Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Well, hello, hello and hi everyone, and welcome to the
Scrappy Piano Teacher Podcast. If you are new here, welcome.
My name is Jack and Rosick. You can call me Jackie.
And this podcast is for music teachers who want real, honest
conversation about teaching, running a studio, and making
space for both creativity and sustainability.
Around here. I like to make us laugh, we
(00:27):
troubleshoot, and we get scrappyabout the challenges that come
with being an independent music teacher in this world.
And today we are talking about asynchronous lessons, what they
are, why they work, and how you can start using them in your own
studio. Before I jump in, I do want to
mention my music staff, which isa software program for
independent music teachers. They are not sponsoring this
(00:49):
episode, but they did give me a free 60 day access link that you
can grab show notes at mymusicstaff.com/scrappy Piano
Teacher. If you don't use my music staff,
no worries at all. You do not have to.
If you use another software program that you absolutely
love, then that's fine, keep using it.
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But there are other ways that you can set up asynchronous
lessons without it. So let's start with the basics.
Asynchronous. What a fancy word, right?
All that it means is just quote UN quote.
Not at the same time. So music teaching.
It's simply a short recorded lesson that your student can
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watch and use later instead of meeting live.
And here's the funny part. You might already be doing this
without realizing there's a namefor it.
I stumbled into asynchronous lessons a few years ago after we
were back from the pandemic. We had one of those super icy
weeks that hit us here in Cincinnati, OH, and I really
didn't want to do online lessons.
(01:54):
I just was like, please, I don'twant to do this.
And you know what? They don't want to do it either.
They wanted to enjoy having their snow day.
They didn't want to come in and,you know, do an online lesson.
It was pretty safe to assume at that time that we were all
pretty done with Zoom lessons. So I said to one of the moms,
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would you just like me to recorda mini lesson that your daughter
can watch when it works for her?And of course she was all like,
that would be amazing. Please, please, please.
And so I decided to try it with my entire day of students and it
works so well that I ended up doing it for the rest of the
week. What surprised me was how many
students preferred it. So that week I did give them a
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choice and out of about 40 students, 35 chose asynchronous
lessons while only a few wanted the live online.
So that was a big aha moment forme and it even worked with my
group classes. Instead of stressing about how
to run group lessons online, I just recorded 1 short
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asynchronous lesson for the entire group.
So that was kind of a win. One quick recorded video sent to
everyone and everyone came back the next week prepared.
We had no tech issues, no juggling schedules, not oh, can
you put your camera here? Can you put it more on there?
We didn't have to deal with any of that.
So it was just beautiful and wonderful.
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And that's how I first got started.
And now asynchronous lessons areone of my favorite backup tools.
OK, so why even bother with asynchronous lessons?
Well, the great thing about them, like I mentioned before,
they give you a backup plan thatdoesn't involve endless
rescheduling. They help students keep momentum
when life gets busy. So you know the sports seasons
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when for the next 5 weeks your student can't come to their
regular time and you don't have another slot unless you create
one. Therefore sacrificing something
super important for yourself to accommodate the student.
A synchronous lessons also avoids tech frustration so you
don't have to about lagging connections.
(04:02):
Can you hear me? Mute yourself, you know, all
that stuff. Asynchronous lessons are also
short and to the point. I have learned that 15 minutes
is the magic number for my students, so I try to keep it
around that time. So I like to use these two
different ways in my studio. The first one is if I get a
heads up, there's a student is going to miss a week and they
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really, really need a lesson, orthey're going to miss a whole
chunk of weeks. Like I was talking before with
sports or theater or you know, whatever stuff comes up, we will
record a short 15 miss minute lesson just for them.
I'll walk through their notes. I will give new assignments.
I will ask for a couple recordings back.
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Not always, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.
They watch it on their own schedule and we follow up the
next week. Another way that I use
asynchronous lessons, and this is kind of a new thing for me,
but I'm really excited about it for this year is I have been
building a small library of lessons I can use anytime.
So these cover topics I don't usually have time for music
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history or composers. I even plan on doing an improv
lesson, composition, you know, seasonal ideas, that kind of
thing. I plan on saving these for snow
days or weeks, extended periods of time when a student can't
come and I can't be flexible andreschedule them.
Let's say that maybe a horrible situation arises and I use my 2
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flex weeks I already have scheduled and I need to have
another week and I really don't want to credit it.
So these work really really wellfor when I need to send
something out quickly and make sure that the parents are
getting the most bang for their buck and the students are still
getting a quality lesson. Here's how it looks in practice.
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This is how I like to set up my asynchronous lessons. 1st I
create a zoom meeting with just me, myself and I.
I share my screen to pull up my music staff lesson notes, a
picture of their music, or even a Canva keyboard.
Sometimes I'll just open up Canva and I'll just plug a
keyword in there so that I can show them what to do on the
shared screen. I'll annotate on the screen if I
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want to point something out. If I need to demonstrate on the
piano, I'll just switch my camera.
But I try to keep it as easy as possible.
I'll even sometimes refer to YouTube videos that the students
can watch. So instead of me having to get
on the piano and demonstrate, for example, a scale, I will
just find somebody who's alreadydone that and I will just link
that YouTube video there. So that prevents me from
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recording even more that I don'talready need to do.
And when I'm done, Zoom gives mea recording link.
I will upload that video to YouTube as an unlisted link or
you could do a private link as well.
And then I send that link to thestudent and the parent.
It's easy, it's clean, and there's no fancy editing
required. I really like this as well
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because before I see the studentagain, or let's say if I have to
create another asynchronous lesson for them, I can actually
go onto YouTube and see how manyviews are of that video.
