n this episode, John Kozicki (Michigan Rock School, RockSchoolProprietor.com) and Mandy York (Music Time of Milford) delve into a unique perspective on music education: teaching the parents. John shares his 20-year journey in rock band programs and Mandy discusses her Music Together center, where the focus is on involving caregivers in early childhood music education.
Listen in as they explore the idea of educating parents about expectations, and how their involvement and understanding can significantly impact a child’s musical journey. From building confidence in young learners to creating a family-friendly learning environment, this episode is packed with insights and practical advice for music educators and parents alike.
Whether you’re a studio owner, instructor, or a parent wanting to understand more about your child’s musical education, this conversation is sure to provide valuable takeaways. Join us as we uncover the magic that happens when parents and educators work together to foster a love for music in children.
In this episode:
- Why it is important to educate parents and families in music lesson studios
- Mandy explains why parents are the real students in Music Together
- How Mandy teaches the parents in her music lesson studio
- John explains how he educates parents on expectations of private lessons and how they may not be right for all kids
- How John teaches parents that ability to read music shouldn’t be the top metric in measuring success in music lessons
- Where confidence grows as students learn to play an instrument
- The benefits gained by studio owners when they educate parents about music lessons.
Episode Transcript:
John Kozicki (00:03):
Are parents, the real students in music lessons Today, Mandy and I discuss why it benefits students when we educate their parents. This is the Rock School Proprietor podcast.
Mandy York (00:18):
The parents sometimes have different expectations for the kids.
John Kozicki (00:23):
It’s my job to teach you that not every kid is going to learn the same. Not every kid is in this for the same reason, and it’s not transactional.
Mandy York (00:34):
We have to teach the parents. We have to teach them what playing and practice looks like, and that it doesn’t look the same for everybody.
John Kozicki (00:43):
Welcome to the Rock School Proprietor podcast. I am John Kozicki, and joining me is Mandy York, my co-host. How are you, Mandy?
Mandy York (00:53):
Good. Great to be here.
John Kozicki (00:57):
So as we were preparing, or I was preparing this morning, and I was thinking about how since our podcast is relatively new, there’s going to be that period where people maybe want to get to know us, want to learn more about us because we kind of talked a little bit last time about what you do in your studio and music together and what I do at Michigan Rock School and our rock band programs and things like that. I had this realization this morning that this year will be 20 years since the first time I was involved in any sort of rock band program in a facilitator manner, like leading students. It was very minimal, but I was working at a place called Denver School of Music, and that was the very first time that I participated as a facilitator in some sort of rock band program. Way more scaled back than what I do now, but that’s a long time.
Mandy York (02:08):
Yeah. Wow. Incredible.
John Kozicki (02:12):
I used to also, even before that, also at Denver School of Music, I encouraged my students to come with me to open mic nights and basically force ’em to play. But we were having coffee a couple of weeks ago in our conversation, and this is what we’re going to talk about today. You said something that really struck me as kind of profound and it really got me thinking, but you said, and this is related to your studio, you said parents are the real students in music together.
Mandy York (02:48):
Yes. Yep. I think about that all the time. Try to keep that top of mind.
John Kozicki (02:55):
Okay.
Mandy York (02:55):
Yeah.
John Kozicki (02:57):
And again, to fill for new listeners, just to fill in gaps, your studio, do you call it a center? Do you call it a studio?
Mandy York (03:08):
I call it a center music together. Center, okay.
John Kozicki (03:11):
Yeah, music together. You focus on music together. So birth to age five.
Mandy York (03:18):
Five, yep. Those are mixed age classes. I have a small program for kindergarten through second grade too, but the majority of what we do is that babies through age five group,
John Kozicki (03:32):
And I think what you said, parents are the real students. When I started thinking about it, we start, our earliest program is like four years old. We do Kids Rock, Dave Simon’s program, but we never have parents in the classes with the kids. You do. So I can see on the surface what that means, but I guarantee there’s more to it and it really got me thinking. So I want to hear what that means. What does it mean that parents are the real students?
