Using QR Codes in the Private Studio

04/28/2012

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QR codes, the square barcodes read by mobile devices and webcams can be a useful element  to add to your private music studio.  They function quite well as a marketing aid.  With these codes you can bring users to your website or send your information directly to them.  With no phone calls to make or websites to search it's easy to get potential students  involved more quickly.  Not only can QR codes be used to modernize and promote your business your students will enjoy the puzzle aspects of QR codes to play music games.  They function more as a novelty in this regard although that might be just what you need to get students engaged in learning more about music.  I’ve included some ideas for both marketing and teaching.  There are several sites that have automatic code generators.  Kaywa is a popular site.  With Google’s Url Shortener you can make a QR code with less information, which makes the code easier for your device to read.  I like QRickit for its variety of creative ideas.

On the practical side you probably want potential students to know more about you and your studio.  Does your studio have a website?  Add a code to fliers, business cards and brochures that links to any page on your website.  As an aside, while you’re at it you might want to check your website--is it optimized for mobile viewing?  Test it on your own mobile device.  Can you read the content you want clients to see?  Are the buttons and links functioning on your homepage?  Are you using Flash?  Now is the time to make sure you  can be reached from either a desktop or a mobile phone.  More and more people are using mobile devices as their primary access to the internet.  Once you're sure that students can find your site add a QR Code to your printed materials. 
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Link to an URL
Visit Google’s Url Shortener page to enter your web address and receive a shortened url and a QR code for your site.  When this code is added to your materials your visitors are tracked with Google Analytics.  Revisit Google’s page to see how well your campaign is working.


Even if you don’t have a website you can still use QR codes creatively.  A VCard code adds your contact information to a user’s mobile device.  With a TEXT code you can send a text with your contact info, studio promotions, a discount code, you name it.
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Link to Text to add your contact info to a client's phone
But the most brilliant tool of all is your own commercial.  Create a code that links to a YouTube video about your studio.

As I stated earlier, there are more applications for a school classroom than a private music studio, particularly a studio with young students, yet I’ve listed a few that might work for yours. 

Have your students help make their next recital program and learn some more about composers at the same time.  With student’s research on composers and pieces a QR code could be printed next to their name in the program.  Link the code to student research that you have placed in a DropBox folder.  The audience can read program notes created by the students prior to the concert or later at home.   If you don’t want to include student program notes you can skip the paper programs altogether and simply share one copy of the program to a public DropBox folder.  With one large code displayed at the venue parents scan the code before the concert and access the program on their phones. Some activities require more preparation from the teacher.  Group lessons for younger students are a great place to play games with codes.  Using codes is a good alternative to dice or spinners.  Make up several cards printed with codes that link to text with playing instructions, for example a certain number of repetitions, specific articulations, musical terms.  Students draw cards and scan the codes with the teacher’s mobile device, then play the instructions.  
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Link to Text
Would you use QR Codes in your private studio?  Try some of my ideas or some of your own.  I’d love to hear what works for you.
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Do You Measure Up?

04/18/2012

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"The trick to playing second fiddle is to play it like second Stradivarius." ~ Robert Brault

My friend shared a clip yesterday.  The diminutive violinist seen here is Soo-Been Lee, competing in the final round of the Menuhin Competition.  The ten-day music festival was held last week in Beijing and features 42 outstanding violinists from around the world.  These competitors are all under the age of 22.  
The amazing thing about this performance is not that Soo-Been Lee is 11 years old; it’s that she came in 2nd place.  I think she’s incomparable.  I wonder what she thinks?  

A dramatic example chosen to prove a point.  About comparing.  It’s easy to see what you’re not.  Can you turn down the volume on your inner critic and take comfort in knowing that you’re perfect right where you are? 
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Show Me Your Desk

