All posts by MG-Admin

Summer Music Programs Benefit Kids and Parents Alike

March 18, 2019Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Summer Music ClassesMusic camp, Music Teacher, MusikgartenMG-Admin

Wednesday, March 20^th marks the first day of Spring. As the temperature warms and things begin to grow, parents and teachers are reminded that summer is approaching quickly. And for most parents, that means planning activities and camps to keep their children active in both body and mind. Music instruction has proven to be extremely beneficial for young minds during the off school months.

Here are just a few reasons why being involved with music in the Summer is a great idea for both kids and parents alike:

Music Learning Strengthens Your Brain – Brain-scanning studies show a clear change in cognitive development that is related to when music training begins – and the younger the student, the more drastic the change. In addition to helping with speech processing and working memory, music has been shown to preserve hearing and even prevent dementia later in life.

Music Programs Promote Social Interaction – It’s no surprise that many parents have to work during the summer, so supervision of children becomes a challenge. Many kids would be happy sitting in front of a screen all day, void of any social interaction with others. Music classes provide an environment where children can connect to others who may not otherwise have anything in common, and creates a common bond to something they enjoy together.

Music Helps Prevent “Summer Backslide” – Studies regarding Summer backslide, or Summer “brain drain,” have shown that on average, students’ achievement scores declined over summer vacation by one month’s worth of school-year learning. Learning music is known to exercise the same area of the brain as science and math, so music keeps that part of the brain active during summer months.

Music Exercises the Body as well as the Mind – Music and movement go hand in hand. While music’s melodic and rhythmic patterns provide exercise for the brain and help develop memory, they also teach children to dance and move with their favorite tunes. Learning to play an instrument at an early age also teaches fine motor skills, just as music programs provide a fun and energetic activity for children of all ages.

Music Helps Children be More Creative – How many parents have heard “I’m bored,” from a child during the summer, even when the sun is shining? Music has proven to increase overall performance in “divergent thinking,” by enhancing the cognitive flexibility needed to come up with innovative solutions rather than seeing from a rigid point of view. Divergent thinking has been linked to enhanced creativity, especially during exposure to “happy music.” Over time, music may help change “I’m bored” to “What are the possibilities?”

Every Summer, many parents are challenged with keeping their children active, both mentally and physically. Music learning presents an option that addresses both of these at the very same time. Whether it’s a Summer Music Camp, taking advantage of Summer programs at a local children’s music studio, or continuing personal instrument or voice instruction, music makes a child’s Summer more fun, creative, educational, and healthy.

The Science of Music: Teaching Children to Move with Rhythm and Grace

March 1, 2019Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Science of Music, UncategorisedMusikgarten, neuroscience, Teacher Musikgarten, Teaching Children, Teaching MusicMG-Admin

Musikgarten is proud to partner with parents by delivering a highly informative series of publications, The Neuroscience of Music.* This installment is the last in a four-part set that touches on a Behavioral Wish List that matters to parents – Teaching children to move with rhythm and grace.

Rhythm may be the most important gift you can give your child, according to Dr. Dee Coulter, a renowned brain science educator. The reason is that the frontal lobe of the brain has its major growth spurt from birth to age six, when voluntary movement is developed. The developing brain must have rhythm to stimulate this important function and growth stage. This “sensory-motor integration” helps cultivate grace, or motor flow, by building the connections between rhythm and movement.

So, teaching children to move with rhythm and grace is very important to both early childhood music teachers and parents alike:

How parents Teach Their Babies Rhythm and Grace

The good news is, they’re most likely doing it already! Mothers instinctively instill rhythm in their babies, establishing a “comfort tempo” used often to help them calm.

Simply nodding to a baby shows rhythmic approval and delight
Gentle rocking, bouncing, or patting help to comfort babies with a familiar rhythm
Humming, finger tapping, or even tongue-clicking are used by mothers get their babies attention
Traditional nursery rhymes and songs have been used by generations of mothers to teach their children the love of music and rhythmic patterns.

How parents continue to teach rhythm and grace to their pre-school children through music:

As a baby’s frontal lobe continues to develop, there are many opportunities for parents, as well as early childhood music educators, to teach rhythm and grace with movement and music:

Many infant and toddler games combine music with rhythmic movement. A few familiar traditional childhood songs that teach sensory motor integration are Patty Cakes, and Hop, Old Squirrel.
Dancing with toddlers is a great way to teach them a multitude of developmental and social skills in addition to rhythm and grace, including self-esteem, discipline, and improved physical health.
Families who have daily activities and routines such as making a bed in the morning, dinner together, teeth brushing before bed, and story time offers a slower rhythmic pattern which helps to reduce childhood stress and supports reading.