And considering that link only went to that one student, if
there's no views, then I know that the student didn't watch
it. And I actually tell my family,
it's like, look, if you don't end up watching it, that's on
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you. But that means that I'm not
going to record another one. So example, this girl that I
have, she's going to be startingbasketball and listen to this
schedule. It's just ridiculous.
So first of all, they don't havetheir game schedule out yet.
I know it's early in the season,it's just September.
The season's not even going to be starting until, I don't know,
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I don't even know when, but I'm getting ready for it anyway.
They know ahead of time, though,that they're not going to get
the schedule until right before the season starts.
So that's something right there.But then they've been informed
that the practice schedule will be anytime and any day, Monday
through Friday, either immediately after school or
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anytime up until 8:00 PMI mean, Can you imagine every week it
just being completely different and not being able to plan?
And that's how it's going to look for this girl.
And so the mom's been really, really concerned because she
really loves piano and she really loves basketball.
And they've always been able to make it work every year.
And the mom's like, you know, what am I going to do?
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And so I just said, you know what, if she can come, then she
comes. And if she doesn't, we'll do an
asynchronous lesson. The way that I look at it is if
I create an asynchronous lesson for her and let's say she
doesn't watch it and the following week she cannot come
to her lesson, well then I'm notmaking another asynchronous
lesson. That lessons going to sit there
until she does it. And then if she does it, I'll
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create another one. I hope that's making sense and I
hope that I'm wording that right.
But I do that give them up frontthat, you know, if they don't
watch it, that's on them. And I do that because I used to
get a little annoyed when I would put so much work into
things and the students wouldn'teven watch it.
And I'm like, but this way I just kind of go into it being
like, you know what I did, what I did, it's on them now if
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they're going to finish it and if they're not going to finish
it, fine, but I'm not making a new one.
So there you have it going back to that way.
I really got on a little soapboxthere.
But anyway, I do try to keep everything as independent as
possible for the student using what they already have.
If I do send a fun extra worksheet or bonus piece, I make
it optional because not every family has a printer or the time
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to mess with downloads. So I definitely try to keep
material with what they already have and what the student can do
as much as possible if their parent is not accessible.
Now as I create my little library of asynchronous lessons,
I also am going to be creating some lessons that are cater to
(09:50):
different ages. So, you know, some stuff for the
littles, some stuff for my olderstudents, the high schoolers,
you know the middle schoolers. So just making them age
appropriate and maybe offer thema few fun videos to watch watch.
Keep it short and simple. So I think it'll be good.
And you know, who knows, maybe Cincinnati.
We'll get really lucky this winter and we won't have any ice
(10:12):
storms. I guess that means no snow days.
You can take that. Either way, I would consider
that a blessing. I think the kids would be really
sad about it. And before I wrap up, I do want
to take a moment to acknowledge something for those of you
listening in real time. As in this episode drops on
September 15th of 2025. It has been a tough week in the
world and everybody knows it. When things feel heavy or
(10:35):
extremely divided, it's easy to wonder if what we do as music
teachers even matters. And here's what I believe as the
truth. As music teachers, we have one
of the most important jobs. We are constants in our students
lives, often for years. I mean, think about it, What
other activities do students do week after week, year after
(10:58):
year? I've had students five years.
I've had students for up to 13 years.
Anywhere in between that really.I mean, what other teachers do
these children have as they're growing up that are as much of A
constant as we are? And we see them through so many
seasons, right? We see them when parents are
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divorcing, when they make those sports teams, when they make the
theater lead, or maybe when theyonly get in the ensemble.
We see it and we are there for them through all of it.
Our studios can be a place of security, positivity, and
creativity that they always knowthat they can come back to.
And music also gives our students a voice.
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It gives them a way to express themselves when words simply not
enough. And it teaches them empathy.
Every time a student listens to or interprets a piece of music,
they practice understanding a perspective that is not their
own. That is powerful.
It's a healthy way for them to process feelings and to learn
respect for others, even when they don't agree.
And here's what I really have toremind myself often.
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It is not our job to impose our beliefs, whether we agree with
the world around us or not. My personal faith is extremely
important to me. I am not very quiet about that,
and I teach many families who share those values, but I also
teach families who don't. And my role as their teacher is
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to respect them and to love them.
To love each student who comes through my studio door just as
much as the next, and to share my love of music with them.
And the truth is, our students may not remember every piece
that we teach them, which I knowis kind of soul crushing, but
they won't. But what will they remember?
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They hopefully will remember thefeeling of being encouraged,
inspired and safe coming to lessons in our studios.
They'll remember us as role models, the adults who showed up
for them week after week, who gave them a voice through music.
And you taught them how to listen with empathy.
And I think that is just one of the many legacies we get to
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leave as teachers. So remember that you matter, you
are very important and I'm so grateful for you and the work
that you do. OK, what were we talking about?
Asynchronous lessons, you guys, it has been a week.
(13:24):
So I think that's just, that's another example, right?
We are, we are music teachers. We're going from educating to
the emotional stuff and back to educating.
So there you have it, asynchronous lessons.
Thank you. Thank you for letting me get
off. Get that off of my chest.
(13:46):
So back to the asynchronous lessons, whether it's a backup
for sick days, an alternative tomakeup lessons, or a way to
sneak in topics you usually don't cover, a synchronous
lessons really are worth trying.Thanks so much for listening to
me today. I would love it if you would be
a pal and give me some five stars on Spotify or YouTube.
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And as always, keep creating music, keep finding the joy, and
keep it scrappy and I'll see younext time.
Bye.