Another Tuesday Teaching Tactic and this time, it needs a little bit of time so good thing it’s Thanksgiving weekend! This week ties off of our topic last weekend – check out our last “Record & Listen” Tuesday. We encouraged you to record more so now we want to encourage you to use those recordings on your own studio YouTube Channel!
So you’ve got a few neat videos of compositions and performances ready to share, now make a YouTube Channel of your own! This will tie into your Google gmail account so if you don’t have one, set one up. There are plenty of tutorials on setting up gmails and YouTube Channels (here’s one to get you started). If you’re worried about having professional videos, try using some simple editing software – I recommend Apple’s iMovie to get started. It’s been enough for my amateur needs 😉
Now if it’s set up, you can share all the videos you create of your studio through newsletters, Facebook, on your website and so much more! Your students and their parents will love to see these videos!
I’ve also found they love seeing my own performances – those from recitals and compositions of my own. It’s also great for your website to show your skills to prospective students and parents. I also use these videos that are uploaded and prepped for presentations at state and national conferences. Once you begin editing videos, it’s easy to throw them in a presentation!
Now you may ask, what about students and parents concerns for videos? First off, include a video and photo authorization with your studio policy. I offer the option to not have any video or photos shared, share with no names included, or share with only first names (no last names). After teaching for over a decade, I can honestly say I’ve never had a parent decline to share anything – usually they like to share no names but love seeing those videos! (And if you’re an MTNA member, there’s a form in the member’s only legal section that helps with making your own authorization form so check it out!)
So I hope this weekend you’ll get started in creating your own Studio YouTube Channel! Take your studio marketing up a notch and get your videos out through your channel. I promise it’ll be worth it!
Author: Whitney
Whitney Hawker, NCTM, teaches group and private piano at Weber State University, Utah. She loves surprising students with the perfect piece or a new exciting game! After graduate school, she missed sharing ideas and resources daily with colleagues so she and her friend, Spring, began blogging together at 4DPianoTeaching.com