1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,480 Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of the PianoPod. 2 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:12,840 I am Eric Hunter. 3 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:14,480 I'm Yukimi Song. 4 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:16,680 And I'm Clara Jones. 5 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:21,720 If you are just joining us for the first time, the PianoPod is now a bi-monthly podcast 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:24,920 where we interview some of the brightest talents in the industry. 7 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:28,360 Each episode features a guest speaker who's making bold new innovations that have the 8 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:32,920 potential to change the way we think about piano or even music in general. 9 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:37,840 Today our guest speaker is Andrew Inkovet, piano teacher, entrepreneur, and the creator 10 00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:40,560 of the revolutionary new music color method. 11 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,200 Andrew, thank you for joining us today. 12 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:44,200 Thank you so much. 13 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:45,200 Thank you. 14 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:46,200 Yay. 15 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:51,320 Guys, great to see you all on this cold blustery day here in New York City. 16 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:52,320 Yes. 17 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:53,320 Yeah, it is brutal outside. 18 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:57,900 So Andrew, we're going to get into the details in a little bit. 19 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:01,000 But just very briefly, what is the music color method? 20 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,000 What's it about? 21 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:11,200 Music color method is all about giving more access to more kids' music. 22 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:16,320 So it's an adaptive, inclusive, and fun curriculum. 23 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:24,700 And we started this in my living room, just me and my son when he started asking for lessons. 24 00:01:24,700 --> 00:01:31,720 And I didn't realize that there was kind of a gap in music education at the time where 25 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:39,160 there was really nothing I could find for a pre-literate kid to learn music and enjoy 26 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:43,240 music, except for, you know, you have the clap along, sing along kind of things. 27 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:46,320 But he got bored of that really fast. 28 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:55,240 So this became a homeschooling project that has now been shared with the world. 29 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:56,700 That's fantastic. 30 00:01:56,700 --> 00:02:00,460 And so how does the color portion come into it? 31 00:02:00,460 --> 00:02:04,640 So color is being used as educational scaffolding. 32 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:12,860 So what I mean by that is that we directly label what we want our kids to do. 33 00:02:12,860 --> 00:02:23,000 So it's putting colors on even our fingertips with washable markers, colors on the keys, 34 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,860 and then color notation that looks like colored blocks. 35 00:02:26,860 --> 00:02:34,220 So then it becomes as easy as a color matching game, which any three, four-year-old can do. 36 00:02:34,220 --> 00:02:39,680 And you don't have to actually say, oh, this is a C and it's below the staff and it's got 37 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:41,080 this little line through it. 38 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:44,720 And this is called the clap and it's like, what? 39 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:46,640 This is very simple. 40 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:51,520 You see the red thing is the red key and you have a red finger. 41 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:53,520 How many times do we have the red box on the page? 42 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:54,520 Oh, there's five. 43 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:56,040 That means you play it five times. 44 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:57,300 Oh, I get it. 45 00:02:57,300 --> 00:02:59,420 We can keep going really fast. 46 00:02:59,420 --> 00:03:05,260 And then we just steer them because they have their own motivation now to practice and they 47 00:03:05,260 --> 00:03:11,800 can keep going and it's much easier to steer a body in motion than one that is completely 48 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:12,800 stalled. 49 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:13,800 Right? 50 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:14,800 Absolutely. 51 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:22,740 Well, I want to ask Andrew, so before you created this color method, which I think it's 52 00:03:22,740 --> 00:03:28,400 just incredible when you are looking for a teacher or a method for your three-year-old 53 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:29,400 son, right? 54 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:30,400 Yeah. 55 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,800 What did you discover or did not discover in terms of like method books? 56 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:35,800 Yeah. 57 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:40,000 So first of all, I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which is a very child-friendly neighborhood. 58 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,920 So I figured there's got to be child services here. 59 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,320 People have probably had this same need. 60 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:51,920 So I started just asking other teachers, can I sign up? 61 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:58,400 I even met with some famous pianists who were like, oh, we don't take anybody until we're 62 00:03:58,400 --> 00:03:59,760 teenagers. 