Parents don’t have to do this alone! There are many early childhood learning centers and programs that help parents teach their children from infancy to childhood how to use music to support healthy happy development in the earliest stages of life. Whether it is teaching children to relax and be calm, be patient, control their impulses, or move with rhythm and grace, The Neuroscience of Music supports the skills and techniques that cultures from around the world have been instilling in their children for generations.

*Musikgarten Delivers: The Neuroscience of Music collection by Dr. Dee Coulter is available for $10 in the Product Catalog section of our Teacher Portal. Username and password are required. You may also contact Musikgarten at 800-216-6864 to purchase.

The Science of Music: Controlling Children’s Impulses Through Music

February 14, 2019Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Science of Music, UncategorisedBenefits of Music, Music Education, Musikgarten, neuroscienceMG-Admin

Our series of blog articles for parents on The Neuroscience of Music* continues with how music can help parents control impulses in their children, or more importantly, help children to control their own impulses through “inner speech.”

According to Dr. Dee Coulter, a renowned brain science educator, children need to develop impulse control to be successful in learning, social interactions, and performing complex movement tasks. Dr. Coulter identifies three elements of impulse control – the ability to calm, the ability to wait, and one last skill that develops more slowly – inner speech. Our last two blog articles touched on the impact of music on children’s ability to be patient and be calm. This installment focuses on the use of music to develop a child’s inner speech.

Inner speech is a kind of “self-talk” children use to guide their actions. Here are some insights and suggestions for parents to help their child discover their inner speech:

Inner Speech is Out Loud Until Age 8 or 9 – We can hear children speak out loud to direct their actions or narrate what they are doing. In motor tasks, they may use this “outer-speech” as they tie their shoes, make the shapes of letters, or play Simon Says. In music, this self-talk is developed when words are linked to movements like “head, shoulders, knees and toes” or stories in song that are acted out while singing. As the words are repeated over time they become automated. By age 4 or 5, this self-talk becomes strong enough to override temptations and children can use it to control their impulses. Later, children will need this inner speech skill to guide them while silent reading.

How to Teach Inner Speech in Babies and Toddlers:

Sing and talk to your baby or toddler often. Research continually shows that the more children are spoken to as infants, the better their language skills will be later in life. Strong language skills, in turn, lead to improved social skills and better listening and learning skills for school.

You will probably notice that your baby or toddler reacts even more favorably to your singing voice as they do when you are simply speaking to them. Singing is calming and soothing to them, so they will instinctively pay closer attention. Make up songs to explain what chores you are doing or what is happening in the world around them. Put their familiar nursery rhymes to music and sing them.

Teaching the Preschooler and Beginning School Age Child:

To be a great self-talk coach, show them how by talking to yourself out loud. Just talk as if no one else is there and you are just thinking out loud about how to do these things. Narrate for your child as you do household chores, go to the post office, shop for groceries, or watch the activity at a sibling’s sports event.

Recalling song lyrics and stories also builds inner speech. Enjoy singing with your preschooler and beginning school age child, too. Help them master the lyrics to traditional as well as contemporary children’s songs. Many of these songs tell stories, or narrate actions. You will be helping your child build impulse control and perform better in school.

Teaching your child to perform self-talk or inner speech, through music has many lasting benefits, including problem-solving, patience, confidence, and impulse-control. Hearing music and songs from caregivers from the earliest ages help to teach children to sing or talk through everyday tasks. Children’s song lyrics are often a manifestation of describing actions or stories, which help them begin to develop their own inner voice.

The Science of Music: How Children Learn Patience Through Music

January 30, 2019Early Childhood Music, Finger Play Activities, Musikgarten Teachers, Science of Music, UncategorisedBenefits of Music, early childhood games, early childhood music, Music Education, MusikgartenMG-Admin

This second installment in our series of blog posts on The Neuroscience of Music* explores how music can help parents teach their children to wait and be patient. Boy, have parents been waiting for this one!

