Category Archives: Computer Help

A New and Exciting Era of Recitals!

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Growing up, one of my least favorite things to do was attend recitals. I think most of the other students and audience members felt the same way. So it has been my personal mission to make our studio recitals not only tolerable, but immensely enjoyable and something that students and families look forward to. It made my day a couple weeks ago when I asked a friend if he would run the sound system for our Christmas recital this year. He eagerly agreed and said that when his daughter stopped taking lessons several years ago, his biggest disappointment was that he would miss the Christmas recital. (Looks like I’ve got a sound man for life, huh?! :-) )

As you all know, it takes a TON of planning and preparation to pull off a recital, but it is so worth it! And the students love being able to invite their relatives and friends to be a part of the Christmas celebration with us. It is unavoidable, though, that every year there are far-off family and friends who would love to be here, but just can’t make the trip. Well…in one of the most exciting discoveries of the year, I think this will be a problem of the past because now there is a way that anyone can attend the recital virtually! Enter: USTREAM.

USTREAM is a free online television station that enables registered users to broadcast their shows and events via the internet to viewers around the world! I’ve been exploring the site this past week and not only can you broadcast through your channel, but you can also record and archive events so that they can be accessed and viewed at a later date. We are just itching to give this a try in my studio, so we will be live streaming the Christmas recital this year and you are invited to join us and be part of the experiment!

The recital will be on Thursday, December 16, at 7:00 p.m. (CST). Just go to my USTREAM channel: http://www.ustream.tv/user/nataliewickham at that time to watch the live broadcast. Since this is our first time giving it a try, there may be glitches, but hopefully you will bear with us and give us feedback that will help us make improvements in the future. And if any of you decide to live stream a studio event, I’d love to know about it so I can tune in and watch. Plus, I think there are tons of other possibilities for this technology. For instance, there’s an option to invite viewers to be co-hosts, so I could see multiple studios across the country connecting with each other for a joint event of some sort. If any of you are interested in trying something like this, we should brainstorm and see what we can come up with. What FUN!

Monday Mailbag – Using Video with Your Students

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I saw your YouTube station. Does it take a lot to have your own “station” where your students can view your stuff? Could you explain how you do it? How do you video students and have them view it on the spot? Do you do that? That would have to be done with a laptop, right?

It’s incredibly easy to set up a YouTube station. It’s considerably less so to navigate the site and figure things out once you’re signed in! YouTube is definitely not the most intuitive site I’ve used, but it is well worth it to set up an account and put in the time to figure it out. It’s actually very simple to use once you figure out how to navigate to the right options. There are a ton of features that I haven’t fully tapped into yet, but I’ve actually been exploring some of the options more in depth recently and had fun experimenting with uploading directly from my phone!

YouTube is the largest on-line video repository, but there are a number of other sites that provide similar services. Here’s a webpage that has a Video Embedding Comparison that I found helpful. Here’s another Online Video Sharing Comparison Matrix that gives a handy overview of the plethora of options.

If you opt to go with YouTube, once you sign up and sign in to your account, it’s as easy as clicking the “Upload” link and then either selecting the video file from your computer or choosing the “Record from webcam” option. YouTube supports a wide variety of video file formats. I have used clips from my camcorder, the lesser quality video recording feature on my digital camera, and (as I mentioned above) even from the video capabilities on my phone. With the camcorder and camera options, I just upload/transfer the video to my computer first and then it is available to upload to YouTube. With my phone, I was able to send it directly to YouTube using the unique address provided for my channel.

If you use the “Record from webcam” option, you either need a built-in webcam on your computer or a stand-alone webcam that can be purchased from any computer store. They are relatively inexpensive and would probably allow for even greater flexibility with placement than a built-in webcam (you should have seen the contortions I had to go through with my laptop when I was doing Skype lessons with a student in order to demonstrate something on the piano to her! :-) ).