Mandy York (04:10):
Yeah, sure. Well, so in my center it’s different than the John’s Rock School. Here we have caregivers and children, babies, toddlers, preschoolers, all in the same room together. We sit on the floor and when I say caregivers, that could be nanny, that could be grandma, grandpa. We get moms, dads, anybody can come. And I even have some kids that have multiple caregivers with them every week. It’s a very family friendly, family style learning environment,
John Kozicki (04:49):
Building culture you’re building. It’s not just teaching music. This is like you’re building culture around music.
Mandy York (04:58):
And we do say that we’re teachers and we’re teaching music, but truly we’re just facilitators. We’re facilitating 45 minutes of music making every week. We’re not. We’re just leading the group. And I think it’s unique in that we have those parents in the room, and this is just my outsider perspective. So when I send my daughter to music lessons, private music lessons, somewhere, she goes in, I don’t see what happens. She comes out and she loves it and it’s like, okay, well this is great and you’re doing good work at home. I see it, but I’m not in the room where the instruction is happening. But we have that have those parents right there with us, and so we need to be speaking to ’em.
(05:53):
The parents sometimes have different expectations for the kids than we do in the classroom. Well, and really some people don’t even know what we do. They stop in the studio to say, well, this looks really cool. What do you guys do here? Do I just drop my two-year-old off? I have to sit down on the floor. I have to make the music. So we do. We have to kind of teach them this process of how we are learning and making music together. And then I have to kind of, well, they come in their first day and sit down, and I kind of shock them by saying, by the way, I have no expectations of the kids in this classroom. If they want to go over there and look at that poster of butterflies on the wall the whole time, cool, that’s great. If they want to sit in your lab eyes wide, watching everybody the whole time, great.
(06:50):
They don’t need to move their hands and clap to the beat and clap their hands and all that. They can just sit there and watch. If they want to walk in circles around us and move their feet, they’re a little kinesthetic learner. That’s totally fine. That can be hard for parents to say, but my kid is not participating, but they’re just sitting here, but they’re not doing anything. So when I say we have to teach the parents, we have to teach them what playing in practice looks like and that it doesn’t look the same for everybody. If Sally’s sitting there watching everybody and not moving, some caregivers might be disappointed. Well just might think that that’s not what Sally should be doing in class. I need to let them know that that is what she should be doing. That’s who she is. Each of these kids in here have different learning approaches, different personalities, and for her, sitting and watching everybody is what she needs to do right now.
(07:47):
And that counts as playing. My young kids are learning through play, right? Yes. That counts as playing. She’s taking it all in. What I love about music together is we give all of our families CDs an app where they can download all their music and then a colorful songbook too to take home. I let them know that’s where the magic will really happen. Sally’s comfortable watching, observing, learning in here. You go home and make sure that you continue the music making. It’s your job grownups to model that musical behavior. Music making the magic happens in the playroom and in the bathtub where they start to make music at home together.
John Kozicki (08:31):
So a couple questions now, I guess. First question is why do you think that parents are not, or caregivers or whoever it is, are not okay with a toddler staring at a butterfly poster instead of participating in the class? Do you think that it’s because maybe the parents are saying, well, I’m paying for this. I’m not going to pay for my kid to look at a butterfly poster during this whole class. I want them to be be learning. I want them to be participating, blah, blah, blah. Do you think that’s the core reason or are there other reasons?
Mandy York (09:20):
I think that can be a reason, but I don’t think it’s the core reason. I think that it’s just a lack of knowledge about early childhood education that it doesn’t look like what they think it should. My child is not participating. Participating looks like this, tapping the beet, tapping the sticks, shaking the egg shakers. They truly just don’t know. And that’s why it’s our job to educate them that no, this is okay, and you just wait and see. Hang in here. We do 10 week semesters at my center, and I’ll tell ’em week one to week four to week eight, you’re going to see the difference them. You’re going to see them blossoming over that time and not always in the classroom. Sometimes I see a lot of changes in the classroom, but there are some kids that really just go on record mode. They’re just on record mode in that space. And all of the caregivers, I tell them, it’s their job, the grownups, we are making the music for the kids, but mom will send me videos from home. It’s one of my favorite things when this happens. I’ll get these videos and she’ll say, look, see what he’s doing at home. And they kind of want to prove to me that their kids are making musical progress in their eyes.
John Kozicki (10:54):
They may be staring at the butterfly post or in class, but look what’s happening at home.