63 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,800 The higher the level of the pianist, it seems like the higher level of the student they 64 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:05,560 want. 65 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:10,800 So I had gone to school to be a music teacher back at NYU. 66 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:17,800 I actually had a scholar in education scholarship, but I never made it my focus. 67 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:25,440 So it was just like kind of like telling me, life was telling me to go back and be a teacher. 68 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:29,360 And this was a great activity to bond with my son as well. 69 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:34,760 So I started looking in the Brooklyn Public Library, they have a massive collection. 70 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:36,320 I remember that. 71 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:37,320 It's beautiful. 72 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:41,600 Too bad we can't get there right now. 73 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:44,400 But the so there's tons of method books. 74 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:46,160 There's also tons of scores. 75 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:49,560 If you ever looking for obscure scores. 76 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:54,640 I ordered hundreds of dollars of books on Amazon. 77 00:04:54,640 --> 00:05:01,240 And the closest I came to was the Suzuki method, which was OK, I see that he's getting kids 78 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,320 to play first. 79 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:11,360 But then there's like almost there's like another gap between playing and reading. 80 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:16,080 So I was like, OK, I can try to bridge that. 81 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:23,160 And that's when I started playing around with color because I had spent 10 years as a information 82 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:29,480 user experience designer doing websites for American Express, Manhattan Bank, all these 83 00:05:29,480 --> 00:05:30,480 things. 84 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:36,520 So, you know, in that world, when you're looking at a screen, where you put a button means 85 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:38,120 something, right? 86 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:42,120 Everything has a reason to be there's real estate on the screen. 87 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,980 The same thing on the page. 88 00:05:44,980 --> 00:05:47,920 Everything on the page has to have a reason to be there. 89 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,000 Otherwise, why put it there? 90 00:05:51,000 --> 00:06:01,800 And what I realized from the world of UX design, the more concrete you can have a single audience, 91 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:05,160 the more clear your message can be. 92 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:10,160 So what my big epiphany was looking at these method books, most of these method books had 93 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:13,120 three audiences on the same page. 94 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:20,200 It was like notes for the teacher, notes for the parent and then something for the student. 95 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:25,480 And even just yesterday, I would have a six year old came over socially distanced mass 96 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:27,240 lesson. 97 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:33,200 And I begged the parent to please, please bring her in because I'm having a hard time 98 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,280 with a six year old over the screen. 99 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:40,560 And I'm showing her a lesson book. 100 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:42,680 I'm not going to mention names. 101 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:43,680 And it's a great one. 102 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,800 I use it for a lot of students. 103 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,200 And she's looking at the page and there's a teacher's duet. 104 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:50,440 And she's like, oh, what the heck is that? 105 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:51,440 I don't want to. 106 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:52,440 I don't know what that is. 107 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:54,720 Yeah, they get intimidated by those. 108 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:59,440 And she's just like, I don't want to do that. 109 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:00,440 Yeah. 110 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:02,400 So that is a big problem. 111 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:05,320 I can understand why publishers do that. 112 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:11,560 The cost of paper and shipping is very expensive, which is also what I discovered when I started 113 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:13,640 making method books myself. 114 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:18,400 And I really wanted to stick to this, OK, one page is for the parent or the teacher 115 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:20,600 and one page for the kid. 116 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:25,080 And then I'm like, oh, my God, I can't fit any more songs because the cost is going to 117 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:26,080 be just ridiculous. 118 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,080 It can be like $50 for my book. 119 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,640 That's interesting. 120 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,480 You know, let me interrupt. 121 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:39,120 Yeah, I'm just curious because you just mentioned experiences at American Express or whatever. 122 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:44,200 And then you have this music educational background at NYU. 123 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,720 So please tell us about your background. 