Uploading video clips to the computer and/or YouTube gives the student a larger image to view, but I frequently just do all the filming and viewing from the camera for the sake of time. Even seeing a small image and listening to less-than-pristine sound quality can give them a better perspective of their playing and help them understand what improvements need to be made.

If you’ve been trying to decide whether or not to set up an online video sharing account for your studio, I hope you give it a try. It’s a ton of fun! And keep in mind that you can make your channel public (viewable to anyone) or private (restricted to those to whom you grant access), so that you can protect the privacy of your students, if necessary. I have my studio families sign a release form granting permission to post their picture on-line. And they are always thrilled when I tell them that I’m going to post their performance on YouTube! :-)

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Monday Mailbag – Setting Up a Website for Students

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Can you talk more about your “Studio Splog” website? I’ve been so intrigued the few times I went on and saw the variety and interest that your students showed in postings on it! How can you set something like that up and what guidelines have you given them?

Sure! It’s a website I started last year as part of our Exploring a Galaxy of Music practice incentive theme. There are several options for setting up blog-based websites for your students. The one I prefer is WordPress. If you already have website hosting, you can set up a similar student site as an add-on domain. Or, if you don’t have a site, you can have it hosted for free on the WordPress domain. Or you can buy a hosting account and use it for a site. So, there are several options for setting it up! Blogger is another popular blog interface that you may want to check into.

Once you have the blog up and running, you can search for and select a theme that allows for multiple author listings on the sidebar. This isn’t essential, as WordPress automatically has the capability for multiple users, but I thought it would be nice for the students to see their name on the sidebar and for others to be able to click and go right to all the posts written by a particular student.

When you set up the installation, you will receive the admin login information that will enable you to access the “Dashboard” of the blog. This is where you control all the settings, themes, users, etc. If you go to the “Users” menu option, you can add additional users and define their role. I added all my students and made them an “author.” This allows them to write posts and submit them for publication, but then I have to review and approve them in order for them to be published on the blog.

As far as the actual posts, sometimes I would encourage a student to post something based on what they were studying or learning in conjunction with their lessons. Other times they just took the initiative to post video clips they discovered or thoughts that came to mind. We also did quite a bit of recording and posting audio clips on the blog, because this was pretty exciting for a lot of the students!

So…that’s some of the info about the student blog. I’ve been blogging for about five years now so it was pretty easy to get things set up for my students and walk them through how to access the site and write their posts. If you’re new to blogging, though, or are interested in learning more about how to start a blog, feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them. Also, does anyone else have a blog or website to which students contribute content? Do you have any platforms or tips on what has worked well for you?

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

New Finds for Graphics and Design

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There are some real treasures on the internet for cool graphics and design elements. Some of them I just came across recently and wish I knew about years ago!

istockphoto.com – This is one I became familiar with when I was working with my designer for the cover of my book. The quality of the photos and graphics is impeccable! You have to buy credits to use toward purchase of images, but sometimes it’s definitely worth it to get high quality, high res, royalty-free images.

webtreats.mysitemyway.com – I haven’t used this one yet, but there are tons of great patterns, textures, themes, etc.

stock.xchng.com – the quality of most of these images isn’t quite up to par with istockphoto, but you can’t beat the price – free!

icons.mysitemyway.com – This is loaded with sets of free icons that you can use in an unending array of projects! I’ve downloaded and used numerous icons already – for cards, websites, newsletters, studio materials, and more.

ithemes.com – A friend I’ve been meeting with to work on business ideas alerted me to this site that is full of beautiful wordpress themes. I’m still trying to figure out the perfect design for my site revamp, and this is one site that I’m looking to for inspiration!

pluginbuddy.com – Another related site my friend told me about that I still have on my list to explore in more detail. I haven’t tapped into plugins much, but I know there are lots of possibilities out there!

Do you have any great sites that you frequent for graphics and design elements? I would LOVE to know about them!

