In this blog, we try to provide children’s music studio owners and teachers with valuable information that can help you become more successful in your business. As part of our 2020 blogging topics, we will be conducting interviews with several professionals in the children’s music industry, from leaders to teachers. Our first interview is with Jeff Spickard, president of Musikgarten, a leading early childhood music curriculum provider. We will cover how the company has enhanced the way it communicates and delivers its products to early childhood music teachers all across the globe.
Q. For those who don’t already know about Musikgarten, can you briefly describe your organization?
That is a bit of an open ended question and like most companies there are many facets to our organization. The cliff notes version is Musikgarten is the best of early childhood music education, offering teachers the best training and materials possible to help them use music to teach the whole child. To quote our philosophy, we believe:
That all children are musical,
music meets the needs of children,
music benefits the whole child,
music must be introduced early and involve the family,
and that adults should observe and follow the child.
We use the best quality resources and follow a carefully sequenced approach to music literacy.
Q. Musikgarten has been providing children’s music curriculum to teachers across the globe for over twenty five years. Technology has drastically changed over that time. How has Musikgarten adapted to the changes in technology?
That’s an interesting question because unlike some of our competitors, Musikgarten still provides our teachers with printed materials such as teachers guides and class activity cards for our curriculum. While this may seem old-fashioned to outside observers, we find that even our youngest teachers appreciate the ability to hold physical materials in their hands. Plus these are materials they can keep for a lifetime, no matter where their journey takes them. Where we do embrace technology to better serve our teachers is providing a digital music download, along with hard copy discs, training via real time webinars, and teacher support via videos, recorded coaching sessions and live webinar coaching sessions. We still believe that in-person ways are best in relaying information, but we also understand the convenience and cost effectiveness of relaying information digitally.
Q. What is this most recent project that Musikgarten has launched that we are going to talk about today?
We just recently launched a new website.
Q. Why did you feel the need to create a new web presence for Musikgarten at this time?
For a couple of reasons. For one thing we felt like we needed to update the look of the site to function better with today’s browsers and mobile devices. In a way, it’s a rebranding of our web presence. As web based technologies such as screen sizes and resolutions change, it becomes necessary for organizations to make changes like this every 4-6 years. So it was just time for a change.
Secondly, we also wanted to move the website to, or have it built to better serve our teachers and parents with new functionality and delivery methods. Now we have a site that gives us a great foundation to continue to build onto. This will give us a lot of flexibility to serve our teachers. The old site had really outlived this idea and any addition to it would be “clunky’ both for the user and for the company to keep up to date akin to slapping a band-aid on it.
Q. Who all is the new website intended to serve?
It really has three areas that serve those with different needs – Potential parents who are interested in giving their child the wonderful benefits of early music, potential teachers who want to take training, use the materials, and offer classes, and our existing Licensed Musikgarten teachers by giving them a robust log in section with help materials, great online ordering system, and hopefully items that make it a little easier to run their business and develop as teachers.
Q. How does the web site serve those different customers and/or markets at the same time?
For parents it gives them the basic info they need about Musikgarten’s philosophy and classes to lead them to make a decision to find a class in their area all in a colorful, inviting way.
In the same way, it gives the potential teacher all the basic information they need about Musikgarten’s philosophy to lead them to take the next step in information gathering at no cost – our in-person webinar, Meet Musikgarten. This session allows them to listen to and ask questions from an actual teacher trainer who is also an experienced teacher and business owner. And while we have had webinar training prior to this website launch, it makes the registration process much more streamlined and user friendly.
For our current Licensed Musikgarten teachers we are able to offer them a special login section. This allows them to take advantage of the many perks of being a Musikgarten Licensee and place orders safely while calculating all their license discounts.
Q. What’s new on the new site that was not on your old site?
Of course there is new photography and images, but one of the biggest additions is an e-commerce ordering/cart system for the public and a customized version in the teacher log in area that has Licensee pricing, items only Licensees can purchase, and calculates all Licensee discounts.
Q. Why did you decide to make these upgrades or additions to the new site?
We did this in the teacher area for better convenience and service to the customer. But we have also added more business building items, from photography to memes and recorded coaching sessions on getting your business started or social media, plus items to help advance them as teachers like class videos from Dr. Lorna Heyge and our teacher trainers, and coaching sessions that focus on teaching topics.
Sales to the public are something we have always conducted. We have always had a list price on our materials for sales at conventions, training workshops, general inquiries and even physically mailing price lists to our entire mailing list. Incorporating these resources into the website is simply a more convenient, and incidentally less costly, way of delivery to our customers.
Q. How does the new site and its functionality help Musikgarten to better fulfill its overall mission and goals?
We believe in what we do and the materials we offer. We hope with the new site, fresh look, and more exposure, Musikgarten will remind parents and teachers of the importance of our philosophy of always putting the needs of the child first.
Early childhood music education conducted the Musikgarten way is fun and exciting, but also needed today. When music and movement are a natural, joyous part of childhood, kids benefit greatly in many areas of life. Language development, self-expression, memory skills, concentration, social interaction, fine motor skills, listening, problem solving, teamwork, goal setting, and coordination are all impacted by early music and movement education. On top of that, as a child learns to play music, other areas of development—creativity, family bonding, self-esteem, confidence, emotional development—are also positively impacted.
Parents and teachers, or rather adults in general, need to be reminded that children need and thrive under certain circumstances, circumstances that our current society may not be providing. Our classes provide this space for children and their families. So it’s a funny kind of balance we are managing in our organization, while we are trying to responsibly provide the most up to date technology to our parents and teachers, at the same time we are reminding them of the importance to “un-plug” from the world of interruptions, listen to the music and just be with your child.
Q. What would you advise a newcomer to the site to do in order to get a good idea of what Musikgarten has to offer? Is that different for different types of site visitors?
I always like to start with who an organization is first, so I really recommend the About Us section of the site and specifically the Our Philosophy and Benefits of Music and Movement pages.
From there it depends on the type of visitor. If you are a parent, I really recommend the Find a Class page. See if someone in your area teaches and then join a class. I have two kids, 6 years old and 8 years old. They have taken Musikgarten classes since birth and I can personally testify to the benefits of Musikgarten classes. Watching their musical progress is a joy, but seeing them grow emotionally and socially is just as powerful. They sing in tune and joyfully make music a part of their everyday, whether they are playing a game, dancing, or just being silly. On top of all of this, they love their family, they love being in nature, are open to learning, and have empathy for the people around them. These are things that will carry them forward no matter where their journey takes them.
If you are a teacher, go through the Become a Teacher section. We offer both in-person and webinar training to fit everyone’s schedule. Register for a Meet Musikgarten session or if you have more questions please use the Contact form or call us 800-216-6864.
We want to thank Jeff Spickard for this interview, and stay tuned for more insight from industry professionals on how to be more successful as a children’s music studio teacher and owner.