Mandy York (10:58):
Yes, because they’re sponges, because they’re taking it all in and home is their space. Home is their safe space. That’s where they’re going to practice and experiment.
John Kozicki (11:08):
And I’m going to draw a parallel. Obviously I don’t work with that age group. We work with kids again starting from four, but the majority of our students are going to be probably eight to 15. That’s kind of our sweet spot at the rock school. And from a developmental standpoint, I totally see where an 18 month old is their sponges. They are taking everything in from a developmental standpoint, that’s how they operate. Where I think parents start to flip and start to think differently is when kids start school. So when they’re in kindergarten, when they’re in first grade, all of a sudden, and I’m not knocking the educational system. My mother was a teacher, my sister’s a teacher. I have a lot of teachers in my family, utmost respect for teachers. But the expectations of kids in school is different. Oh, you go to school. I even say it to my own kids. School’s your job
(12:28):
In a certain sense, they have to toe the line. They have to get grades because they have to get good grades because that’s going to lead to other things down the line. But I think parents that kind of puts this blanket over certain parents and they equate how kids are expected to learn and behave and what looks like success in school is going to be the same in music. And I’ve even had parents say to me, well, what are they doing in that lesson? I feel like they’re not learning anything. And usually those parents I show the door to. But I guess why is it so important that, because you said you spend a lot of time doing this, you spend a lot of time educating your parents about these types of things. Why is that so important?
Mandy York (13:22):
Well, because one of the things I say in our first classes is that to my parents, to my caregivers in the class, you are your child’s best teacher, not me. They’re drawn to your voice. And just like in other things with early with our young ones, if we read to our kids, our kids are more likely to be readers. Those kind of things. If we make music with our kids, our kids are more likely to have music as a part of their life. So I want them to understand our philosophy so that they can teach their kids. And like I said, at home in that safe space where all of that good magic happens.
(14:09):
I do this throughout the semester and I sometimes class can look like herding cats. Just imagine. Oh yeah, just imagine 12 toddlers everywhere. So there’s not a lot of time for me to stand up there and give a little lecture to these parents about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and here’s what you should try at home. So I do these parent education moments, just little bite-sized pieces, maybe a couple per class, applying it to what we’re doing. I like to do lap songs in class. That’s an important part of what we do. Find somebody put ’em on your lap and bounce ’em to the beat. The kids can feel that beat feedback in their bodies or singing and playing with them in that way now. But I’ve told you all, we let the kids do what they need to do. Don’t grab their arms and manipulate their limbs to tap the beat. Right? That’s not going to make sense. But when we have the kids on our laps like this and we’re bouncing them to the beat, that makes sense. And they can feel that in their whole body. They’re feeling a steady beat. You’re not manipulating that. It’s like, so try that throughout class, right? Tap ’em on the back, tap ’em on your lap. Those are things you can do at home. So little just bite-sized, things like that. Things like,
John Kozicki (15:39):
Yeah, I think it’s great that you’ve built that into your classes because you have the parents’ attention. Parents are right there for as long as you have the kids in a class. You have the parents or the caregivers in the class at the same time. So you recognize that the parents are learning, like you said, parents are the real students, the parents are learning. You have that opportunity where it’s different. For me, running a rock school, like you said, when you drop your daughter off at rock school, you’re not coming into the lesson. You’re not coming into the band rehearsal. And that’s the same for all of our parents. So for me, I have to find other ways to educate parents. Do you ever have to? And most of the time for me, it’s on the phone either before the kids even start lessons or when we’re talking about rock band program or after a performance or something like that. But do you have to spend time outside of class doing that as well?
Mandy York (17:05):
I do. Because it’s funny you said, I have the teacher’s attention in class, but that’s not always true. Like I said, there’s a lot going on in there so they don’t catch everything and it’s quick and fleeting. I think repetition is important too. I want to say the same things over and over so that if they missed it the first time, they’ll get it. So some of these ideas really sink in. I keep some, they’re like poster bubbles on the wall with a few reminders about participating. The little eyes and ears are on you, not just your own child, but the kids across the circle too, so don’t forget to participate.
