This episode is part 7 of the Building a Band Program series on the Rock School Proprietor podcast, hosted by John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School and RockSchoolProprietor.com).
In this episode John shares insights on how to create memorable and effective band concert experiences that boost student retention and engagement. Learn practical tips on venue selection, student and staff preparation, audience experience, and additional touches to elevate your performances.
Included:
- The differences between a recital and concert, and how venue selection can influence overall enjoyment of student and audience members
- How a well-planned event starts with clear expectations for your staff and instructors working the concert, and how that can enhance the experience for students
- Ways to leave parents and audience members engaged and excited about the concert experience
- Special touches to add to the concert checklist that students and families will love, including merch, an exciting MC, and photos.
If you’re interested in starting a band program in your music teaching studio or looking for ideas to enhance or grow an existing program, this series is for you! In it we will cover how a band program can create a strong community in your studio, increase profit margins, and lead to greater student retention.
Interested in the Building a Band Program webinar?
We’re planning a free live webinar to accompany this series on Friday, July 24, 2026. John will go deeper on these topics and answer your questions directly. If you’re interested, send an email to info@rockschoolproprietor.com with the subject line Webinar and we will be in touch with details.
Rock School Proprietor is a podcast for independent music school owners and lesson studio operators. New episodes drop Wednesdays at RockSchoolProprietor.com and on all podcast streaming platforms.
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Episode Transcript:
(Please note: This transcript was generated by robots. There may be errors. For the best experience, please listen to the podcast episode.)
John Kozicki (00:00.902)
Welcome back to the Building a Band program series of episodes on Rock School Proprietor Podcast. My name is John Kazicki. And if you’ve been following along with this series, then you know that the goal is sharing details on creating or building an interactive band or ensemble program in your lesson studio. That is something that I have over a decade of experience with, and I’m here to share everything that I’ve learned.
Maybe you already have one and you’re looking for ways to improve it. Maybe you’ve considered it as a way to compete with some of the franchises like School of Rock or Bak to Rock, or maybe you’ve even had families in your studio request a band or ensemble program, but you just didn’t know where to start. I’m here to help, and that’s exactly what this series is for. So
I’ve covered a lot of topics in this series, and they’re all the things that I think are most important to consider for a great band or ensemble program. Quick recap of all those six of the seven episodes: how to structure your band program, how to choose instructors for your band program, how to group students into bands, choosing songs for your bands, how to run a productive band class.
And behavior management in those band rehearsals. Finally, today I’m sharing what I think are the most important elements to put on a great concert. It’s the last thing you do with these groups, and it’s so important. All of those past episodes are available in the feed. So if you’re just finding this series, you can go back and listen to those. Now, before I get into those elements of a great concert,
Just one final reminder that I am hosting a free live webinar to accompany this series, and it is fast approaching. So Friday, July 24th at 1 p.m. Eastern is when that webinar is gonna be. It is free to register. Just send an email to info at rockschoolproprietor.com with the subject line webinar in that email, and I will get you squared away in that webinar.
John Kozicki (02:21.688)
We’re gonna go deeper if you want to. If you have questions that have come up after listening to any of these episodes in this series, sign up and bring them to the webinar and I’ll answer them. If maybe you’re trying to strategize how to make an ensemble program work in your studio. I mean, I run a rock school, so it seems really intuitive and natural to me, but maybe you’re running primarily a piano studio or I don’t know, maybe you’ve got some horns or something like that. Join the webinar.
And we’ll work through it together. I’ve got tons of ideas for those types of things. because ultimately I want to make this a reality for any studio because I believe in it so strongly. I’ve seen what these programs can do in my studio, how they improve retention, how they improve profit profit margins, and they’re so much more powerful than just private lessons lessons alone. So
That’s why I want to share this with the world. there are tons of ways to make a band program work in any studio. I’m telling you, you can do it. And that’s exactly what this webinar is for. So sign up, info at rockschoolproprior.com and join us on Friday, July 24th. All right, now on to that topic at hand: how to present an amazing concert. I’m gonna start with a little story.
