John: Laura and I are super excited to start lessons up again! Laura was able to travel to NCKP (National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy) over the summer and catch up with what is going on in the piano world. She took away many great ideas but found two two fantastic resources; Tim Topham’s - The Inner Circle piano membership and the My Music Staff website. Both have changed how we have conducted our teaching for the past decade. The Inner Circle is a great resource for all teachers (not just piano) that covers in-lesson topics as well as business help with growing your music studio. We have decided to try it out for this year to help us grow and save us lots of time with the material that has been provided.We have begun just checking out the Inner Circle and it looks very promising.  Do you know that feeling you get from going to a music conference and feeling invigorated and refreshed? Imagine feeling that way almost every day in finding new repertoire, chatting with other professionals, and taking video courses.  I myself am not a piano player but I do teach keyboard and string instruments. I look forward to learning as much as I can from this site and I think everyone should try it out for at least for the first month. It does after all have a 30-day money back guarantee.  Inner Circle

My Music Staff (MMS) is a website that allows teachers to communicate easily with their students and their families.  Imagine that instead of sending students/parents website links, dropbox links, calendar links, autopay links etc.. MMS combines all of these elements into one nifty website.  The best part is that you can make your studio calendar, lesson notes, and track tuition payments with your clients. No more lost assignment sheets, or missed performance times, or lost checks.  It does take a bit of time to set these things up but well worth having ONE resource for students and their families. It also will (optionally) text your assignments to students on their phone as well as their parents. mymusicstaff

This is our fourth year teaching music in Madison County and we can’t wait to continue making unique programs, giving students creative opportunities, and embracing technology to its fullest.  We will be posting our first music event very soon. ‘Start spreading the news!’