John Kozicki (17:51):
Right. I love that. Yeah, I love it. You’ve got this. Again, we’ve been friends for a while. I have strong opinions, and part of why I want to do these conversations with you is so in part you can keep me in check, right? Because I want to learn from you too. Your approach is really subtle and gentle. Not surprising that you are working with little kids toddlers, but I find it cool that your approach with the parents is very similar. It’s very gentle, very. You’ve got the, like you said, the poster bubbles, the word bubbles on the wall. For me, oftentimes, so typical for me, always before students start at Michigan Rock School, there’s a phone call. And because I want to understand what the parents are looking for to get for their children, I want to understand about the kid. What kind of kid are they? What are they looking for out of lessons? What do they hope to learn? What kind of music do they, because all of those things are going to have an impact on how we approach their program.
(19:14):
But for me, when it comes to educating parents in private lessons and rock band, there’s a perception, I think with parents, they assume that private lessons first are really the only option for their kid when they get to a certain point, when they get to a certain age. And I feel like it’s really important for parents to understand what private lessons could look like, should look like, and understanding what their expectations are. Because if they’re coming from that position that I mentioned before, which is, well, I’m paying this money for these lessons. I want to make sure my kid is able to do X, Y, and Z or play this many songs or whatever, I’m going to quash that right off the bat. I’m going to say, look, that’s, if that’s what your expectation is, it’s my job to teach you that. Not every kid is going to learn the same.
(20:27):
Not every kid is in this for the same reason, and it’s not transactional. It’s not like your kid comes to private lessons for three months and at the end of three months, they’re going to be able to play five chords on the guitar and they’re going to be able to play two songs. I mean, maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But what I’m going to teach ’em is if their kid is really interested in music and I understand what kind of music they’re interested in, then I’m going to make sure that their instructors know that as well, and they’re going to start pushing them toward that goal, the kid’s goal. Because if the kid isn’t involved, if the kid isn’t invested in what they’re doing, we know they’re just going to lose interest, right? Yes. So that’s one way I educate parents. Another way is our rock band program. Now, maybe I should just ask you, you are a parent of one of the students in our rock band program, and you have such a different background, I guess, what were your expectations? Do you even remember?
Mandy York (21:45):
Yeah, I remember when my daughter was in the Kids Rock program. Yeah, the Dave Simon program. She was in that I think relatively early when you first rolled it out. It was a while
John Kozicki (21:57):
Ago. Yeah. Yeah.
Mandy York (21:59):
Several years ago. And because of my background, probably I didn’t have high expectations. I liked what she was doing. I could see the rotating on the instruments, and she was having fun, and I saw that she was learning, going to the performance at the end of the quarter or whatever it was. I was blown away. It was so much fun because it was not just like, oh, look, they learned this song. It was the community there, everybody all together, and them learning the process of getting up on stage, how I was so proud of how brave they were getting up there and showing off what they did. It was totally for them. They were so excited about what they had accomplished and delivering that to
John Kozicki (22:58):
Us. I love that you mentioned how brave they were. A very common, I get pushback from parents when I straight up ask the parents in this first phone call, do you think your kid is interested in playing in a band? Because that’s one of the things we do. Yeah. We do a lot of work with students in private lessons, but also band and ps. Those students who will participate in our band program, the retention’s better. They stick with the lessons longer. To me, that’s where the magic happens. But you mentioned how brave the kids were. A common point of resistance I get from parents, and I know that this is their own hangup, but a common point of resistance I get is they say that they want their kid to feel confident first. So before they get involved in the band program, well, maybe they should do some private lessons first.
(24:05):
And that may be true for some kids, but I also know that that’s a common hangup because what they’re worried about is they’re worried that their kid is going to feel uncomfortable, and that’s going to make the parents feel uncomfortable. But the reality of the band program is what it’s teaching the kids to do is do the activity. It’s not teaching ’em how to learn scales. It’s not teaching ’em how to use proper hand technique or whatever. There’s plenty of time to do that. And that’s the easy part, the hard part. And if you want your kid to build confidence, the hard part is to do it. The hard part is to get in that room with the other kids in rehearsals and play a song and make mistakes and do that for a few months, and then get up on stage and make mistakes, and then everyone applauds for you despite of your mistakes. That’s how you build confidence, right? Yes. You don’t build confidence by practicing scales.
