Make Your Business Sing

By Robin Steinweg

Why wait until a holiday to “turn on the party?” We music teachers can find many reasons and ways to celebrate student milestones.

Parents may not understand what a big deal it is to graduate to the next level of books, for instance. We can help  them get it by making a bit of fuss over it ourselves. And if they still don’t get it, at least someone has admired the student’s success.

18 Reasons to Celebrate Student Milestones—they:

• arrived at the staples—the midway point!—of their book
• passed a unit
• completed their level and graduated to the next—huzzah!
• practiced one hundred days in a row
• practiced five days this past week
• remembered to trim their nails
• memorized a song
• accomplished all their weekly practice goals
• performed in public for the first time
• played in their first recital
• played in any recital
• mastered certain number of scales (pentascales, octaves or more)
• conquered a beast of a piece of music
• got their first playing gig
• used a metronome successfully
• memorized names of lines and spaces
• remembered dynamics
• they graduated from high school and are going off to college

18 Ways to Celebrate Student Milestones:

• pull out a kazoo and trumpet a fanfare
• tiny milestone—press Staples’ Easy Button
• the midway point in their book—offer a candy or let them make a shot at a Nerf basketball hoop
• publish their name (and photo?) on your website
• include their name (and photo?) in your studio newsletter
• a congratulatory certificate
• snail-mail a card to their home, addressed to them
• notify Piano Explorer Magazine about their completion of 100 consecutive days of practice (or 200+)
• post their names on a chart in your studio
• play a CD of a regal/fanfarish song as they enter the room
• let them wear a costume crown during their lesson
• give a blue ribbon
• create a banner/ribbon and add iron-on badges for accomplishments (like boy-and-girl scouts)
• let them choose from prizes you’ve collected (dollar store items, coupons for ice cream or burger, sheet music, manuscript paper or books, CD, iTunes coupon…)
• let them play music games on the computer
• bake their favorite cookies

for a BIG accomplishment , tickets to a concert or a huge fake-book plan a senior recital just for your graduate(s)

More ideas

When we celebrate student milestones, it can generate excitement and motivation. How do you celebrate, and for what occasions?