5 Perks of Teaching Music with Ashbury Music Hall

1. Embrace the global market: The beauty of digital technology is you can be anywhere, anytime and so can your student.  As Dewey said in School of Rock, “And we shall teach rock ‘n’ roll to the world.”
2. Put an end to repetitive demonstration: As time goes by, the instructor records demonstrations for their students.  Those recordings are saved into an instruction library for reuse with other students.  Eventually the instructor is spending most of their time watching his/her students and providing feedback as opposed to demonstrating repetitive exercises.
3. Web based income:  The most obvious benefit for instructors is a new way to use technology to enhance their existing practice.  AMH offers an easy to use web-learning platform that provides value students are willing to pay for.  Going beyond DVDs and video demonstrations, a student’s exercises become performances and they get expert personalized feedback and accountability from their trusted mentor and coach.
4. Teach regardless of time and place: Touring musicians can maintain their connection with their students and continue to nurture them while traveling as long as they have a broadband and a laptop.
5. Monetize your social following: If you have attracted bunch of students on YouTube watching your videos, now you can give them a real instructive experience complete with the ability to push them, make them redo a musical piece until it is right and help guide their learning.  They will happily pay you for your time and expertise.

3 Ways Instructors Use Ashbury Music Hall

1. Teaching & Enhancing Private Lessons Online:  Many of our instructors are using AMH to teach customized private lessons.  They post an introduction of themselves and a weekly rate.  The engagement starts by the student posting video on what it is they want to learn and a quick performance of what they know already.  That is followed by a video response from the instructor proposing study subjects for the next several weeks.  The student can learn as much as they want each week, posting performances of assignments during that period.  The instructor commits to engaging 3 times a week on progress and pushing them with individualized feedback and additional practice exercises. Here is a sample video:
2. Teaching & Enhancing Group Classes: Schools are using our technology to enhance their group classes.  Recordings of the whole class or just specific exercises and concepts from the instructor by running a laptop with a webcam during the class.  They easily distribute the content to students.  This makes it easy for slower students to keep up and missed classes are no longer a big problem.  It also makes for lively and enjoyable discussion outside of class in the forums. Here is a video explanation 
3. Monetize their YouTube Content: Several of our instructors have been putting content on YouTube for years and have a strong following of learners.  That content can quickly be posted or embedded in AMH classes.  Many of their students have already asked for and willingly pay for that instructor’s attention and feedback.  The reason… Now the expert is watching the student and coaching them. 

Fans Unite with Custom iPhone Apps!

MobBase is a new service for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, and info about gigs by creating a custom iPhone application.  It’s fast and free to set up!

Once your app is live, you’ll be able to get a lot of great data in the Stats section of your MobBase dashboard.

Ashbury Music Hall Enrolls Over 200 Students!

I am very pleased to announce that Ashbury Music Hall is off to a great start! Since we began ramping up outreach to YouTube instructors, we have seen 140 instructors sign up and over 200 students enroll in classes…Most of which has happened in the last 30 days.

There is an undeniable organic buzz developing behind this new income stream and use of online media to enhance music instruction. We have new use cases showing up all over.

Northern Kentucky University has been unofficially using Ashbury Music Hall in one class that has several cases of influenza. Students have been able to watch videos of the lecture and participate in classroom discussions over our platform outside of class.

Private lessons being offered are on the rise. Instead of creating a lot of content and a class, many of our new instructors are simply introducing themselves and their area of expertise. They ask students to let them know what they want to learn and the instructor responds to them with curriculum. This generates new revenue in a couple days with very little effort.

We have a children’s violin instructor in Florida using our platform to support the lessons of children outside of class. Additionally, often her students (being children) lose their homework, now the parents are able to print it and see what they are studying.

Lastly we are thrilled to announce Shawn Daily, Bassist of the Courtney Love Band, Hole, and Rock Kills Kid plus Marko DeSantis, guitarist of the band Sugarcult have signed up, soon to be offering exclusive, high value, master classes to our user base.

Onward! dg

#MusicMonday with Nick Pitera

If you haven’t heard of Nick Pitera, check him out!

Monetize your social following

Web 2.0 is about connecting people.  If we all believe that, then there are a lot of ways we embrace this trend beyond what we are seeing today.  Blogs, posting video and connecting as friends, followers, subscribers and fans are still just the beginning.                           (image cred)

If we look at the physical world equivalent of this, rarely is it worth paying for. In most cases even the most popular people don’t require payment to have a social relationship with you. Content is mostly free or at least a lot more free and easier to access than it used to be.  So what are people willing to pay for in a relationship?

How about expertise and time? Everyday consultants get paid for expertise applied to a customer’s particular situation.  The same holds true for instructors.  You establish credibility and value by producing a great video demonstration for students to learn from.

Your content is a reflection of your expertise. Now that students can get personalized attention from you in video enhanced lessons, they improve and you are their guide.

You’re social following of learners on YouTube, Twitter, and even students constrained by physical world limitations are willing customers.  Just let them know your now available for paid lessons and classes over at Ashbury Music Hall.

5 Music Facts of 2009 to Wow Your Friends

Interesting Music & Video Facts!  Did you know:

1)  YouTube Videos – In January 2009, 147 million U.S. internet users watched an average of 101 videos per person, roughly 14.8 billion online videos. – According to some calculations, YouTube will serve 75 billion video streams to 375 million unique visitors in 2009.

2) Music Videos: 6 of the top 10 videos watched this month on YouTube are music videos

3) Online Music Purchasing – According to Tom Conrad, Pandora CTO – About 1 million songs/ month are purchased.  Of those, a solid 20% are coming directly from Pandora’s iPhone app.