Mandy York (25:14):
No, no. It’s a great approach. I love it. And the other piece of that too is the community and the team that they form, they’re doing it together. And I’ve seen firsthand the relationships that form and the culture that is there at your studio. These groups are really special, and they’re creating music together, which is a really special thing.
John Kozicki (25:38):
Well, and I’ve seen it in yours too, because they come from your studio. The kids to come to my studio, come from your studio, and they’re like, oh, we love Ms. Mandy. So thank you. Because you’re already teaching ’em at that young age, and I’m just trying to grab the baton and say, yeah, all those things that Mandy teaches in those early stages of development, they still apply. They still apply when the kid is eight years old. They still apply when the kid is 14 years old, and they’re also going to apply when you’re an adult. All those things you learn by playing. You learn by doing the things that you love to do. You want to learn more when you like to do the activity. It’s so simple. Why do we complicate it? Why do we complicate it?
Mandy York (26:31):
Well, and I think so maybe that’s part of it. That’s one of the root of this. Parents complicate it, right? But parents complicate it. And we need to teach them to
John Kozicki (26:48):
Lighten up. I don’t say
Mandy York (26:48):
The wrong thing. I don’t want to say the wrong thing.
John Kozicki (26:51):
I’ll say the wrong thing.
Mandy York (26:53):
Get out of the way of their kid a little bit. Stop telling them, take your hand and put it right here. Here. Go watch the teacher. Do what she’s doing. Get out of the way. Let him go do what he wants to. And the best thing you can do right now is take your drum and beat a steady beat and have ’em hear that and watch you do that. But get out of the way. Let the kids explore. Let them do. Let them try.
John Kozicki (27:20):
Yes. Yes. Because when parents, okay, this is another one that I feel like I have to educate parents on often. Sometimes they’ll fixate on, well, I want my kid to be able to read music and not discounting the value in that. Hugely valuable. But that becomes their focus. And they think, if the kid’s not learning how to read music, well then why are we doing this? And again, I think that goes back to school. That goes back to kids going to school, and the expectation is that they learn to read. But the difference being, you can’t go anywhere in life without having words to practice reading to right music. You have to actively sit there and practice reading music. But that’s beside the point. The point is, I think the parents want the kid to learn how to read music, because in their mind, they think they’ve got this vision. I want my kid, we’re at the campfire and my kid grabs a guitar, or it’s Christmas and the whole family’s here, and they’re gathered around the piano, and I want my kid to play a song on the piano, a Christmas song, and then everyone’s going to start to sing. And that’s the vision they have in their heads.
(28:49):
But then the reality sets in, and I’ve seen this firsthand. If the kid only knows how to read music and doesn’t know how to play, then they get in that situation. They’re like, oh, well, I need the music.
Mandy York (29:04):
Yeah. Hey, happens. That’s me. That’s me and my traditional background. Absolutely. Yes.
John Kozicki (29:11):
Yeah. I had that same thing happen to me when I was a kid. My uncle was amazing. Piano player, played by ear. He could read music also, but one Christmas, he was like, alright, well bring your guitar. We’ll play. And I was so young at that point, so early to playing guitar. I did need the music because that was where I was. But then as soon as he was like, oh wait, do you know chords? And I was like, yeah, I know a few chords. And he said, well play this chord and then play that chord, and then it changed. Then I was able to play with them. So they want that, and they think the path to getting that is reading music. But the real path to getting there is to be able to have this vast, vast library of knowledge and a practical working knowledge of that instrument. So when someone says like, oh, hey, we’re going to play this song by the campfire. Do you know it? No, I don’t know it. But they can then say, well, what are the chords? And then bingo, everyone’s playing music. So that’s another area where I have to always educate parents. Alright, so I was going to ask why is this so important? But I think we’ve kind of addressed it.
