Transcript Snapshot 041 – Marie Lee

Transcript: Snapshot 041 – Marie Lee

Transcript for Snapshot 041 – Marie Lee

[00:00:00] Andrea: Hey, it’s Andrea with Music Studio Startup, the podcast about the business of teaching music. Learn from the startup stories of music teachers who are doing incredible things with their studios. Be inspired by creative musicians who are branching out and thriving as entrepreneurs. Be empowered by the insights of experts who will help you grow your own studio.

Let’s get started.

Welcome back. We are doing a special series on the podcast this summer called Studio Snapshots. Rather than the in-depth process oriented interviews, you’re used to hearing these rapid fire interviews, give us a glimpse into a guest’s studio at a moment in time. They’re part reflection, part anticipation of the future, and fully a celebration of where these teachers are today.

Today I’m talking to Marie Lee. Here’s Marie’s Snapshot. Hi, Marie, welcome to the podcast. Can you introduce yourself and tell us briefly about your studio?

[00:01:04] Marie Lee: Hi, thanks for having me, Andrea. I’m Marie Lee. I am a group piano teacher. I have over a hundred students out of Las Vegas. I’ve actually been teaching for about 30 years, but mostly group classes for the last 20 years. And I’m located inside our beautiful Steinway dealer store. They actually have built a classroom for me with eight Rowland Digital. So we have the best of the best. We have our own little entry. They can close the store. We can come in when we want and get to use the recital hall. It’s just the best collaboration I could have asked for.

[00:01:34] Andrea: That’s amazing. Good job fostering that relationship. Yay. Well, today’s interview is a quick check into your studio at this moment in time, so we don’t get to dive deep, but we get to hear quickly some things that you’re taking away from the last school year.

So we’ll jump right in. What are you celebrating from the last school year? I.

[00:01:49] Marie Lee: Well that was a fun one ’cause just I think two weeks ago, June 21st, we had our room full of pianos event and it was for Make Music Day. And I honestly had never heard about this. This is a worldwide event, people. I did not know. This started in France probably 30 years ago. I probably have my numbers wrong. But MTNA, this was kind of a big push from MTNA. Music Teachers National Association, reached out to dealers, piano dealers all throughout the United States and asked if they would host a room full of pianos event. And so they were asked to team up with their local MTNA associations to put on this event, and it happened to be out of the store that I teach out of in Las Vegas, our Steinway dealer.

They provided 50 pianos and we had 97 students show up to play an ensemble all at the same time, which was absolutely glorious and I can’t even describe the feeling, but it was just, it was amazing. They, they bought the kids matching t-shirts, which looked really, really cool. It’s fun to have a whole club of 97 of your friends in there.

They provided a full film and audio crew, including an indoor drone. So the kids had a drone flying over their heads as they were performing. They’ve spent a lot of money, made a big deal about it for our kids, and I know it was just a huge deal for my students, particularly because they could look around the room and it’s like here’s all these other kids doing what I do. This is like a cool club to be in. And parents just really realized, I think, more of the value of piano study and that people in the community care that their kid is taking piano lessons and they’re there to support them. So it was honestly, I don’t say this lightly, it was one of the best events I’ve ever participated in. And my kids, I hope they bring it back. I don’t know that they will. I know it was a huge amount of money, but it was really, really exciting.

[00:03:31] Andrea: That’s incredible. How are you challenged last year?

[00:03:35] Marie Lee: This is an interesting question because I’ve taught for so long that you would think that nothing is new, that I’ve dealt with all these issues before and that is not the case, and I guess I should stop thinking that’s going to happen. But I had a couple parents that challenged my working hours when I’m available for their child. And I’ve never had to establish those boundaries before. It was a little tough. Anyway, a couple parents, one parent came around, did fine, the other one did not, and I had to let him go because it was just not a good fit and it wasn’t going to get better. And it’s hard to hear those words because it’s probably not the best way to have a relationship with your child’s piano teacher to get much done. But yeah, I, I mean, I’m not available at 6:00 AM or at 11 o’clock at night or on Sundays or when I’m traveling, that kind of thing.

And I don’t like confrontation. Maybe nobody does. I had to really learn how to choose my words carefully and stick up for myself, and this is what I can provide for you. And if this doesn’t work, we got to find a teacher that will accept your calls on Sunday and 6:00 AM

[00:04:36] Andrea: Yeah, human challenges are always there I think.

[00:04:39] Marie Lee: They don’t go away.

[00:04:42] Andrea: Did you take any risks or go outside your comfort zone last year?

[00:04:45] Marie Lee: You know what? That one, I’m going to actually go back to what I just talked about with the parents. It was very uncomfortable. And this was like the first year that I have thought about using chat GPT for responses for these parents.

And so it was really helpful because I could actually say, here’s my tone: I want to be firm, professional, but friendly. And it was really helpful to actually write all my feelings out ’cause I was angry, it was hurt. How do I let this parent go? And so it saved some of their dignity, but I don’t have to work with them anymore.