To just sort of frame why I think spending that time to put the great concert together is important. This is pretty recent. it was the last band session at my studio. We had a new student to our band program, had some private lessons previously elsewhere, but he’d never done the band program. Came to our studio, went through the four-month band program.
private lessons, the whole deal. And then a few weeks prior to the concert, he let us know that the parents let us know that he did not plan to do the next band session. So we took him out of the group in the planning stages and you know, we kind of went along with knowing that we’d have that spot for someone else in that group. Concert came along, he did the concert day after the concert.
John Kozicki (04:45.164)
He contacts us, parents contact us, changed his mind. He loved it so much. He doesn’t want to leave the group. He wants to do it again. He wants to be included in the next session. This happens more times in my studio for it to be just a coincidence. These concerts and how you approach them can and do improve retention. That is a perfect real life example of how that concert.
changed how this kid thought about what he was doing. The changed how the parents thought about what our program did. So again, really important to think about how are you presenting this concert, these concerts. And I remember early on I started and this was at my first studio, I started thinking about well, what is the difference between a concert and a recital? And I was wrapping my brain around
that mindset shift. And I suggest you do the same thing. So shrug off any ideas that you may have about recitals and think about what it’s like to go to a concert.
That’s the experience you want to provide for these student students. And experience, I think, is the key word here. So think about how to create an amazing experience for the students as well as their families, the families and friends that come to see them in the audience. This is the big finish to that band program. And you want to leave a strong, lasting impression with students and their families. So
How do I do it? well, I’m going to break this down into three areas to think about when you’re planning your concerts for your student bands. So, first off, I want you to think about the venue. Second, I want you to think about the student experience, and then I want you to think about the audience experience. And I’ll break each one of these down in different segments. So let’s talk about the venue first. Now the venue.
John Kozicki (06:58.612)
Whether you like it or not, the venue is going to impact how your students and the people in the audience perceive that performance. It will impact how band members perform and how audience members respond when they’re seeing this performance. So, as an example, I know churches are popular venues for
Things like recitals, school auditoriums, things like that are all used for performances, which is absolutely fine. But people will act differently in a church. Just automatically they’re gonna act differently. People in the audience are gonna act differently because they’re in a setting where there’s expectations on how they should act. The performers will act differently because, again, there are expectations of how
how to act when you’re in that setting. So everyone’s gonna act differently in a church than they will, say, in a school auditorium. People will also act differently in a school auditorium than they will in a proper concert venue. Consciously or subconsciously, this will happen. So when you’re planning your concert, think about what the things are that you want.
in a proper venue. Now there’s a couple of really big ones that I look for. And one is I look for good stage lights and a great PA system. Then also I look for venues that have food and drink or ability to maybe bring in food and drink, like food trucks or something like that. But so stage and lights. Let’s talk about that first.
The stage, the lights, the great PA system. These are meant to highlight the performers. It’s going to help them look good. It’s going to help them sound good. It’s going to help those performers feel their best when they’re on that stage. And they’re going to feel like rock stars, right? They’re on a big stage with those those lights. That’s impactful from the student’s perspective.
John Kozicki (09:24.822)
Those great lights, they’re gonna make the kids in the band look amazing in the photos that the parents will take and will share. So on the back end, the parents feel really proud about seeing their kid in that setting. They’re gonna get great photos and they’re going to share those. That’s way more impactful than a parent who shares a photo of a kid on a stage in a church.
It just is. So great stage, lights, sound system. It makes a difference. Let’s talk about that food and drink again. Now, yes, we’re dealing with kids here, but we’re also inviting responsible adults, most of whom have attended concerts.
And for many people who have attended concerts, part of that concert experience involves relaxing with an adult beverage and enjoying the performance. There’s nothing wrong with that. And in fact, I think what it does is it helps parents loosen up. It helps them enjoy their time at their perfor at this performance a little bit more than otherwise if they did not have a drink or they did not have something.
Enjoyable to eat. So culturally, we commune around these things, right? We commune around food, we commune around drink, we commune around art and performance and things like that. So lean into all of those elements if you can when you’re looking for your venue.