Mandy York (30:36):
We’ve answered
John Kozicki (30:36):
That. Why is it so important? Okay. Maybe a better question though is what if parents aren’t getting it? What if you’re saying these things and the parents aren’t getting it,
Mandy York (30:49):
And there’s always some, they’re just a little, they take a little more work. Well, I mentioned posters in the room. I also use email. I send newsletters to enrolled families as a reminder of what we’ve been talking about, or don’t forget to try this at home, et cetera. I use social media well, and music together. I mean, they’re amazing. I can’t say enough about music together worldwide. I have take home literature that I can give them to. That’s awesome. There’s a really neat kind of growth chart piece that they have, and I hand out and say, okay, so take a look. It’s a lot of words. That’s hard sometimes, giving people a lot of words. People don’t read as much anymore. But you can read just a piece of this at a time. Look at how old your child was when you started the program, and then semester to semester, the kind of musical development you might see in them. Because sometimes you maybe see, you might not realize that some of the behaviors at home are musical behaviors that you’re seeing like, oh, this is coming from music class. So I do send those take home pieces.
(32:07):
So this, we’re talking about this tough parent, right? That’s not getting it. Yeah. What if
John Kozicki (32:18):
You haven’t had tough parents?
Mandy York (32:20):
Good for you. No, for sure. So in this case, well, I wanted to talk about the roadblock of confidence too,
John Kozicki (32:34):
Which
Mandy York (32:37):
Delivering this kind of parent ed throughout my semester was much harder nine years ago than it is now. It gets easier as you’re more experienced. But then also, I was just about the same age as all my parents when I first started, and now I’m mostly older than all the parents. Mostly I’m older than most of my parents now. And so that makes it a little bit easier too. And I often wonder what I’ll be like in eight more years, am I just going to be like, Nope, that’s not what you need to do. You need to be doing, am I going to be more matter of fact and a little less?
John Kozicki (33:15):
Right? You’re going to hit that point that I was talking with someone a few weeks ago and I was like, yeah, I think I’m just at that age now where I don’t care. I’m going to give you my opinion. And I’m that guy. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m that bad. Hopefully I’m gentler. Yeah,
Mandy York (33:33):
I would say you’re gentle. And in my season right now of life, I am more gentle. And so with this tough parent, I do just try to, because I don’t want to call them out either in the middle of class. So I maybe position myself near them during an activity, be like, oh, maybe try this. Or I will call out the child. And so if Joey is doing something with his egg shakers that caregiver thinks is he shouldn’t be doing right now, I’ll call out Joey and I’ll say, oh, look what Joey’s doing, guys. Let’s try that and rub your egg shakers against the wall.
John Kozicki (34:14):
Right? Purposely. That’s a great technique purpose. You’re purposely having everyone else do the wrong thing to reinforce that the wrong thing isn’t actually wrong. Yes,
Mandy York (34:27):
That helped. I think that really helps the caregivers like, oh, okay, I guess this is fine. You can do that. And parent encouragement is great. I try to remember to encourage my parents just even that, I am singing almost the whole time in class, but eyebrows up nodding my head at them like, Hey, good job. I like what you’re doing over there. Little things like that. I’ve got some caregivers that are in and out of the room throughout class, because who knows what child is upset about something or they’re working on
John Kozicki (35:11):
Whatever it might be. I remember when I was in your house, my own kid, remember he wouldn’t even come in for Yeah, yeah. There were times where he was not coming in. There were times when he didn’t come in and we just left.
Mandy York (35:26):
I’ve had them sit in the lobby and sometimes I’ll deliver an egg shaker out there. I had one boy, definitely. He was out there for three weeks before he came in. In those instances, I will encourage the parents like, Hey, you’re doing a great job. Wow, you’re really hanging in there. Let me know how I can support you. But you’re doing awesome.
John Kozicki (35:48):
As that parent in that situation, I do remember feeling embarrassed, right? I was like, oh my God, my kid. So I totally get it. So real quick question. I want to present some action items for potential listeners, little tips for other studio owners. Now, you are giving all these tips for you as Ms. Mandy, the teacher, but you’re also an administrator and you have other instructors who work for you. Do you give them advice to address these issues? Do you give them tools to put the parents in their place or teach the parents?
Mandy York (36:41):
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that’s a really important part of my job as a director, is to make sure that I have a solid team and my teachers are a bit younger than me. So they are in that place that I can remember where it was harder to deliver this to my peers in a classroom. But everything we’ve talked about today, I tell them and I deliver. I’ll write down kind of my favorite parent education pieces. Try this. Or maybe when you do this song, this is a good place for you to talk about ideation or when you do this song, this is a good place to talk about keeping macro and micro beats, something like that. So I can give them something that relates to what they’re currently teaching and working on. I really appreciate, my teachers will come to me and they’ll say, this is going on. What should I do? And we can talk through it together. So that’s an important part of being a director, is you want everyone in your studio, in your school to be getting the highest quality experience.
