In today's episode, I talk about the text every music school owner dreads: the one from a teacher saying they're moving on. The teacher shortage is real, but I don't think it's our biggest problem. The bigger problem is that in most music schools, students belong to their teachers instead of the school, and when a teacher leaves, the families can leave too.

Key ideas from this episode:

• Why teacher turnover is a design problem, not a people problem
• The difference between linear growth and leverage growth
• Three ways to make sure the value lives in your school, not in one person
• Why group programs create a stronger anchor than private lessons alone

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why losing one teacher can put 30 or 40 students at risk, and how to stop that from happening
• What a restaurant and its favorite waiter can teach you about your music school's biggest vulnerability
• The simple test that tells you whether you have a real curriculum or "a collection of freelancers"
• Why Kelly Bennett trains her group teachers for three months, not three days
• Why your best musician isn't always your best group teacher, and who to hire instead
• How to build a school that doesn't need you there every night

davesimonsmusic.com

In today's episode, I sit down with Amie Nunez, who ran a rock school with her husband for about a decade before selling it to Ensemble. We talk about something most music school owners feel but rarely say out loud: the guilt that comes with making money. If you've ever paid everyone else first, skipped a rate increase because it felt greedy, or winced when someone said "must be nice" about your vacation, this conversation is for you.

Key ideas from this episode:

• Why so many of us carry the "tortured artist" mindset into our music schools
• What happens to your family and your business when you live off the leftovers
• How guilt turns into stress, and stress turns into burnout
• Why treating your school as an artistic expression can hold it back

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why paying yourself first forces better decisions about rates, staffing, and spending
• How to find a dependable monthly number for your own pay, even when revenue is seasonal
• The simple math for figuring out how many students it takes to get a task off your plate
• Why the gear you're proud of may matter more to your teachers than to your parents
• What Amie would do differently if she started her school over today
• How getting around other owners gives you the clarity you can't get on your own

davesimonsmusic.com

In today's episode, I talk about something your teachers probably do hundreds of times a week without thinking twice: they stop the music. It looks like good teaching. But after a conversation with Kelly Bennett from Valencia School of Music, I'm starting to wonder if all that stopping and correcting takes away one of the most important skills a young musician can learn, which is how to recover from a mistake and keep going.

Key ideas from this episode:

• In a private lesson, it's start, stop, correct. In a band, time keeps moving, and that changes how kids learn.
• Making a mistake and recovering from one are two very different things, and we underestimate the second one.
• Kids naturally sync up with each other, often without a single word of instruction.
• Repetition through looping can do a lot of the teaching for you.
• Private lessons are valuable, but maybe they shouldn't be the default starting point for every child.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why a kid who gets lost in a band and jumps back in may be learning more than a kid who gets corrected in a lesson
• What happened when I put two beginner drummers in the same band (I expected a nightmare)
• How "the almighty loop" gets kids locked into the groove without the teacher saying anything
• A simple way to gamify repetition so kids beg to play the same four bars 17 times
• Six things your teachers can try before they stop the music
• A quick listening exercise you can do outside your lesson rooms this week that might change how you see your school

davesimonsmusic.com