with their kid's lessons and with the school? So that really depends on parent. And I think when it comes to being involved with their child's, let's say, piano specifically, since you know, we're a Music Moves for Piano podcast here. The communication between us and the families, as far as practice is, I think, incredible, because we have notes that are already written that have embedded links into them. We provide parents with videos, we are very careful to say that those videos are for the parents. I will say that students watch them as well, sometimes as a refresher. In a perfect world, they would not, and it would just be the parents. So for example, for a Keyboard Games A family that's brand new, and has never had any experience with us, not only do they get a description of what we did in every class, they also get a video, they get explanations about why they're doing that. How to say du de, it's not do dee it's du de, because your parents will see that and be like, I don't even know, this isn't how to say it. And they get that sent to them every week. So they get notes, emailed with all of that information in it. You have two different kinds of parents, I think when it comes to a music school. You've got your musician parents, who can read music. And then you've got the ones who kind of walk off the street, and they're like, I have no idea. I don't read music, I don't do any of this. And they kind of both approach us saying, we don't know what to do. And in some ways, sometimes the ones that don't have a musical background are a little bit easier in the sense because you're like, just watch the video, use the language you hear me using in the video, work with your child, like have them show you what they did. And then help them keep doing it through the week and just be encouraging of their creativity. With the musician parents, you kind of have to give them more don'ts and maybe less dos like don't explain to them that this is in G flat. Don't tell them that that is a middle C you know, like things like that. And so we can I find that musician, parents are wonderful because they're they have that discipline for practicing. So they understand why it's important for their kid to practice at home. But they also have a lot of traditional music background that they're trying to bring into the practice at home. And so we kind of, were prepared for that. And we have a lot of discussions with parents who do read music and kind of hold their hand a bit more and say, you know, don't do that. Don't tell them how to read it. And it's not one and two, and we say du de du de and I know this feels weird. And I also didn't learn it this way. And you know, just go with it and do your best. And please ask questions, if you're not sure. And that that kind of side of things.

Hannah: 9:31

It sounds like you're providing a lot of support at home for parents and for students. And recently I've been seeing a little bit more about practicing on your Instagram, I think there was something with some balloons. So I know that you're doing things and you've got some creative ideas for encouraging practice. Could you tell us about that?

Sarah: 9:53

Yeah, absolutely. So I've mentioned Callie before, she runs a social media account, I had enough sense to know that I should have somebody in their 20s running the social media account. And she also designs all of these wonderful practice sheets, and we're averaging kind of a monthly, turn around with practice sheets. We often have some that are better designed for younger kids, and then some that are a little better for older kids. But honestly, some of my older kids will look at the younger kids practice sheet the one with the balloons and say can I have that one? The idea is that they are taking it home with them. They're creatively coloring in a balloon or a pumpkin or whatever it is for that theme. In January last year, we did a snow globe and the older kids got a blank sheet with a snow globe and then they could slowly build their own image inside of it. They'd add a picture for every day they practiced. And then the younger kids got one that already had a snowman and it's you know, snowflakes and a little house and they could color a different object every time they practiced. Kids love this, and then they bring it back. And we hang them up all over the studio. So the studio is just wallpapered with them. And there's a lot of reasons behind that beyond just being like, hey, look at this, I'm hanging your thing on the wall. Other kids see it, and they go, oh, yeah, that's right, I'm supposed to be practicing. And that's something that they want me to do here. Parents see it. And they'll go, oh, that's right. We have that practice sheet or shoot, we didn't do the last one. Maybe we can do a better job next month. So we're always giving opportunities to kind of start over. And another just on the same note, in September, we did a practice q&a. And we did it on Zoom. On purpose, because we wanted parents to just be able to phone in or just sit and have their screen off and not have to be anywhere it was on a Saturday. And I did a slide presentation of what it means to play at home and how beneficial it is. And some of the beneficial things I shared with parents were not they had nothing to do with performance. None of it was your kid will get so much better at the piano. I would never say that. But their participation in their lesson skyrockets, when they're playing at home, their enthusiasm to come to their lesson changes when they've been playing at home. And their overall joy in their lessons are higher, because they come in and they go, I practiced Chocolate Chip Cookies, and I want to play it for you or I did Old Woman and I tried it with my left hand and I could do it. And they just have a totally different approach to their lessons. And the biggest one to me is that they improvise in a different way. And they every child is creative, whether they practice or not. And they can all improvise, but there's something that shifts in their playing in our classrooms when they have been playing at home. I especially I've noticed that a lot in my Book 1 students this year is they'll play the first lick of Porpoise at Play in their improv, you're like, yeah, that's because that pattern was put in you and you played it, and you liked it. And now you just put that into your improvisation. And I just see a totally different student in the classroom. So that practice q&a was designed for parents to be able to kind of understand why we think your child should play at home and also how how you should, how you can help them. And here are the steps and here are things you can do. And it's not 20 minutes a day, and it's not 30 minutes a day. It's playing every day. And it can be for four minutes, one day and eight minutes for another day and get rid of the kitchen timer that you put on top of the piano. That's not what it's all about, at least not always. We actually have a practice, charity practice drive going on at our school right now where we do log our minutes. But so as I was saying, like, oh, I probably should backpedal. Because because there is one chunk of the year where we do this, it's kind of like a walkathon. But it's a practicathon, and students raise money by practicing for a charity that is in our neighborhood. So it's really cool, we really try to come up with innovative, interesting ways for kids to be playing. Over Christmas break, we usually send home some sort of little checklist review sheets that's cute, like a little bingo sheet that they can fill out or even just do take home sheet of paper you put up on your wall, and you check the things as you do them. Which can backfire. Because my own children get those and they come home on the day, like the day one of winter break, and they go and they play every single thing. And they check it all off. And then they go, oh, I'm done. I'm like, okay, well, let's see how many checkmarks you can get on each one. So like, make a goal here. Let's not do it in one day. But um, yeah, I think that you parents need hand holding and kids need hand holding and they need to understand why. I think too many parents think the why is that my kid is going to get better. And I mean, that usually does come along with practicing but that's not the why at our school the why is all the things I listed before just creativity and joy and happiness and participation. And all of those things just feel so much better in the classroom when they're playing at home.