124 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,640 It seems like you have many interesting experiences in the past. 125 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:57,160 So yeah, it's been a lifetime trying to figure out. 126 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:07,560 The best I've come up with is that I've had a wide angle career path with a lot of interests, 127 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:09,560 a lot of parallel paths. 128 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:16,600 So I went to NYU with a double major in music education and jazz performance. 129 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:18,680 I am not really a jazz guy. 130 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:20,920 I was a rock maniac. 131 00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:22,520 I had hair down to my waist. 132 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:27,280 I was a heavy metalhead playing guitar. 133 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:32,000 But I realized I wanted to learn jazz because, you know, those guys can play anything. 134 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,000 And I did learn a ton. 135 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:40,200 So at the end of the day, I ended up getting very involved with the music business in New 136 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:46,720 York City and interning at some amazing places, eventually working on the marketing team that 137 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:51,360 brought you artists like Guns N' Roses. 138 00:08:51,360 --> 00:08:53,800 Tracy Chapman we did. 139 00:08:53,800 --> 00:09:03,840 We did Anthrax, Megadeth, all these really toxic, syringed bands. 140 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:10,320 My first day on the job was going to Metallica backstage and I was like, oh my God. 141 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:14,960 Yeah, you can ask my wife about our first date at Metallica. 142 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:17,480 I want to hear that story. 143 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,160 You had a headache. 144 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:24,080 And I remember you even working in Hong Kong for a while, right? 145 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:32,800 So that led me to actually at that job, I actually was a, I've always been kind of self 146 00:09:32,800 --> 00:09:37,240 starting and I started learning how to use desktop publishing software. 147 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:42,320 And one of my bosses was one of the first Mac guys in New York City. 148 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:49,080 So I became the editor of this newsletter that then published our research on heavy 149 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:54,440 metal to MTV's Headbangers Ball. 150 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:58,480 And that's when I started hanging out with the MTV folks and I started writing scripts 151 00:09:58,480 --> 00:09:59,760 for them. 152 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:04,200 And then I said to them, hey, you know what, I should actually be hosting the show. 153 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,240 I'm writing the scripts. 154 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:13,680 And long story short, it turned into me becoming one of the first VJs when they launched in 155 00:10:13,680 --> 00:10:17,400 Asia and moved me to Hong Kong. 156 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:24,320 So I spent five years in Hong Kong, only one as a VJ, but then I was doing other things. 157 00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:26,840 I started film scoring while I was there. 158 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:33,040 I started doing things with the Mac users group and getting into technology. 159 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:39,120 That's when we started an internet marketing business, which led me into that world. 160 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:42,520 So it's always been lots of things going on. 161 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,840 I've also been an actor off Broadway with the Panthers and Reds. 162 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:49,520 Oh, I didn't know about that. 163 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:53,560 I was in some independent movies and stuff. 164 00:10:53,560 --> 00:10:56,960 Yeah, it's a lot of a lot of things going on. 165 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:05,480 I think at the end of the day, my real reason for being is teaching. 166 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:11,160 It took me all those years to have my son say, you know, why don't you teach me? 167 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:13,840 See, that's very important, too, right? 168 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,920 We have children, so yes, I get inspired. 169 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:19,320 I changed my life for the better. 170 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:20,320 That's really amazing. 171 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:21,320 Right. 172 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:27,440 And I wanted to jump in and say, I love the story of your career path because it's so 173 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:30,440 non-traditional. 174 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:36,480 Every bit of it has a role to play, right? 175 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:42,160 That's why I love this method so much because coming from this diverse background that is 176 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:47,080 very non-traditional, you were able to just step into the piano world and see what was 177 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:52,120 out there and see kind of obvious gaps that I think a lot of us have recognized and felt 178 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,480 for some time. 179 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:56,960 I wanted to show everybody what you're talking about before. 180 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,440 This is the first volume. 