John Kozicki (38:12):
Yeah, that’s great advice. I was thinking about what my advice would be to other studio owners or instructors. The big one, my biggest takeaway, and again, this sort of goes back to with more experience, I’m more confident in sharing my opinions and my thoughts similar to what we were talking about in a previous episode where I talked about confidence to just say these things to parents as opposed to addressing their concerns that might not even be important concerns, right? Oh my gosh, my kid is staring at this poster on the wall and not participating in the past. Maybe it’s like, oh, okay, well, we’ll get ’em back in the group instead of just saying, don’t worry about it. It’s not important.
(39:13):
We are the experts. This is my advice to other instructors, studio owners. We are the experts, and I think in most cases, parents actually want to be told what to do. Not in an authoritarian way, but in more of a guide way. You are acting as the guide. They want your advice. They want your years of experience. They want to be told, do this, and everything’s going to be fine. They want that reassurance. So my advice is that we lean into that aspect of our experience. We are the experts. Parents actually appreciate when we guide them and we tell them these things instead of shying away from like, oh, well, we’re not doing what the parents are hoping we’re doing, or whatever the case may be. I think our psyches get in the way there. So have the confidence to talk to the parents about this stuff and tell them what you think is important and what might not be as important, even if they think it is important, right? Like a kid who’s in lessons for three months and their reading skills aren’t that great, not important, not that important. It’s going to happen, don’t worry. Or maybe it won’t. Maybe that’s not even the kid’s goal, but point is we are the experts. We should feel confident in sharing what we think is important, whatever the case is. So those are my bits of advice for other studio owners and other teachers. Any other
Mandy York (41:02):
Shared Well, I do want one. Yeah, just one more because it reminds me something that I think is important, and I tell my teachers, you need to do this early and reinforce it, right? You need to set those expectations off the bat,
John Kozicki (41:17):
Right?
Mandy York (41:18):
Yes. And when you were telling your story earlier about how you have those conversations with your families before they even start lessons, you have that initial phone call or I ran into, I was at a networking event last week and I ran into somebody new. I didn’t know she saw my name tag. She knew somebody that attended my studio, and then she started talking about the rock school and how her son or daughter takes lessons and is in the rock band program. And she went immediately into, well, because I said, oh yeah, John, he’s such a great guy. We love it there. She said, oh yeah. I’ve really appreciated the way he just, before we even started, we had this talk and he just explained to all the philosophy and everything. She kind of went on and on for a minute about that, and I was like, that’s great. So making me
John Kozicki (42:14):
Feel so good here.
Mandy York (42:15):
Yes. It’s good to hear that. Like you say, the parents want that. They want to be told, they want to know that we got this. We have a plan, we have a purpose, we have a philosophy, and they can trust what we’re doing.
John Kozicki (42:35):
Yeah. Good job. Good job. Oh boy. Thank you, Mandy. That makes me feel good. Alright, well with that, I think we’re going to wrap it up. The parents are the real students. They are the real students. But we’ve got to recognize that. We’ve got to make sure that knowing that we have to teach them some of these things, then it also gets them on our team. So then we’ve got us working with the students, we’ve got the parents working with the students. Then the kids are going to benefit, and that’s the
Mandy York (43:12):
Best case and that’s what it’s all about. Yeah.
John Kozicki (43:14):
Yeah. Alright, so with that, we will wrap up this episode of Rock School Proprietor Podcast. Mandy, thank you as always. Great conversation.
Mandy York (43:24):
Thank you.
John Kozicki (43:25):
Oh yeah. Alright, I’ll see you next time.
(43:29):
If you have topic suggestions or questions, please contact us at info@rockschoolproprietor.com. We would love to consider them for the show notes and transcripts for this and all episodes can be found@rockschoolproprietor.com. I’m at Rock School proprietor on Instagram if you’d like to connect with me there. You can also find me on LinkedIn as John Kaki. If you enjoyed the show and gained insight from our conversations, then we count that as a win. All we ask in return is that you pay it forward and share the show with someone you think needs to hear it. We’ll see you next time.
