Laurie Richards

I meant to mention this when I first wrote last week about the advantages of shared lessons, in case anyone was wondering: there were a few items from that video brainstorming session that I purposely left out. Here’s why: Wider possibility of teaching venues More…

• Last updated 3 years ago
• benefits of group lessons, benefits of shared lessons, ensemble, ensemble playing, group, groups, Laurie Richards, shared lesson, shared lessons, teaching groups, value of groups

Due to Covid restrictions I’m sad that this year I won’t get to do my usual Christmas Carol sing along at a rest home. My study’s would learn to accompany carols and we would perform/play and sing along with the residents. I can’t even do…

• Last updated 3 years ago
• accompaniment games, accompaniment workshop, benefits of online lessons, Christmas, Christmas accompaniment, Christmas Carols, Christmas songs, covering recital cost, distance lessons, games, holiday, holiday songs, holidays, ideas for recitals, jam sessions, jamming, Laurie Richards, learning online, learning via webcam, musical games, online, online learning, online lessons, online recital, piano party, playlist games, private recital, public recital, public recitals, recital, recital cost, recital format, recital ideas, recital program, recital programs, recital size, recital space, recital venues, recitals, singalongs, singing along, teaching online, ukulele, using a webcam to teach, videoconference software, Workshops, Zoom

Hi teachers, just curious how everyone is handling the Reading Rhythm process with online students. Are you having them play the tracks to the audio, a metronome, one handed while tapping the beat or having the coach clap? Any preference towards any of these? They’re…

• Last updated 3 years ago
• benefits of online lessons, call and response, clapping, clapping the beat, distance lessons, internal metronome, Laurie Richards, learning online, learning via webcam, metronome, online, online learning, online lessons, reading r, reading rhythm, rhythm tracks, RR, tapping, tapping sdq, teaching online, using a webcam to teach, using audio tracks, videoconference software, voicing, voicing rhythms with words

For anyone out there teaching groups, where do you teach? I’ve checked with music stores and a few other places, with no luck as of yet. I got a quote from a church for $20/hour to use their room. I thought it sounded a little…

• Last updated 4 years ago
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Editorial note: a teacher was concerned about setting tuition rates so as to do better than merely covering expenses. It generated the following discussion. I am a new Simply Music teacher, but before I taught simply music I was in a very similar situation to…

• Last updated 11 months ago
• adjusting tuition, collecting tuition, discussing rates, earnings, explaining tuition, income, increasing tuition, inquiries about rates, Laurie Richards, lesson prices, lesson rates, low earnings, low income, monthly lessons, monthly vs per-lesson tuition rate, not making money, price, prices, pricing, quitting, raising prices, raising tuition, rates, recruiting, setting prices, setting rates, Simply Music lesson prices, traditional lesson prices, tuition, tuition policies, tuition policy, tuition rate, tuition rates

I’d seen someone talk about handling materials expenses by just upping the monthly fee to include a contribution toward materials, avoiding lots of separate administrative stuff with separate orders and such. I realized that I like this idea a lot, and I’ve run it by…

• Last updated 4 years ago
• breaking down the costs of lessons, cost, cost of materials, cost of SHMs, inquiries about price, Laurie Richards, material cost, materials, new material, price, prices, purchasing SHMs, setting prices, SHM, SHM costs, SHMs, student home material, Student Home Materials, talking about cost, value of materials, value of SHM

Who has a nice response to this missive that I received today? “I am happy to pay you for your time, and am overall pleased with the program (and with you especially), but paying for the books is more difficult when they are, quite frankly,…

• Last updated 4 years ago
• answering questions about fees, audio, audio materials, audio SHMs, benefits, CD, communicating benefits, comparing traditional to Simply Music, cost, cost of materials, cost of SHMs, DVD, expense, expenses, expensive, fee, fees, Laurie Richards, material cost, materials, new material, passing along fees, perceived value, purchasing SHMs, Robin Keehn, setting fees, SHM, SHM costs, SHMs, Simply Music's value, student home material, Student Home Materials, talking about cost, using the SHM videos, using videos, value, value of materials, value of program, value of SHM, value of SM, video, video materials, video SHMs, videos

I’d like recommendations on how to handle the feedback from this parent. (Please see below.) They’ve missed the last two and have only come to two classes, up to and finishing the “pentatonic” concept. The recreation only allows refund if they’ve requested for it before…

• Last updated 4 years ago
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I have a dad who is moving to Indiana to become one of the assistant. coaches for Notre Dame. They’d like to continue lessons with me by webcasting? Has anyone ever done that? Tips and thoughts would help? I have done this a few times…

• Last updated 4 years ago
• distance learning, distance lessons, Laurie Richards, learning online, online groups, online learning, online lessons, teaching online

Can someone recommend to me how they teach their students the Minor Scales? I teach major scales in the order of the circle of fifths. Then, I usually start with natural minor, and show the relationship with the relative major, since they have the same…

• Last updated 4 years ago
• Ballade, Chester, chester chills out, Dog, harmonic minor scale, Laurie Richards, major scale, major vs. minor, melodic minor scale, minor chords, minor keys, minor scales, natural minor scale, pentascale, relative major, relative minor, scale, scale fingering, scale formula, scale theory, scales, teaching scale, tetrascale, transposing minor keys