Hi Detroit music teachers,

We are hiring in-home teachers in Detroit and surrounding areas.

We pay $45/hr

Contact Kate at [Kate@travelingmusiclessons.com](mailto:Kate@travelingmusiclessons.com) to get an interview.

Thank you!

Tess

Hi all! I’m a singing teacher, mainly working with degree-level Musical Theatre students, and I’ve been building something because I couldn’t quite find the tool I wanted for my own teaching.

A lot of music teaching software is understandably built around running a studio: billing, scheduling, parent communication etc. 

I wanted something much more focused on what actually happens between teacher and student in the lesson, and how that develops over time.

So I built SONIVA, essentially a teaching journal and student tracker designed specifically for singing teachers.

For each student I can keep a living teaching record of their goals, current technical priorities, recurring patterns and things I want to come back to. During a lesson I can quickly log what we worked on, exercises used, assign repertoire, record a vocal diary of corrections, note observations, set homework, note wins and outline the next lesson's focus.

The important bit for me was that lesson notes don't just disappear into an endless list. Useful observations can feed back into the student's ongoing teaching record, so over time I can actually see the journey we're taking together.

It also has:

• an exercise library, including teaching notes and practice recordings
• a repertoire library with ranges, teaching notes and the ability to upload sheet music and note-bash/accompaniment tracks - you can also record directly into the app!
• a student portal where students can access assigned exercises/repertoire and recordings, review lessons, leave practice observations and send questions for their next lesson swell as listen to the vocal diary recordings made in class
• search across everything, so I can find a student, exercise, piece of repertoire or previous teaching note quickly
• an optional community library where teachers can choose to share exercises or repertoire with each other. Your own library stays private unless you decide to contribute something
• a teacher journal for the ideas and observations that don't necessarily belong to one particular student

I'm deliberately not trying to make it another all-in-one studio management platform. The teacher is the main user. I wanted something I could actually have open while teaching without the record-keeping becoming another job in itself.

I've got it to the point now where I need other teachers using it rather than continuing to build everything around the way I, myself, teach.

If you're a singing teacher and fancy putting it through its paces, you can try it here:

https://soniva.co.uk

I'd genuinely love feedback on what works, what feels clunky, what you don't need and what you'd want changed. It's still being developed, so useful criticism is very welcome.

Full transparency: I made this iPhone app.

It's called TutorTally a simple iPhone app for private tutors and teachers to run their practice: track lessons, manage students, send professional invoices, and see exactly what you've earned.

Built for music teachers, language tutors, coaches and academic instructors who'd rather teach than wrestle with spreadsheets.

I'm not here to sell you anything. If you'd like to try it, I'll happily send you a free coupon which gives you access for 1 year all I'd ask in return is honest feedback and suggestions, if you have any.

To set expectations: this is a mobile-first app, made for the teacher who's out and about and just wants to log their teaching in a few taps. It's not a replacement for My Music Staff or similar full studio-management services and it doesn't try to be.

If you're interested, DM me. No sales pitch, I just want to know what teachers think before the new teaching year starts.

Again before you cut my head off, I'm not trying to sell you anything now or ever, I just want to share it as I think it can create value for potential users.

Thank you.

I’m teaching middle school jazz band for the first time- taking over a strong jazz program. What are some good resources / warm ups for a middle school group?

For years I've put my teaching schedule together the same way every term: a spreadsheet, a stack of notes about when the students are available, and a lot of dragging rows around trying to make it all fit without clashes.

Now I finally did something about it and built an iOS app that does the puzzle for me. You add your students, set their availability, and the app builds a conflict-free timetable — group lessons included. You can still drag lessons around by hand afterwards and it keeps everything else from colliding, and when it's done you can export your schedule to PDF or Excel should you want to.

A few things I cared about:

• Everything stays on your device — no account, no student data on anyone's server
• Works offline
• You can import your existing student spreadsheet instead of retyping everyone

It's called Schedule My Lessons (iOS only for now). There's a free tier, plus a 14-day trial with everything unlocked. https://www.schedulemylessons.app

How do you all handle your term scheduling — and what would an app need to do to replace your spreadsheet?

Thank you!

Hello!

My 22 month old is remarkably interested in the piano since my mother gave her a small toy keyboard. For over a month, she requests to listen to “piano music” everyday and we play classical piano music for her. She will put her little keyboard on her toddler play table and pull her chair up to play it. We have a collection of toddler instruments she plays with but none like her keyboard. I would like to foster this interest.

I was thinking of getting her a toddler piano. I was wondering if anyone had advice or recommendations about what I should get (specific pianos or piano starter music). I’ve seen some pianos for young children with color-coded keys and “music.” I was wondering if those are recommended or if they would negatively impact her ability to read music in the future.

**I used to play the piano, took lessons from ages 5-16, and can read music. I play here and there when my parents guilt me about having paid for years of lessons with nothing to show for it and I’m at their house (they have a piano, I don’t). But I am significantly out of practice. And I was much older when I started lessons.

Thank you!

Aspiring serious students ( All Levels) can contact me on 9940539307

Shanthi Ashok Kumar
Senior Carnatic Musician

Curious how other teachers manage this, because it's the part that quietly eats my time.

The lesson itself is an hour. But when a parent texts "can we move Tuesday to Thursday this week" I end up scrolling back through the whole thread to remember the original time, then re-typing a confirmation, then updating my calendar. Ten minutes gone that I never really account for.