181 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:01,720 I don't know if this is an older edition. 182 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:03,760 Have you put out a new one since then? 183 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:09,360 I keep updating minor tweaks, so that's still valid. 184 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:10,360 Yeah. 185 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:11,360 Okay. 186 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:14,360 So I've been using this with my son, who's five and a half. 187 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:21,840 And just to give an example of what you're talking about, here's the first piece in the 188 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:23,480 book. 189 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:26,320 And for anybody who's watching this on video, you can see it. 190 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:28,280 Of course, for audio, I'll describe it. 191 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:34,760 But basically, you have the piece laid out in colored blocks and the title and a single 192 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:36,640 illustration and that's it. 193 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:40,080 There's no extra information to confuse the young student. 194 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:45,180 And then on the preceding page, you have the instructions for the parent or the teacher. 195 00:12:45,180 --> 00:12:50,400 So when you talk about graphic interface and the layout and how much of a difference that 196 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:55,640 makes in the way we absorb the information, I mean, it's important at any age, but particularly 197 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:58,840 for young kids. 198 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:04,640 I've had some feedback where people felt like they didn't get to the reading on the staff 199 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:06,640 fast enough. 200 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:10,320 And there is a definite reason for that because they're just not ready. 201 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:15,640 I mean, the original age group that I wrote this curriculum for was somewhere between 202 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:17,640 three and six years old. 203 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:23,240 Most of those kids are just not ready to think abstractly like that. 204 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:28,720 So it really depends on how old your student is. 205 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:33,800 And also, obviously, if they're a prodigy, some gifted Mozart, they can probably jump 206 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:35,840 ahead, right? 207 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:43,040 But yeah, most kids, if it's too hard, they hit this this hill of like, oh, it's too hard. 208 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:44,160 I don't want to do this. 209 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:45,640 And then they quit. 210 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:47,800 And that's what we're trying to combat. 211 00:13:47,800 --> 00:13:50,980 We're trying to get them to like, this is fun. 212 00:13:50,980 --> 00:13:53,440 Every time you come, it's a win. 213 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:59,360 And every time you go home, you know exactly what to do without anyone sitting with you. 214 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:02,440 And then so then you can keep them for years and years and years. 215 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:09,400 Most of my students at Park Slope Music Lessons, my school, stay with us five, ten, even fifteen 216 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:10,760 years. 217 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:14,200 So my son, as I told you, was the student number one. 218 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:19,240 He's now 18 and he's at Brown University. 219 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:20,960 So he's no longer a student. 220 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,720 So that's been a nice long ride. 221 00:14:23,720 --> 00:14:27,240 So for me, this method is relatively new, right? 222 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:29,360 I heard about this recently. 223 00:14:29,360 --> 00:14:32,560 I want to know what is this color come into? 224 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,120 Like I mean, like the very specific. 225 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:37,380 How does it work exactly? 226 00:14:37,380 --> 00:14:39,960 Each color represent a different key. 227 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:43,880 That's how I just put this rainbow on the keys. 228 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:49,120 The only difference I made was I tried to make it from a UX perspective. 229 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:53,280 I tried to make it a little bit easier to see the difference between like purple and 230 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:55,280 indigo or things like that. 231 00:14:55,280 --> 00:14:59,760 So I put gray as one of the colors in there. 232 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:05,360 And so as we start, kids start to associate. 233 00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:08,360 OK, C is is red. 234 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:15,120 So they can start using that as their visual language to compose immediately. 235 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:22,120 And then, you know, when I learned solfege, I always thought of movable dough. 236 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:25,000 Oh, actually, let me ask you guys. 237 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,080 What is it for you? 238 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:28,080 Movable or fixed? 239 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:29,080 Fixed. 240 00:15:29,080 --> 00:15:30,080 Fixed. 241 00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:31,080 Fixed. 242 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:32,080 I had to learn both. 243 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:33,080 Interesting. 