4) Concerts and Live Music: You no longer are limited to seeing your favorite bands perform when they are in your local area.  Now you can watch live performances streamed online through sites like BillboardLive.com.  The site allows visitors to use Twitter or Facebook during the Webcast without leaving the show. The application is also available on the iPhone

5) Music Related iPhone Apps:  There are more than 1,300 music-related mobile applications in the iPhone app store alone (Council for Research Excellence (CRE) with support from the Nielsen Company)

Debunking the 5 myths of learning music online

Ashbury Music Hall is a platform for online music instruction that is revolutionizing your music learning.  As I speak with more people, it has become apparent that there are a few myths fueling the skeptics in this space.  So I am using todays post to address those myths and set the record straight.

Myth1: I don’t need to pay for music lessons because I get it free from YouTube

It’s true that content is free on YouTube, but the quality of tutorials varies and it is not sequenced for long-term learning.  The missing elements are worth paying for. These are, the relationship with the expert who is watching you, the student with a trained eye and ear providing mentoring, guidance, accountability and encouragement.

Myth 2: Online lessons are only meant to replace face-to-face lessons
There is no substitute for human touch in many situations.  That is why Ashbury can easily supplement face-to-face lessons. However, online tools and video provide a 24/7 learning environment that makes learning easier and more effective than a traditional lesson.

Myth 3: You get less time with the instructor in online lessons
You actually get more quality time because the instructor spends less time demonstrating the exercises and more time focused on you and your development.

Myth 4: I need a scheduled time to stay on-track or I wont do it
You still have a scheduled time, but it is more flexible and in the form of a deadline.  Deliverables of assignments are due at the end of each week requiring practice and preparation to deliver your recorded performance back to your instructor or class.

Myth 5: I’m too old to start playing music – let alone learn online
You can play music until your final days and you can learn enough to really enjoy it in a few months.  It’s never to late to start. In addition, online learning makes it easier than ever before because all of your lessons and content are in 1 place, and you can experience world-class instruction directly online!

That’s it for today – This is David Gottesman signing out

Top 5 Must Have Music Apps You Don’t Know Of

Love Music? Have an iphone?   We scoured the hundreds of music related apps, and found these top 5 coolest apps.  Whether you are looking for music trivia, a cardio companion, or an alarm clock – we found it!

How well do you know your Music Library – Music iQ

Music iQ plays a clip of a song from your music library, and you have to guess the song title before time runs out. The longer you take, the less points you get, so you’d better think fast! Take the music quiz and see what your Music iQ is!

Cost: $0.99

Need help falling asleep – Music Sleep Timer

Music Sleep Timer is the perfect app for music lovers. It works exactly like the sleep timer on your TV. Just start your music, set the timer and sleep to your favorite tunes.

Cost: Free

Step it up – Power Workout Music

Power Workout Music plays the full tracks of energizing songs. This list features powerful tunes with a driving beat that will help power you through your workout.

Cost: $1.99

Need Help Waking up – Music Alarm with Gentle Awake

Music alarm lets you simply create your playlist, set repeat and/or shuffle, set the time when you want to wake up, & hit set! In the morning (or whenever), we’ll gently wake you up with your favorite music.

Cost: $0.99

Make a Grand Entrance – Theme Music

Have you ever wished you could have your own theme music as you go about your daily activities? Well now you can! Open up the Theme Music app and select your groove. Slip the iPhone in your pocket and go about your business as usual. When you move, your theme music plays! Show off your theme music to your friends as they watch in amazement!

Cost: Free

Thanks to Mobclix for app store data

Innovative Instructors

From the day I became aware of YouTube, I have always been amazed at how interesting the content is to me.   It was definitely novel at the time.  Here we are about 4 years later and I am not even thinking about it while I role play in demonstration videos, record clips of others and then upload.  My flip camera or iPhone video camera in my pocket ready to go and upload anytime.  It has become like email, a permanent recording of history that I don’t really think about anymore.  Except for one big difference… You can see and hear so much more about the person in the video.  It represents a much bigger view of their world.

Some of the best new instructors on Ashbury Music Hall have come from YouTube and other social media sites.  These early adopters are computer savvy, video competent and have a the patience to help people like me become proficient in playing an instrument.  The more I work with them, the more I am impressed.

One instructor I have been working with is Nina Perlove.  She is a classically trained flutist, a professor at Northern Kentucky University School of Music, and a winner of the YouTube Symphony.  Here is her YouTube channel and her website is www.realfluteproject.com.  She is obviously a great musician, but a great innovator as well.  In her latest interview on WNKU, she explains how she is seeing a whole new world opening up for classical musicians.

Rachel Velarde who teaches voice and has been exploring using Ashbury Music Hall in addition to live video lessons.  I met her on Twitter and after working together and sending a few students her way, she wrote an informative blog about her experience and how she integrates us with her existing practice. You can see  many of her professional performances on her YouTube channel too.

Jason McGuire is a Flamenco Guitar expert now working on our platform.  You can learn more about his class here. He has a very popular YouTube Channel. His web site is http://www.flamenco-lessons.com/

We are also seeing success with innovative Schools.  Blue Bear School of Music who was a leader in offering Band Workshop Classes, now is offering several online classes over the Ashbury Music Hall Platform.  Some are fully online and others are online upgrades for traditional face to face classes.

Since October 1, 2009 we’ve had 84 instructors signup and start organizing online curriculum.   Now have over 100 instructors integrating us with their existing practice.  I am thrilled to work with such a great group of people.

Onward!