A strong teaching bio has to do more than just list your degrees and experience. To be effective, a teaching bio needs to give prospective students a real sense of what it’s like to study with you. This needs to be compelling enough so that they will reach out. To...
I've been thinking lately about Peeling Onions and Writing Teaching Statements. That there are similarities. Ideally, both involve revealing multiple layers while avoiding tears. Writing a teaching philosophy statement is challenging because it's often the first time...
Have you ever been thrown by the interview question, "What's your teaching philosophy?" If you're not prepared, what follows can be really awkward, if not embarrassing. That question is on my mind now because a number of musicians have recently asked me about writing...
Let me tell you a story about a client I'll call Beth—a talented, accomplished musician who was looking for a college teaching job. Beth was well-qualified for the jobs she applied for. But she'd been applying for jobs for two years—and not getting anywhere. No...
MONDAY BYTES — March 21, 2016 What was your weekend AHA moment? Here was mine: how rarely musicians have any help or practice in addressing the key questions necessary to promote their careers. I'm talking about being able to: 1. Describe your work (the WHAT and HOW)...
MONDAY BYTES —March 14, 2016 If you're going to be in the Boston area, I really hope you'll grab one of the four remaining spots for the Musician's Teaching Philosophy Statement workshop this coming Saturday March 19. I'm so excited to be offering this...
MONDAY BYTES — February 22, 2016 "Why do you love to teach?" is not an interview question designed to trip you up. It's a reasonable question: employers want to hire people who love the work and who are excellent and motivated educators. And we musicians should know...
MONDAY BYTES — September 15, 2014 Here's a helpful tool for evaluating the effectiveness of résumés, cover letters, and other marketing materials: it's what I call the "So What?" test (which is akin to the Who Cares? test). It's to test whether or not what you are...
MONDAY BYTES - June 4, 2012 Whether you want to promote a new album, your private teaching studio, or your next concert, you need to consider the story of what it is you are offering. Scheherazade had 1001 compelling stories: do you? I'm a big fan of Terry O'Reilly's...