And it’s just hard because I always go back to the child. It’s like, this is not the child’s fault that their parent is totally overboard. And I know they’re trying to help, but it’s like there’s a point where you can’t push people to get what you want. And that was hard. So I took a risk. I mean, I knew it was going to be offensive, but how lightly could I make it like less offensive? And so, yay chat, GPT.

[00:05:35] Andrea: What were your takeaways from that experience? What will you take forward to future, maybe situations like that where you have to be a little bit more confrontational?

[00:05:42] Marie Lee: I realized that I hadn’t really defined my working hours in all these years, 30 years. I just assumed that people would just assume that if the studio’s closed, I’m not working or you can’t expect to reply for a couple days. So what I took away is I’ve got to define that. I’ve got to let everybody know, here’s my working hours, and if you don’t hear from me, you will in a few days. When I’m back.

But yeah, that was my takeaway is that I had never let parents know what I expected. I just assumed them to read my mind or just assumed, you know, nine to five hours don’t bother me anyway, kind of thing. So yeah, I, I had to define that, which I hadn’t ever done before.

[00:06:16] Andrea: What do summers look like in your studio for your students and also for you?.

[00:06:19] Marie Lee: Great. So I teach through the summer. I know some teachers take off. I have found, and everybody knows this, that we lose too much ground if students take off two or three months. I feel like I’m taking two or three months when they come back to make up the skills that they learned. And we all know that that development has to happen over and over again.

We’re just hearing that more and more with brain study, research and practice. And so I have an eight week abbreviated schedule, so I just call that through June through August, even if kids are going back to school in August. But that’s my summer schedules eight weeks. I keep the same class today and time that they come.

I do make it flexible for them to make up a class. I can’t do that during the school year because my classes are so full and, and each child is guaranteed a piano, but during the summer, enough kids are in and out that I can allow them to come and do makeup classes as well. I do have a few students that travel overseas, like literally, I don’t know how you can go away for two months, but they do. For those students we’ll do some video lessons or some Zoom lessons or do makeup classes when they get back, or private lessons. So I do try and work with them because I know what I’m asking might be a little bit different than what their other activities are. You know, maybe their dance class doesn’t require them to be there all summer, but because we’re a group classes, the class moves ahead.

If you’re not there, you’re going to fall behind and you’re going to feel uncomfortable when you come back. So it literally, you just feasibly cannot leave for two or three months and come back and expect to join the same class ’cause we’re going to be in a different place. Also, I, I’m heavily involved with the National Federation of Music Clubs and our ensemble festival is seriously my biggest retention tool because that gets kids to come to summer classes because we’re learning.

Those team pieces, they have to learn two team pieces and they’ll be performing on September 20th. If I waited till they came back, you know, in August to school, there’s no way we could get those together. So these kids, their parents, they want to be on those teams. That’s really how I get ’em to come and it works magic.

It’s awesome. And then personally for me, summer, we kicked off the Group Illuminated online conference for the fourth year and this year I’m co-hosting that with Leila Viss. And we have over 20 presenters this year, but they have created over 25 different courses for teachers. This can be for group teachers that are either, you know, exploring group or just maybe wanting to add a group component to their private studios or group teachers that are already teaching and just want to level up or add something creative or, or get some business advice.

It’s kind of a passion project because when I started group

 I didn’t know any other group teachers and it was over 20 years ago. I had literally two resources and that’s what I went with. And so I’m just so excited because you know, in the world of social media and Google, the internet and online courses, we can share so many different ways of teaching group piano, so many different techniques, and there’s just a lot more where people can actually fine tune the group experience to make it fit what they want it to fit.

So I’m excited about that too. That kicked off May 31st.

[00:09:19] Andrea: Excellent. Okay. And we can link to that in the show notes too. I have several hub members who are, have that on their tactics list this quarter is watching certain videos, so I’m excited about that. What are you doing this summer to prep for the next school year?

[00:09:32] Marie Lee: Uh, well, as I mentioned before, we are still holding classes through this summer and the big focus right now is preparing those two pieces for ensemble festival and it’s each class and I have about 20 classes up to eight students, so four to eight students per class. And this year I’ve got even some little 5-year-old kindergartners that we’re going to try and get ’em on the stage with their little quartet.

So that’s kind of our big push is we’re getting ready for that ensemble festival on September 20th, and I really love summer classes ’cause I feel like besides Ensemble Festival, there’s really not other deadlines that we have to get ready for our holidays. And so we’re having fun with a few, just different skills that I can incorporate.

So we’re doing some improvisation with Leila Viss’s Cupcake Improv, if you’ve seen that online. I am also, I’m trying to do this, but trying to get some beginning organ classes. I play a little bit of organ, but I have a course that a friend wrote. It’s beginning organ for pianists that can come in and learn how to play the organ.

Trying that ’cause I have a teenage student that he said he’d come in and teach it. He plays really well. So I’ll have him teach and I’ll be his assistant. And then I picked up 40 recorders pre COVID. I got, there was some sale and I just keep trying to decide if I can do that. I’m not sure I’m ready for that noise anyway. I’ve got that. Maybe another instrument, so we’ll see if that happens or if they just stay in my garage.

[00:10:54] Andrea: All sorts of things. Okay. What app or tool has made the biggest impact in your studio or life management this year?