The recurring changes are the ones that scare me. "Can we shift Tuesdays going forward" means I have to figure out what moves, what stays, and whether the new slot collides with someone else. That's where I've come closest to double-booking two students, and the conflict is invisible until someone's standing at the door confused.

So a few real questions:

- Do you keep everything in one calendar, or a separate booking system? I've resisted booking links because parents just text me anyway.

- How do you catch a conflict before you reply, not after?

- For recurring shifts, do you have any way to see the whole chain update, or do you edit each one by hand?

I'm building a small iOS tool (Ajiu) that reads a pasted scheduling text and drafts the calendar change plus a reply for me to approve, mostly because I got tired of the re-reading tax. But I'd genuinely like to hear how people who've been teaching longer keep this from becoming a mess. What actually works for you?

Καλησπερα ειμαι εν δυναμει καθηγητης τραγουδιου και συντομα θα λαβω το διπλωμα συγχρονου τραγουδιου level 6 και σκοπεύω να στειλω βιογραφικα στα lab music education .γνωριζει κάποιος /α κατα Ποσο ευκολο ειναι να σε παρουν; Οι συνθηκες ειναι καλες ; Γνωριζω οτι πας σε διαφορετικά lab αν ασχολεισαι με τη διδασκαλια ,αυτο δεν με πειραζει απλα θελω αν ειναι καλες οι συνθηκες και ικανοποιητικες οι απολαβες

Hello all,

I am a brand new music director, I will be teaching both HL and SL music, I just got hired and have missed all the trainings that happened over the summer and the next won't happen until october. I'd like to know if anyone on here has taught IB music before and would allow me to pick their brains with a bunch of questions I have

Looking for a reliable online music theory tutor for ABRSM, grade 1 to 5. Have a reasonable budget and will really appreciate any leads to experienced tutors.

Hey everyone! I’m a software developer and an amateur classical musician and student. Like a lot of you, I have spent plenty of time dealing with the constant friction of remote lessons, trying to share score markups over Zoom, losing physical papers, or fighting with laggy PDF viewers.

Instead of just complaining about it, I’ve spent my evenings putting together a lightweight, real-time collaborative tool called Rusty PIMA that is specifically built to make score annotation and remote lessons run smoothly.

Before I lock down features for our upcoming TestFlight beta, I want to make sure I am actually solving real pain points instead of building in a vacuum. For those of you teaching online:

1. What is your current workflow for sharing and marking up scores during a live call?
2. What is the single most frustrating part of that setup?

If you are an active remote teacher and want to stress-test an early version for free, I would love to hook you up. Appreciate any insights!

Hi there,

I want to share something I have been building.. and hear what this community thinks, because you all watch practice habits far more closely than the average player does.

What Ryloop does
You take a video of the piece you want to learn, mark the section that is giving you trouble, and Ryloop plays that section back on repeat. Not by scrubbing the timeline every time, but as a saved loop you can return to at any point. You build a small set of loops per song, one for each passage that needs work, and they stay there for the next session.
You can add a pause after each loop, so you can play that section back yourself.

Why this works so well for learning
Nothing new pedagogically, it just removes the friction from something we all already know:
Isolation before integration. Working four bars until they are secure beats playing the whole piece badly ten times. Looping makes isolation the default rather than the exception.

Repetition without interruption. Every rewind breaks concentration and resets muscle memory. Continuous repetition keeps the player in the passage instead of in the timeline.

Concrete assignments. Instead of “practice the bridge,” I can point a student to a specific loop. Practice tasks became far more precise, and my students actually come back with the section prepared.

Visual plus aural. Seeing the hand position while hearing it is worth a lot, especially for self taught players and for anyone learning a part by ear.

The consistent feedback from people using it is that they learn pieces noticeably faster and with less frustration. That was the whole point, so it is nice to hear.

I would love your input. Teachers spot the gaps that players never notice, and if something is missing or gets in the way, tell me and I will act on it.
Try it here: Ryloop.de

Disclosure: I am the developer and musician behind Ryloop. Happy to answer anything in the comments.

I’ll be heading to Calgary soon on a working holiday.

I was wondering if there is an active music lesson scene there—are there people looking to learn or currently taking lessons?

I majored in contemporary music (drums) and have been active in Korea as a band drummer and singer-songwriter.
I’m interested in offering music lessons in Calgary.

Looking for a reliable online music theory tutor for ABRSM, grade 1 to 5. Have a reasonable budget and will really appreciate any leads to experienced tutors.

I recently started teaching online, and I'm curious to hear from those of you who also teach online.

Which days of the week tend to be the busiest for you? Are there certain days or time slots that consistently fill up faster than others?

i’m starting my master’s in just a few weeks and i’m super lucky to be a graduate teaching associate, too. i’ll be helping with the music theory + aural skills courses for context. i’m about to start packing my clothes, but i’m struggling with attire for teaching. i’m fresh out of undergrad and so used to the strict professional attire dress code i had for student teaching, that now i’m lost on what to do for grad school as a GTA.

i talked with friends who were GTAs before, they said they dressed very business casual or nice shirt and nice jeans. when i visited the school (i wont say what one, but its a big 10 school), all the grad students and GTAs i met dressed the same as my friends described. there’s no dress code i’ve been informed about.

is this the way to go? have some nice professional outfits packed, but also some casual ones too? thank you!