Researchers often call it the ability to delay gratification and say that it is the single most important requirement for developing impulse control, for resisting addictive behavior, for handling the confusion of new learning, and for setting goals and working toward meeting them. While this desired behavior can be taught to children, here are some thoughts to keep in mind:

Using Negative Strategies are Ineffective – If we get overly firm and insist on making a child wait, they will see no point in waiting when we aren’t around to discipline them. We want them to be able to practice patience on their own:

Teaching to share in social situations is important, such as coaching children who are playing to take turns with a toy or game.

Make sure there is enough for children to share once their turn comes. Whenever there is too much scarcity, children will learn to take what they need as soon as they get the chance.

Teaching Babies and Toddlers to Wait – There are some simple exercises and “games” that stretch the moments of anticipation of delight.

Songs and movement games are helpful in creating anticipation and embedding small wait times. Who can forget waiting for the POP in “Pop, Goes the Weasel,” or the anticipation of the fall in “Humpty, Dumpty?”

With infants also play little movement and touch games, such as circling your finger around and then gently landing it on their nose.

Use reward to encourage patience. Toddlers may learn the patience it takes to put on a coat or shoes if they know they are going outside to play. Baking cookies teaches them that waiting patiently has it rewards as the warm goodies come out of the oven! Of course, it is also tough for adults to wait for the cookies to cool!

Teaching the Pre-schooler and Beginning School Child –

Sing songs with your child that involves claps, pauses, and exact timing. This not only teaches patience and anticipation, but will also help develop a strong sense of rhythm.

Create some family times that involve some kind of ceremony, such as setting the table before dinner or saying the blessing before digging in. This teaches pre and school age children that there is a waiting period before the gratification of eating, etc.

In anticipation of a coming event, such as a birthday or another special occasion, mark a calendar and observe each day with anticipation to the BIG day. Think the 8 days of Hanukkah, or (sing) the 12 Days of Christmas. Saving up or preparing for an event can also teach patience, such as saving money for a vacation, or buying presents for a future event.

As you may have noticed, the exercises above not only teach children to wait, but also can have the same effect on parents! Those of us who already have children know the importance of patience, and that we should always teach by example.

The Science of Music: How Music Teaches Children to Relax and Be Calm

January 24, 2019Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, UncategorisedBenefits of Music, early childhood music, Music Education, Musikgarten, neuroscienceMG-Admin

Music and movement can benefit children and their adults in a multitude of ways. Over the next several months, we will be featuring a series of blog posts on The Neuroscience of Music*, explaining how music benefits children in many ways that parents and music teachers may not realize.

The first subject for this Benefits of Early Childhood Music Series explores how music can help parents teach their children to relax and be calm. Brain science educator, Dr. Dee Coulter, calls this skill the art of self calming. She explains, “It helps us build an ability to self-regulate that we will use our whole lives. But we aren’t born with a calming switch! Babies learn to calm by being calmed. One of the most powerful tools is music.”

The following are facts and information about how to use music to calm children from the earliest age:

Sing to your baby and toddler, even in the womb – Research shows that even in utero, a baby hears and learns its mothers voice. By monitoring heartbeat in utero, the mother’s voice is shown to have a calming effect.
Throughout history, songs and music have been a big part of child rearing, as beloved lullabies, rhymes, and dances are passed down from one generation to another. Pick a few lullabies and sing them often.
Singing to infants communicates love and security, helps to strengthen the bond between mother and child, and aid digestion while counteracting stresses.
Even if you believe that you are not a singer, repeatedly singing simple songs creates another level of familiarity and sense of safety for a child.
Remember to stay relaxed, to use a soft voice and keep a warm heart. Even if your baby only thanks you with tears and distress for a while, be patient. The lullabies will work their magic in time.
Sing during transition times such as naptime or feeding time to communicate that a change is happening.
Move, sway and dance while you sing. Encourage toddlers to move with you while singing.
As the developing child becomes more and more aware of their bodies, movement with music becomes even more important. Children need to move so that they become well acquainted with their bodies in order to learn how to hold still.
Transitioning from music with movement to just soothing music or even quiet time helps your child recognize when s/he is too stimulated and needs to take a break.

Don’t worry if your singing is not pitch perfect, just fake it until you get it! The surprise bonus you receive from singing and moving with your child will be the relaxation and calm you will feel from developing a deeper relationship with your child!