04/17/2012

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Desks are on my mind these days.  It started with a visit home.  My sister-in-law just started working from home and set up a work space in the living room.  Her desk features 3 computers and 3 monitors and an enormous leather wing chair.  They laughingly call it "the command center."  I call it idyllic--between calls she listens to the murmur of their chickens.  Then last week I heard Science Friday’s Desktop Diaries for the first time.  This show, centered around the amount of time we spend at our desks asks scientists to describe what’s on their desks and why.  Now I’m noticing desktops everywhere!  I’m more interested in creatives desktops like Lauren Bucquet’s that I stumbled upon yesterday.  The head shoe and accessories designer for Rag & Bone has a space filled with pens and chalks, fabric and leather, buttons and vintage trinkets and plenty of photos that help complete her story.  I’ve always loved Karen Michel’s photos of her art supplies--her tools become just as beautiful as the finished product.
Musicians working spaces are music stands and studios piled with instruments and scores.  The practice room is yet another kind of desk.  The Colorado Springs Philharmonic offers a peek into the working space of 75 musicians.  Dubbed “Musical Chairs” this fascinating opportunity invites donors to sit onstage next to musicians during a rehearsal.  It’s a multi-dimensional experience not only to hear, see and feel the music, but to observe interactions between working conductor and musicians.  Our wonderful supporters become part of our group’s “desk”, sitting next to their favorite section, asking questions, learning more about our work.

My desk is a collection of metronomes, reading glasses assignment charts and scribbled ideas.  A violin and viola hang on the wall at the ready.  The rest of the space is filled with photos and mementos of my children and whimsical pieces that remind me to have fun.
What about you?  What’s on your desk?  A work in progress?  An idea just waiting to happen?  Like a three dimensional mind map your desk is a crystal clear reflection of your work.  Now it’s your turn.  We want to see where your magic happens.  Show me your desk.  Hop on over to Beyond-Do Re Mi’s Facebook Page and post pics of your desk, studio or workspace.  I can't wait to see!
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Sound Booth

04/04/2012

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My first memory of recording was singing along with my parents’ Mitch Miller LP.  Sprawled on the floor,  propped on our elbows, my brother and I sang into a compact cassette player while the record spun.  Over and over we pressed clunky buttons on the recorder and shrieked while we sang, convulsing with reckless laugher and aching sides.  Each replay was more hilarious than the last.  

Fast forward to the serious side of recording--college audition tapes.  Believe me, that's no laughing matter.  I recorded at a studio owned by a family friend, Garman O. Kimmel, a man who knew something about recording.  “For 30 years, Kimmell recorded, edited, and produced for radio the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra’s weekly performances, all at his own expense. He eventually did so on a state-of-the-art tape recorder machine that he and A. P. Van Meter designed and built.” from So much to give, the legacy of Garman Kimmel.  Cut and dried and state-of-the-art, we got the job done.

As a freelancer I’ve done a variety of session work through the years--all in recording studios.  That is, until recently.  My last few gigs were home studio sessions.  It's fascinating to see their workspaces--a converted garage, a niche in a bedroom and an entire basement repurposed as a recording studio.  Home studios instill a relaxed atmosphere that makes the work more amiable.  And it's a welcoming touch to be greeted by the family dog.

My son writes songs but evades the studio.  His charts and mp3 files arrive first in a Dropbox folder.  Then with laptop and microphone in tow, he travels to record one band member at a time.  (I’m honored that he makes a 1,000 mile journey to include me in his music.)  It's a joy to make music with him!  For an entire afternoon my teaching studio is converted into a maze of cables, microphones and music stands, every square inch of floor papered with completed charts.  I'm delighted to share a completed song from his August sessions:
And the newest recording studio?  Well, there’s one in my home...and in 52 others spread out across the globe.  We’re part of something new.  So new in fact, that this very week our inboxes anticipate the first composition we’ll record together.  We’re members of the Twtrsymphony, “an ensemble made of classical musicians who met on twitter and wish to share their love of music with the rest of the world.”  Brainchild of composer, Chip Michael, we record each part individually and send the completed file to Chip for mixing with our far-flung colleagues.  Amazing!

This project takes me back to the giddy days of my first recordings. When I couldn't wait to play.  Honestly, this new adventure is magical--like Wonkavision.  Not a giant chocolate bar but a digital score, broken into tiny bits and sent through the air to be recorded.  Back it goes through the air to be reassembled into a living orchestra performance.  A tasty morsel of music not longer than 140 beats per piece.  It's a crazy mix of music and technology that is so refreshingly modern that I can't wait to get started!
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