[00:11:00] Marie Lee: I love that because I actually have two and I use them both probably as much as the others, so I couldn’t narrow it down.

So Piano Maestro, my absolute favorite, I can’t even tell you. I think I’ve had it eight years, maybe longer, but I use that almost in every class. We do some site reading in our classroom. Like I said, we have the eight pianos, but I also have a large screen TV that I just hooked my iPad up to and we play a piece and it’s not, you know, readiness. Exactly. Correct. ’cause there’s eight kids playing at the same time. But it’s a great way for sight reading. They have awesome summer camp songs this year. It was bluey pieces that surprisingly the teenagers loved Bluey too, which I did not know. And then my other favorite app is Practice Space, and that is how I share our assignments to keep everybody on the same place where they get home and know what they’re supposed to be practicing. And um, it’s really handy because the students and parents know that there’s just one place that they need to go to find the tools that they need to be successful with that particular piece. So in the olden days, like just a few years ago, I’d be emailing a recording check or here’s my video that I created.

And so practice based is kind of like a Google folder where you just add everything in for that particular piece. Here’s a video tutorial, here’s the PDF music, here’s some practice recordings, here’s my notes to help you practice. And then students just click open and they can be really successful because they have all the tools right there and there’s no excuses ’cause it’s like, I’ve, I’ve set you up for success. So access that. And if you don’t understand, there’s an awesome little chat where the kids can jump in and Miss Marie, I’m not sure I understand this, or I want you to hear what I got and I’ve got this part down. And then they can, you know, share a little video recording with me or with their class group. That’s a fun thing too is bonds ’em with their little community, their classmates and they can inspire each other to learn something. I got this, when are you going to get it? And little friendly competition,

[00:12:49] Andrea: Uhhuh. Okay, so that’s how you manage a studio of a hundred students and keep ’em all like choreographed with ensemble work.

[00:12:55] Marie Lee: It’s amazing. And once you create an assignment within Practice Space, you just like duplicate it. So it takes a bit of time to set yourself up and then once it’s set up, it runs really smoothly. So. That is how you do 20 students are 2000 so.

[00:13:11] Andrea: Alright. What’s one area of your business where you tend to get carried away or go overboard because it’s something you’re really passionate about or like to nerd out about or just enjoy?

[00:13:20] Marie Lee: Um, years ago I was talking to a friend that was also a piano teacher and we were talking about recitals and my recitals coming up. She said, well, I don’t do recitals ’cause they are too much work. And I was like, well, duh. Of course they are. They’re horrible amount of work, but they provide so many benefits.

So I would say if I get carried away with anything, it would be performances. I want to provide as many performance opportunities. For my students as possible, and I realize that is not always the best fit for students. I get that and parents and so I always tell them it’s optional, but I will encourage and bother you and text you and okay, you don’t want to play, just at least come and watch the other kids perform.

The benefits of performing just go beyond music. I feel like if a student gets a piece ready, they know they’ve got to work hard to get something ready, to have a performance ready to be able to perform. And then they’ve got to have the courage to get on stage in front of somebody and then they have to deal with those nerves for a little while.

But is this what we do in live? I mean, when we’re interviewing for a job or presenting at school or, I mean anything where we have to put ourselves out there. I just feel like performance is a, a beautiful way to set our students up for life.

[00:14:31] Andrea: I totally agree. Yeah. Where can listeners get in touch with you and follow along with your studio?

[00:14:35] Marie Lee: Thanks for having me, Andrea. So we will put this in the notes, but we have an awesome Facebook page called Group Illuminated. If you search on that one, jump in there. Even if you’re not a group teacher that would just like to hang out with some friendly folks with lots of discussion about teaching. And I’ll tell you what, it isn’t always group, but we’ve got lots of questions about business or just, um, retention, that kind of thing where teachers will throw out their ideas. Um, I also have just started this year a weekly newsletter with tips for teachers. And same thing, it’s not always group, but kind of here’s what’s going on in my studio, here’s a tip to add value, that kind of thing.

So if they’d like to join our newsletter, totally free, um, you do need to go to leilaviss.com. And then there is a menu bar. Anyway, this is Group Illuminated. Sorry, I don’t even know if these technical words, but go to that and then just scroll down and you can join our newsletter. So we’d love to see in there.

[00:15:25] Andrea: Okay. Thank you so much.

[00:15:26] Marie Lee: Thanks, Andrea.

[00:15:30] Andrea: Thank you for taking the time to be with us Marie. We’ll include a transcript and all the links mentioned in this episode at musicstudiostartup.com/snapshot041. The Music Studio Startup website is also filled with lots of other resources for music teachers just like you who want to set up their studios for success this summer, including our very popular self-paced Business Building 101 course, and our hub and mastermind for studio owners who want to be supported and challenged to grow as entrepreneurs.

If you are ready to dive in the live summer cohort of Business Building 101 is underway. Teachers are actively working on setting up and revamping their studios and it’s not too late to join in. Visit musicstudiostartup.com/businessbuilding101 to enroll. That’s all for today. Thanks for listening. I’ll be back next week.