Five New Year Resolutions for Promoting Your Early Childhood Music Studio

January 3, 2019Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano Teachers, Uncategorisedearly childhood music, marketing, musikgarten marketing, musikgarten studioMG-Admin

As the calendar resets once again, it is a good opportunity to reflect on the past year’s successes while looking forward to the new year with the wisdom it provided. This is no different for any size business, whether it is a large corporation or a local children’s music studio. While keeping in mind the best approach for keeping New Year resolutions, here are five ways to go about planning for your music studio in the New Year:

Don’t Call them Resolutions, but Goals – According to US News and World Report, 80 Percent of new year resolutions fail. To help prevent from feeling frustrated over resolutions not achieved, think of them more as goals to build on and strive for instead of simply “pass / fail.”

Reflect on the Last Year – We learn from both success and failure, so it is important to reflect on both over the last year. Think about your studio’s major achievements and milestones, and how you can best continue or capitalize on them. While reliving failures is often painful, it is just as important to evaluate last year’s stumbling blocks and understand how to prevent them from reoccurring. For example, make your marketing dollars work smarter by evaluating what promotions and advertising spends worked best for your children’s music studio.
Set SMART Goals for the Coming Year – Write down three to five major goals for the coming year, while making sure they are SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, RELEVANT, and TIME-BOUND. Many failed goals can be attributed to unrealistic and non-specific expectations.

Develop a Plan for Reaching More Customers – Whether its meeting (2) new parents a week, handing out (20) complimentary baby or toddler lesson cards a month, or posting something new to social media about your childhood music program at least (2) times a week, write down a goal for reaching new prospects within a specific time frame (see SMART Goal setting above). Also, don’t forget that it costs much less to keep a current customer than to find a new one, so also set goals for nurturing relationships with your existing music class parents and children.

Look for Partners to Help you Achieve Your Goals – No successful business owner will ever claim that they “did it all on their own.” Think about who may help you achieve your goals and build your music studio. Whether it’s a program with the local library, or partnering with an experienced early childhood music education organization, there are many resources available out there to help you achieve success in the coming year.

There is a reason that the above list only contains five (and not ten or more), resolutions for growing your music studio in the coming year. Too many goals can be overwhelming and impossible to achieve, so starting small will help you to focus and will ultimately lead to greater success.

Marketing Your Childhood Music Program through Library Demo Classes

December 14, 2018Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Music, Library music classes, Musikgarten TeachersKids and Music, library music class, Teach Music, Teacher Musikgarten, Teaching ChildrenMG-Admin

With the decline of music education in public schools, many public libraries are attempting to “pick up the slack” by offering early music education classes for kids. These classes not only provide a good way to make good use of your early childhood music curriculum, but also present a great way to gain new students for continued music education classes.

Approach your local public library and offer to help with an early childhood music class. Once you have your class set up, here are some tips and potential pitfalls in conducting a library toddler music program:

Have a one-minute orientation before you start your library children’s music demo class:

Politely ask all patents to turn cell phones off for the duration of the class.
Parents/adults are the models to the child and do everything. You may need to mention this again when you find yourself singing and moving if the parents are just sitting and eying their cell phones.
All musical teaching aids, such as songbooks and musical instruments, go on a table out of the child’s reach so as not to distract in the beginning.
All toddler hands must be free of stuff and ready to make music.
Ask that no one leaves the class until the “goodbye” song.

Other tips and considerations for your early childhood music demo class:

Assign a sticker to each child with their first name, so that you can include them in the songs you sing. This creates a personal connection with the children.
Include some new music in your class, but don’t rule out the classics with which the kids are familiar – Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Jack and Jill (add lots of falling and rolling on the floor), Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Walk and Stop, Clap with Me, etc.
Make sure to include the parents, asking them to participate in each class to create a more memorable experience for them and their child.
Expect all activities to take longer with larger classes.
Add rounds (Make New Friends is a great song for this activity.)
Bring enough sticks and jingle bells for everyone. Drums are also very popular.
A moment of “quiet alertness” sometime during the class. This may not happen in your public library children’s music demo class, but if it does, acknowledge the children and parents at the end.
Keep in mind that public library classes do bring in a level of families looking for the free music appreciation event. It is your job to make it more than that and invite the transition to paid children’s music classes at your own studio. Become the music and movement expert in your community, and mention your other classes that meet in a more intimate setting.
After the “goodbye” song, move to the doorway to wave goodbye to every child and say their name.
Turnout is often dependent on how well your library communicates its events.

Speak with your library administrators to see how they are marketing your demo class, and if there is anything else that can be done to make it a success, such as offering posters to be placed around all of the library branches in your area.