4 Tips for Making the Most of the World Wide Web Before it Gets the Best of You!

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There are so many wonderful websites, blogs, and new resources popping up on the Internet every day that it’s hard to keep up with everything! And I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way, right? :-) Do you ever find that you’re so overloaded with inspiration and ideas as you click from place to place that you end up never getting around to using any of them? There’s a solution to this dilemma that makes keeping up with information so much easier!

1. Use an RSS aggregator. This is a system designed to help you follow blogs and websites without actually having to visit every single one to see if they’ve updated since your last visit. My favorite (of the two I’ve used!) is Feedreader. Here are some step-by-step instructions. (They are from several years ago, so the file names have changed, but the basic info should be correct.) Feedreader runs as a separate software on your computer and it is very intuitive. Here’s a screenshot of what mine looks like:

(Click on the image above for a larger view.) To add a new site or blog to follow, just click on the “New” button and enter the url of the website. Or, if you’re on the website/blog, just look for the RSS icon or subscription link and click on it. You should be directed to a page where you will have the option to add the feed to your  Feedreader program. You can also create folders to help organize the feeds to which you subscribe. If a post has not been read, it shows up in bold typeface so you can see at a glance what you’ve read and what you haven’t.

2. Scan titles for interest. I subscribe to a couple hundred blogs, so obviously there is no way that I’m going to read every post, but I also don’t want to miss out on anything! So I click on a particular folder and scan the titles, clicking on any that grab my attention. If it’s a short informational post, I just read the full text of it that shows up in the window to the right. If something I read especially resonates with me, I double click the title to visit the site and leave a comment on the post. Similarly, if the post includes a free worksheet or list that I can use immediately, I click through and print it off.

3. Use your browser as a to-do list. If I read an idea that I want to reflect on in greater detail or come across an insightful article that will take longer than a few minutes to read, I click through and leave it open as a tab on my browser (hooray for tabbed browsing!). In this way, my browser tends to function as a sort of to-read list – which is why I usually have dozens of tabs open at a time…and why it’s horrifying if my computer crashes and I lose all my open tabs! :-)

4. Decide what to do with the information. Usually at the beginning or end of the day, when I have some time to read and work on projects, I visit some of the open tabs in my browser. If it’s an article, I read it and copy any meaningful quotes I want to save to a file I have on the computer for that purpose. If it’s a music teaching idea, I blog about it (for those who don’t blog, you could store it as a favorites/bookmark). If it’s part of some research I’m doing, I sift through and copy relevant information to other files where I can easily reference them. Items I’m interested in purchasing get saved to my universal Amazon wishlist. And so on.

All of this hearkens back to the old maxim, “Have a place for everything and everything in its place.” Just in a virtual sense! I love living in this technologically advancing age, but it’s so important to utilize the capabilities for greater efficiency and productivity, rather than letting them overwhelm us and wear us out. I recommend taking time to think through what your goals are and then coming up with some systems and steps that you can use to maintain order in your life. And if you have any great tips that have worked for you in terms of staying digitally organized, please do share – there’s always room for improvement, in my opinion!

Studio Business Cards

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Joy’s recent post, “Studio Business: Making a Memorable Impression” reminded me that I was going to show you all my new business cards! Several months ago, I came across a post on the Business Opportunities blog about a business card redesign contest being sponsored by Moo.com. I’d been wanting to redesign my cards for quite a while but just hadn’t gotten around to it, so I figured it was worth it to give this a try. I sent in my entry and was accepted for the redesign. This included consultation with a designer, several design options, and a printing of 50 cards. After working with a wonderful designer, Snow Powers, we settled on a design that I love! And the paper stock that the cards are printed on makes them even more gorgeous. Not to mention that they came in an awesome little box. :-)

The final design of the card includes three different front designs and one back design. Adds a nice bit of variety! Here’s a look at them (thought I wish you could feel them, too!):


My goal was to have a card that looked professional but still captured the spirit of enthusiasm and fun in the studio. Between the font selections, colors, and images, I think Snow did a fabulous job achieving just that!