244 00:15:33,080 --> 00:15:34,520 Because of the way. 245 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:38,640 So I just said, who would ever want fixed? 246 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:39,640 That's crazy. 247 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:40,640 Right. 248 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:41,960 Because I don't know. 249 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,320 I always thought movable just made more sense to me. 250 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:45,680 You know, do re mi fa so. 251 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:47,760 And I just move it around. 252 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:53,320 But then as I started talking to more people and then I started noticing my students, they're 253 00:15:53,320 --> 00:16:01,200 constantly fixating red as dough and dough as C. And that just makes it easier. 254 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:06,120 So I started asking some of the best site readers I know, teachers in my studio, my 255 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:09,680 music director at the church, who's an amazing site reader. 256 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:11,640 And they said, oh, fixed. 257 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:14,340 I'm like, I said, why fixed? 258 00:16:14,340 --> 00:16:20,800 And they were like, because how can you not have fixed for 20th century music? 259 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:22,080 There is no dough. 260 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:23,720 You don't even know what dough is. 261 00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:24,720 Right. 262 00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:26,100 I was like, ah, that totally makes sense. 263 00:16:26,100 --> 00:16:30,960 But then it also just makes sense for the kids too now, because I can always sing dough, 264 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:36,200 dough de re re. 265 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:39,520 And then they know exactly what I'm talking about. 266 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:40,520 Right. 267 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:41,520 I see. 268 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:48,160 So color becomes kind of the substitute for the note. 269 00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:56,520 But then in your question about keys and phrases, I actually used to use quite a bit this translucent 270 00:16:56,520 --> 00:16:57,520 colored tape. 271 00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,520 Oh, wow. 272 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:00,620 And I've started. 273 00:17:00,620 --> 00:17:07,560 So for the more advanced kids who start getting onto the staff, I like to show them patterns 274 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:08,560 right away. 275 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:14,520 So we look at a pattern, say we see the first phrase in the A section and look at this and 276 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:17,880 I'll just use any color. 277 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:20,240 But then I'll say, where do you see that phrase again? 278 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,040 And we like translucent colored tape. 279 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:24,880 It's like a highlighter, basically. 280 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:28,000 I put it there like, oh my God, look at that. 281 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,420 A section, A section. 282 00:17:30,420 --> 00:17:32,720 Or this is A1, right? 283 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:41,520 So by just having these big blocks of color, you've now organized patterns into chunks. 284 00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:44,360 And that's all about this pattern recognition that we do. 285 00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:47,120 That was that has been super successful with. 286 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:48,840 That was really clever. 287 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:53,440 Andrea, I wanted to ask you, I know Yukimi has some questions she wants to ask you about 288 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:55,840 the business of Musicolor and promoting the method. 289 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:59,880 But before we get to that, you mentioned scaffolding earlier. 290 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:03,360 And I wanted you to talk more about that concept because that was something that I learned 291 00:18:03,360 --> 00:18:05,780 about when I was in graduate school too. 292 00:18:05,780 --> 00:18:09,700 And I think it's a really important concept for teaching. 293 00:18:09,700 --> 00:18:12,960 And also it ties into kind of your philosophy about the method itself. 294 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:15,880 So I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about those. 295 00:18:15,880 --> 00:18:19,000 Yeah, great, great question, Mike. 296 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:26,040 So my wife is a she went to Teachers College, Columbia Teachers College for early childhood 297 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,720 psychology, developmental psychology. 298 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:33,920 So she was always she's always teaching me these terms and things like that. 299 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:34,920 That's where I got it too. 300 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:35,920 Yeah. 301 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:36,920 Yeah. 302 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:37,920 You went to Teachers College. 303 00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:38,920 I went to TC. 304 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:39,920 Yeah. 305 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:40,920 Fantastic place. 306 00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:42,160 It is. 307 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:48,040 So scaffolding is if you think about, you know, the buildings that are being built, 308 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:52,040 they always build in like a little structure on the outside to help them get the stuff 309 00:18:52,040 --> 00:18:53,040 up there. 