Most important, bring your business cards, brochures and have the class material available for parents to look through. After a few weeks of mentioning the material, parents will start showing interest in continuing the early music development experience with their child.

A very special thanks to this month’s contributing Musikgarten teacher:

Ellen Johansen, Ellen Johansen Music Studio

How to Market Childhood Music Programs to Millennial Parents

November 1, 2018Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Music, Marketing to Millennials, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano Teachersearly childhood music, Kids and Music, millennials, Musikgarten, musikgarten marketing, musikgarten studio, Teacher MusikgartenMG-Admin

The Millennial generation has often been hard to define for many marketers and business owners, but it is extremely clear that if you are marketing to the parents of young children, Millennials should not be ignored. The Pew Research Center defines the Millennial generation as those being born from 1981 to 1996, (or currently falling within the age of 22 to 37). In 2016, Millennials accounted for 82% of births in the U.S. In order to best market an early childhood music studio, owners need to know what makes the Millennial generation tick, and what to keep in mind when reaching out to these parents. Here are a few tips for marketing music lessons to Millennial parents:

Digital Natives are All Grown Up and Rely Heavily Online

While it can be argued that the Internet had at least some influence on consumers before 1981, there is no doubt that Millennials were the first full generation to grow up with it from birth. They have been so engaged online, that many have never even heard of an encyclopedia. As would be expected, Millennial parents depend heavily on the Internet to find the parenting information they need. Online resources – parenting websites, online forums, parenting blogs and social networks – collectively gather 71% of first and second place rankings when it comes to top parental influencers. The majority of this influence points towards social media, where 97% of Millennial moms and 93% of Millennial dads find social media helpful to their parenting for exchanging ideas, product reviews, and price checks. Music studio owners marketing out to Millennial parents cannot ignore this 22 million strong and growing group of heavy social media users!

Understand How to Talk to Millennials

With children comes a new identity and responsibility for parents, and marketers need to understand that when creating a message that resonates with them. However, Millennials are very much about being genuine and not being “helicopter parents.” However, they do need recognition to make them feel good about themselves and the decisions they are making in regard to purchases for their child or children. Think about the “trophy for everyone” mentality that was so pervasive in their childhoods, and you can begin to understand Millennials need for acknowledgement and affirmation.

Millennial Dads are More Involved

Millennial dads spend nearly triple the amount of time with their kids than that of previous generations. It’s important to note, however, that Millennial dads are not taking over the roles of moms, but rather looking to define a more involved role for them in the family. Early childhood music studios are increasingly catering to including dads in their curricula, inviting dads or both parents to participate in classes from the earliest stages of music appreciation and understanding. Marketing to not just the mom, but both parents of the millennial generation has become far more important than previous generations.

Millennial Parents Prefer Video to Reading

Millennials use of online resources cannot be overemphasized, whether checking reviews, social media, or Googling about high fever in infants, they were the first fully connected generation. It is no surprise, then, that Millennials prefer Digital Video such as YouTube over traditional TV. With these parents depending on web based content for recommendations and reviews, the influential use of video becomes clear. When promoting childhood music programs to Millennial parents, short video testimonials can be a very effective way to inform and build trust. But be careful, Millennials understand what is marketing, and are suspicious of something that does not come across as genuine.

Music studio owners who understand where to find Millennial parents, what format is best suited to reach them, and how to craft a message that is meaningful to them will be able to reach millions of potential new early childhood music students each and every year.

Social Media Marketing to Attract Music Students

October 5, 2018Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano TeachersKids and Music, Music Education, Music Teacher, Musikgarten, musikgarten marketing, musikgarten studio, Teacher Musikgarten, Teaching Children, Teaching MusicMG-Admin

Social Media platforms have transformed the way our world communicates. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 70% of Americans have at least one social media profile. These platforms can be a highly effective means of reaching new music students and engaging them in a very meaningful way. And, when your followers engage with your form of social media, you have the opportunity to influence all of their connections as well. When considering if and which social media platforms to market your music studio, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Social Media Tips for Music Teachers

Understand your target market so that you select the social media platform that will reach the most of them with the least amount of effort. There are several social media platforms for families and mothers of young children such as Famster, Justmommies, Cafemom, and Disney Family Community, but keep in mind while these are highly targeted platforms, their population pales in comparison to the major platforms such as Facebook or Pinterest.