Now student experience.
John Kozicki (11:10.338)
This is going to be kind of on the front end. And a lot of this, I think, involves your staff and what you tell them that they should be doing during this concert to help these students feel like they are prepared, like they are excelling, and like they’re ready for this big experience. Let your staff know.
and let them know what the exp expectations are for the entire run of the show. Set clear expectations so each one of your staff members, instructors, whoever you have working, give them jobs. designate who’s going to be in charge of load in and load out. Who’s going to be in charge of the setup of all the gear and sound check.
Who’s going to be managing the stage, especially in those changeovers when you you want to make it really quick from one group getting on stage and the other group is leaving stage? Who’s in charge of helping the students tune instruments? Helping again on and off stage, where to stand, how to plug in, how to even run a pedal board if
guitar players using pedalboards, how to adjust the drums if there’s variances in the height of the drummer from one band to the next. These are all things that students don’t necessarily know how to do. But the devil is in the details here. All of those little things are going to add up and they’re going to contribute to either a smoothly run show or one that feels kind of clunky and disjointed.
One thing that I’ve noticed in particular about my staff when we run these concerts, and I always have to step in and give those clear expectations when we have someone new who’s never worked one of our concerts before. is again just be really clear about what they have to do because they are working. That is a work day for them, but it’s a workday day that looks different from their normal.
John Kozicki (13:29.814)
Day. They’re not teaching in the classical sense, like week to week in the studio. What they’re doing is they’re teaching through that performance experience. And I think some of my instructors, some of the band coaches, sometimes they forget. They get caught up in enjoying the performance as well. And they forget that as band coaches as and as instructors, part of their job is to keep coaching and instructing during that show.
Each one of those band coaches knows more about the band that they coach than anyone else helping. So they should be in charge of barking orders, telling the rest of the staff what they need to support. And then also remember that if students get lost during the performance, they’re immediately going to look at that their band coach because that’s what they’re used to doing in rehearsals, right? So band coaches have to be told.
Keep coaching, keep instructing during that show. Help your band through that whole process and have a great show while helping them.
Alright, there and there’s a ton of things that can go into that, like creating notes for best mix, creating set lists so that the students know what songs that they’re playing in what order. These all sound like super basic things, but it’s definitely worth enforcing that and letting your instructors know these are the things we have to do so that this concert is going to run smoothly.
And we’re not gonna have any questions. So that’s on that student exper experience side. From the audience experience, we kind of want to approach it in a similar manner because we want the people in the audience to enjoy the show. We don’t want the parents to wonder where should their child be.
John Kozicki (15:34.778)
When should they head to the stage? What happens after they play? What do they do with their instruments? What do they do with their cases? Right. All of those questions. We want to try and provide answers for them ahead of time. Easiest way I’ve found to do this is number one, you’re going to create a program for this performance. Not a big surprise there. You’re going to list those performers in order when they’re going to be playing.
And then on the back of that program, just simply explain how everything will flow throughout this performance. Right? If you want, if you want students to check in backstage first, put that on there. Check in backstage, sit at your, you know, sit at your seats, sit at your table before it’s your time, five minutes before, head out to the backstage area or whatever you want to happen.
Detail that out in on the back of the program. we’ve even gone as far as saying, students, you’re going to enter the stage from stage left, you’re going to perform. After you perform, everyone’s gonna stand in the front of the stage and your parents are gonna take pictures, then you’re going to exit stage right. Get really granular with those details if you need to.
Then you can reiterate that with an announcement before the performance. And just again, point to the back of that program. Hey, here’s how everything’s gonna go. Look at the back of your program. We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that, we’re gonna do this other thing, and then we’re gonna have a really smooth performance. Answer those questions for parents before they come up, because then they can sit back and they can enjoy the show.
They don’t have to wonder, how are we gonna do this? Where’s my kid supposed to be? Are they in the right place? Give them all that information. All right, so that’s the first thing to ensure a good experience. Next thing I’m gonna lean into is think about best vantage points for parents when they’re watching their kids on stage. Most of the venues that I’ve done performances in.