If you’re looking at redesigning your business cards, I highly recommend Moo.com! I think that The Business Card Project is a fabulous approach to marketing their business and will gladly spend the extra money to re-order my cards from them rather than trying to get them printed elsewhere.

Free Music Software

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Here’s another little gem I came across recently: GNU Solfege. It’s a free music education software, specifically designed to “train your rhythm, interval, scale and chord skills.” It includes interval recognition, interval singing, rhythmic dictation, chord singing, scales, and harmonic progressions. I’ve downloaded it and started using it a little bit, and it seems like a great resource for any musician!

And the Winner Is…Everyone!

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I couldn’t stand it growing up when we would be playing a game or doing a competition that involved subjective criteria and the adult/judge would conclude that it was a tie and everyone was a winner. My competitive nature wanted there to be a real winner (preferably me, of course :-) ). But I digress. I don’t think anyone will complain about the outcome of this!

We do have an official winner of the Music Ace Maestro giveaway. Drumroll, please, for Stephanie of the Music @ SWV blog! However, Harmonic Vision has extended a fabulous offer that is available to any Music Matters Blog reader! For a limited time you can receive a $30 discount off of Music Ace Maestro (making it only $97.95), plus receive a free copy of Music Ace Deluxe – PSE (36 lessons vs. 48 lessons, jewel case, no paper, no box) good for student use – a $39.95 value! All you have to do is enter this coupon code when you checkout at the Harmonic Vision store: MAMMMB55

Stay tuned, because we’ve got several other giveaways coming up soon!

Monday Mailbag – Notation Software

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I’d love to be able to use notation software in my studio. I have some budding composers, and I also would love to do my own “edits” of songs for some students that is more readable than me just printing it out. However, there are several products out there, and they all claim to be the best! :-) Wondering if you use any, and also thought this might be an area that folks could share their expertise!

My first steps into the world of notation software came when a friend gave me her used copy of Print Music. I used that for several years until I came to the point where I needed capabilities that it didn’t offer. After doing some research, I eventually settled on Finale. There is considerable debate between Finale and Sibelius users and I won’t pretend to know enough to make a case for either. My only experience has been with Finale, but so far it does everything I need it to. They also have a NotePad version that is great for students as a starter-level software. It used to be free, but now costs $9.95. Still well worth it in my opinion!

There are a couple of free programs available: MuseScore is one that I heard about not to long ago. I’ve been wanting to take a look at it, but haven’t done so yet. LilyPond is an automated engraving system that looks really cool! I investigated it in depth several years ago, and if I had the time to devote to learning it, I would love to give it a try. (Definitely just for the more geeky among us, though. :-) )

If you do decide to purchase a software program, I found this website called AABACA Music Barn that had by far the best prices I could find. It’s been quite a few years since I did my research, but I suspect they are still one of the best deals out there for music educators.

Obviously, my expertise in this field is rather limited, so if anyone else has thoughts or recommendations on notation software, please share!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Win a Free Copy of Music Ace Maestro (worth $127.95!)

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For years I’ve heard people – both parents and teachers – sing the praises of Music Ace. But I just discovered that they’ve combined the original Music Ace and Music Ace 2 into one software program with Music Maestro, a special program for music educators. The result is one software package called Music Ace Maestro!

I’ve been perusing the 48 Lesson outline, looking at the screen shots, and reading the game descriptions. It looks like a fun addition to any music studio or classroom. What’s even more exciting, though, is that one special music studio or classroom is actually going to win their own copy of Music Ace Maestro, thanks to the generosity of Harmonic Vision!

To enter the drawing for this $127.95 prize, just leave a comment on this post. And…since this is such a great prize, if you’d like to earn double entry, just post about this giveaway on your blog/Facebook/Twitter with a link back to this post, then leave a separate comment letting me know you did so. The contest will end on Thursday, August 19, at 12:00 noon CST. Then I’ll use a random number generator to determine the winner!

Also, if you haven’t already done so, you can click here to subscribe to the Harmonic Vision Piano News newsletter. Archived issues may be viewed on the Piano Teacher page of their website.