Rather than participating in all of the different major social media platforms, think about doing just a few of them really well. Social media can take a large amount of time, so you will want to budget your time wisely so that you can concentrate on other aspects of your music studio marketing.

Post often and with relevancy. If you do engage in social media for your studio, be prolific about posts, and make sure they will be interesting to your intended target audience of prospective young music students. Social Media authors can be very creative in what to post and how it links to their business or message. Don’t write all of your posts like an advertisement for childhood music program, so followers don’t get turned off.

When the platform allows for it, use pictures along with words. Color catches the eye, and eyes on faces also grab attention. Just be sure that if you do post a picture of a young music student on social media, that you have signed permission from their parent(s). Also be sure that you do not provide the child’s name anywhere in the post.

Use links to references within your posts to add more relevance. Search engines like for social media content to have supporting evidence in the form of online articles, blog posts, and other data sources. These can be easily found by searching for industry leaders in childhood music theory, and placed as a link within the content itself.

Pay or not to pay. Often times you can build a group of followers from scratch with interesting, creative, and thoughtful social media posts. If this is the case, then you may not consider paying for ads or “boosts” in social media. However, these methods can be helpful to get a social media destination off the ground. Consider starting small and seeing what kind of results the buy gets you. Cost per new follower is a good way to gauge the effectiveness of an ad buy or boost.

There is a multitude social media resources for early childhood music teachers available online, if you do some digging. Start with a few platform(s) that best suit the target audience for your music studio, and learn as much as you can about effectively using those social media outlets.

Getting Free Press for your Early Childhood Music Studio

September 11, 2018Early Childhood Instruments, Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano Teachersearly childhood music, Kids and Music, Musikgarten, musikgarten marketing, musikgarten studio, Teaching ChildrenMG-Admin

Last month, we began a children’s music studio marketing series that touched on several ways to attract parents through various low to no-cost marketing tactics, including the value of Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM).

A very effective and no-cost vehicle to generate WOMM is the press release. Editorial publicity is often called “earned” media, and will strengthen a music studios credibility and identity.

However, there is no guarantee that a press release is going to be printed or aired. To increase the chance of being published, keep these things in mind when writing a press release for your early childhood music studio:

Make it “Newsworthy” – Most press releases that media outlets receive from businesses are extremely self-serving, and read like any other paid advertisement for that company. Relate your press release to a topic that would be interesting to anyone exposed to that media, so that it is newsworthy. For example, you may want to write about how your children’s music studio is helping to fill the void where public school music programs have had budgets slashed, or how scientific studies show exposure to music help with infants with positive cognitive development.

Write it Like an Article – Write the press release from the third person perspective, just as it would be published in the newspaper or online publication. Be sure to cover all of the facts about the topic, answering all of the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How questions. Editors will often take a well written press release and simply re- publish it verbatim, especially if they are up against a deadline.

Become Your Own Topic Expert – Not only do you want your press release published, but you would also like to have an editor or reporter reach out to you for an interview to add more depth to the topic. Include an informed quote from you on early childhood music learning and be sure to make yourself the Contact person on the press release. Include another quote from a teacher at your music studio or parent of a child student, as “supporting evidence” for your topic.

Jazz Up Your Press Release with Visuals – Any advertising or marketing professional will tell you that photos or videos of kids are sure attention grabbers. Provide a good photo of some children having fun in your music studio while learning about music. Better yet, a video is often better for getting the point across, especially to attract broadcast or online media. Just be sure to get permission from each child’s parent with a media consent and release form for minors.

Submit your Press Release to the Right Person, and Follow Up – Media and Publication companies typically have several editors/reporters based on different departments, so be sure you are reaching out to the right human being, not just a department. Typically, early childhood music programs fall under the Arts, Education, Hometown News, or Community departments. Reach out to the contact person, and find out the best way to get the press release to them. The contact number on your press release should be one where you can be reached very easily, not to a voicemail box. Reporters have very short deadlines for publication, so it is important that you have quick availability. Finally, once you send the press release to the right person, make a friendly follow up call to see if they received it. That follow up call may just turn into a phone interview!

A well-placed press release can be a beneficial marketing tool of early childhood music studios for many reasons. With advertising, the audience is already skeptical of an articles claims, whereas the media provides third party validation. And while advertising unabashedly says “buy this product,” well placed media says “this is important.” If you write your press release with those things in mind, you may just get some free and valuable publicity for your children’s music studio.

In The Musikgarten

The blog for Musikgarten teachers