John Kozicki (18:03.123)
In 100 people or more. Now, obviously, the best seat in the house is going to they’re going to be those seats that are right in front of the stage, right? That’s where you’re going to get the best vantage point. but for those parents who might be more in the back, makes it difficult for them to see their kid on stage when the kid is performing. So
Simple solution there is we’ve created a little VIP area right in front of the stage that gives parents the best seats in the house while their child’s on stage, and then we just rotate that seating, right? Because parents are there to see their kid. Yeah, they want to see the other kids perform too, but they really want to see their kids, so we want to make sure that they’re able to see their kid. So that VIP seating isn’t the front of the stage, gives parents the ability to
To take photos, to take videos while their child is performing. now I I mentioned this before, but we’re really big on once the band is done performing, we have those students stand at the front of the stage in a group so that the parents can get one more band photo. All the kids are smiling arm in arm, right? We even direct them like get tighter, get closer. So that way the parents have that keepsake.
Remember, parents are going to share these photos. Parents are going to share those videos. So give them the opportunity to have great photos and great videos.
So we covered the the student experience, we covered the audience experience. now we’re gonna touch on a couple little bonus things here that I’ve done in the past, things that you could consider, not necessarily things you have to do, but just things that might add a little bit of extra oomph to those performances. Concert posters. We do different concert posters for every performance.
John Kozicki (20:09.794)
We’ve done concert t-shirts, we we do regular performance buttons, all have that same artwork. Think about you know, whatever merch or little keepsakes that kids might want as souvenirs of their performance. And what not only just the performance, but what they’ve accomplished. So those little items of merch, it’s really cool to see.
the kids come in to the music school after the fact and talk about, I have this one, but I don’t have that one. I didn’t do this concert, but I did that concert. very cool to see the kids take pride in that concert and what they’ve done by wearing the t-shirt of that performance or talking about the the concert poster. Another element that adds a nice touch.
To these performances is an MC to hype the crowd. these can be very long days. These can be very tiring days for you as the studio owner or as in the instructor for your staff. There’s a lot of work to do. Again, these are working days and they’re intense working days. So keeping keeping that hype man energy up.
is really hard. I’ve done it. I used to I used to do the MC duties while also trying to coordinate the and and manage the stage transitions and it just got to be too much for me. And now we’ve got we’ve had like great MCs to come and hype up the crowd. We’ve had a great sound guy who also sometimes acts as an MC. We’ve even had students come and do
like student MC spots, which is super cool if you’ve got a really engaging, entertaining kid who can get up there and not just perform in his band, but also be the hype man for the other students. It adds a really, really cute, nice touch to the to the overall performance. So again, someone who can keep that energy up during the entire performance and keep the audience excited from band to band.
John Kozicki (22:31.788)
All right, now all of these things, again, create that experience for both the students and the parents and the members of the audience. You don’t want them to feel like these performances are something that they have to do, like a recital. This is you want them to feel like this is something that they get to do. Remember that story that I shared earlier on in this episode.
On more than one occasion leading up to the concert, we’ve had students who have let us know: hey, we’re not we’re not gonna do band next session after the concert. So yeah, go ahead and take us out of that group. But then they’ve changed their minds after the performance. That’s meaningful. What that tells me is that the performance changed something in them. That experience changed something in them.
And they didn’t want to miss out on doing it again when they were given that chance. So this experience is super meaningful. Lean into it. For you as the instructor or the studio owner, try and remember that this might feel like just another performance to you, but it is much bigger for your students and their families. Everything that they’ve worked
In lessons in rehearsals has built to this event. It is the reason why families stay. It is the reason why they tell other people about your studio. So think long, think hard about creating that amazing experience in your studio. All right, so we’re gonna bring this one home. This was a longer episode.
Then I think normal episodes in this series. don’t forget about that webinar, July 24th. There’s still time to get in on that. Info at rockschoolproprior.com to let me know that you’re going to attend. And we’ll see you next time.