Krista: 15:35

I love this. And I don't know I hope I'm saying this correctly. But I read a book Atomic Habits, a year ago, two years ago, I don't remember. But I remember that, he said the author said to do something for two minutes to make it a habit like if you want to make yoga habit. Just lay out your mat. Maybe not even do the yoga but just lay out your mat. You have to start really small so I love that your practice sheets are not practice for 15 minutes. Like adding that extra element of oh, now I have to get a timer out or, you know, I have to know exactly how long you practice, but just go to the piano, because I'm sure after a while either going to the piano and they're not spending one or two minutes, they're going to start to really become into what they're doing and start to spend longer as they're doing it more often. So I really, I love that as the goal, not a specific time except for your charity, which I think is amazing. But just just going over to the piano, because you know, a lot of these students, they're gonna go over to the piano, and that's the hurdle, getting to the piano and turning it on or opening up the cover. That's the hurdle. And when they're there, they'll play.

Sarah: 16:46

Yeah, and the other part about building it into your routine that's so difficult for families right now is that we are on the other side of this pandemic that kind of took our routines away. And we had so much time in a way that we weren't used to having. And now, I mean, my business is thriving, because parents are back into it, they want to get into routine. And I think that some parents might be over scheduling their kids right now. And then to find that time is really difficult. So that resonates with people who are really busy, too. They've got a really busy schedule, and just saying, hey, how about after breakfast before they brush their teeth, they go play piano just for a little bit. And then they go upstairs and brush their teeth and start building it into another thing that you do as a routine, right, two minutes, you brush your teeth for two minutes, and you practice for two minutes, not at the same time. I say that because my children have tried to do that before and it's not good for the piano.

Hannah: 17:48

Also just want to say that I was having this conversation with a parent not too long ago. And we were talking about discipline and practice. And it came up that and this was also in a some think American Music Teacher article. Like how do you get the longevity? How do you get kids to stay in lessons for year after year after year? And one of the things in this article, and one of the things that I think that we as audiation-based teachers do following this Music Moves curriculum is that we, we get them to love it first. Because we're doing things that are fun, and we're creating joy, and it's happy and it's good vibes. And yes, of course they're learning too, but you kind of have to get the fun and the joy and you have to kind of make them love it first, and then you can ask them later to do you know, the hard work of the discipline side of being a musician. So I think it's really cool how you're kind of coming at it from a, like a almost like a collaborative and joyful way. Rather than just like, I'm the teacher. And I said to practice and if you want to get your money's worth you practice, okay, done. You know, it's so creative, and I'm getting a lot of ideas I think I would like to implement in my studio, about practicing.

Sarah: 19:17

And that's the thing is when you're when you're running a program, whether you're by yourself or you have an entire school with lots of parents, you start to learn which parents do respond to the return on investment conversation, which is also the case. You're investing money in your child's music education by coming to a school like or a Music Moves for Piano based school like this. A bigger return on your investment will come if you are touching base at home, and there are a lot of parents who it's like, oh, okay, all right, you know, I'm gonna get more bang for my buck by getting them to do this. And then there's also you know, to take the music out of another part of it is we've used the word discipline a few times and teaching somebody who's growing up, how to sort of build something into your routine and be disciplined about practicing. There is nothing wrong with that. That's a great thing to be teaching children and, you know, my three between my three kids, we have five instruments that are being learned, and that is extremely overwhelming when it comes to playing at home. I will tell you that my kids are now they do need to be reminded. There's just something every day it's like, okay, so do you know yes, it's Saturday, but what do we do after breakfast? We play piano. But they are extremely disciplined and they just do it. There's no argument anymore. I don't know when we crossed over into that area of like, maybe occasionally on like a Sunday morning, you know, everyone's chillin and my little boy is like, wait, what I have to play piano. It's like, oh, yeah, sorry, buddy. But otherwise, it's just built into their routine and they think it's normal. They think it's 100% normal and just part of life and they don't question it at all anymore. It's great.

Hannah: 21:05

Thank you so much for being here, Sarah, and for sharing all about your school and all about the relationships that you're cultivating with your teachers and the students and their families. We really appreciate all of your ideas.

Sarah: 21:18

Thank you so much for having me. I love listening to you guys's podcast.

Hannah: 21:22

And if you are interested in learning more from Sarah, she's got a webinar on the Music Learning Academy webinar library called Early Audiation: Creating a musical bath for our littlest learners, where she talks a lot about Music Play, and creative ideas for music classes for early childhood from birth to about four or five years old. And a lot of that can be incorporated into keyboard games lessons as well. And in honor of this podcast with Sarah, Music Learning Academy is offering 25% off with the code audiate on Sarah's webinar, so take advantage of that.

Krista: 22:06

And if you are enjoying this podcast, Hannah and I would love for you to join our community at musiclearningacademy.com/keystomusiclearningcommunity. This is a place where you can support us, support the podcast, and also there are two tiers. You can be a silent partner. Or you can be a friend of the podcast where you can join us for one meeting a month. We can answer your questions we can chat to talk about a specific audiation based piano focus. It'll be fun. And if you are not already part of our Facebook group, please join us at Introduction to audiation-based piano instruction and Music Moves for Piano. Thank you again, Sarah, for joining us and we'll see you all soon.