310 00:18:53,040 --> 00:18:54,040 Right. 311 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:55,040 So that's kind of a scaffolding. 312 00:18:55,040 --> 00:19:00,080 It's kind of a helping tool that is temporary and is then taken away. 313 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:05,920 I think about it like when we were teaching Alejandro, my son, to ride a bike, there was 314 00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:11,880 super expensive wooden bikes around there out on the market, handmade from Netherlands 315 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:13,560 for five hundred dollars. 316 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:14,720 No pedals. 317 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:16,420 Very low to the ground. 318 00:19:16,420 --> 00:19:22,400 And I saw that and I was like, oh, my God, that is a brilliant use of scaffolding, because 319 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:28,800 basically you're getting them to focus only on balance first and then they can do the 320 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:29,880 pedaling later. 321 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:30,880 Right. 322 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:32,200 Once they have the balance. 323 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:35,320 So it's the same thing I've applied. 324 00:19:35,320 --> 00:19:40,400 It's like this is the balance bike method to teaching music on the piano. 325 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:46,520 So first we get them playing and then we get them to start recognizing more abstract concepts 326 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,540 and then we start teaching them how to read. 327 00:19:49,540 --> 00:19:51,400 So it's more like a language. 328 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:56,520 You know, it's you don't teach kids, you know, grammar in the first language when they're 329 00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,600 learning a foreign language. 330 00:19:58,600 --> 00:19:59,600 Yes. 331 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:03,680 You're listening, you're speaking back, you're telling stories. 332 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,840 And then later on, you're like, oh, that's what the word looks like. 333 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:09,120 That's how I write it. 334 00:20:09,120 --> 00:20:15,480 And there's always a difference in playing level and reading level or speaking level 335 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:16,760 and reading level. 336 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:17,760 Right. 337 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:21,040 So it's much more akin to a language. 338 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,400 So it's scaffolding is different than some people think of crutches. 339 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:26,400 Right. 340 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,320 Even though crutches can be temporary. 341 00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:31,320 Right. 342 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:36,320 But if you, if you stay too long in your crutches, what happens is like you atrophy. 343 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:37,320 Right. 344 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:42,000 And if you have a broken leg and you never give up that crutch, you'll never actually 345 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:43,400 get off the crutch. 346 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:44,400 Right. 347 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:45,400 So that's the thing. 348 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:50,120 I've had people criticize my colors without even understanding what the philosophy is. 349 00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:52,160 It's just a crutch. 350 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:53,440 They're never going to get off that. 351 00:20:53,440 --> 00:21:00,880 I was like, no, we have six phases of notation that constantly progress further, further, 352 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:06,200 further so that they are by the time they're done with this, they're on the staff, they're 353 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,280 reading sharp signs, they're reading flat signs. 354 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,720 And then the colors just naturally fall away after time. 355 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:14,720 Yeah. 356 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:20,520 I just want to jump in there just to remind people for anybody who's a professional musician 357 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:22,520 who've been reading music all their life. 358 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:26,960 It can, it can be difficult to like put ourselves back in the mind of a child. 359 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,200 Those symbols are actually incredibly abstract. 360 00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:36,480 There's nothing about the symbol of a whole note that shows that it's long, you know? 361 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:38,800 It's very, very unintuitive for kids. 362 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:43,880 And that's why I think it requires six phases to like work up to that if you really want 363 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:49,760 them to be comfortable all along the way, especially since kids don't really read comfortably 364 00:21:49,760 --> 00:21:53,600 until quite a bit older than they can start learning music. 365 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,160 So they call that the curse of knowledge. 366 00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:03,240 And that comes from an economist came up with that term, but it's very, very appropriate 367 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:08,980 to anybody who's coaching or teaching anything in any field. 368 00:22:08,980 --> 00:22:12,980 You forget how hard it was to learn what you know. 369 00:22:12,980 --> 00:22:18,360 And then you start explaining with words that don't even make any sense yet. 370 00:22:18,360 --> 00:22:24,280 You know, it's like you're using your own language to explain a foreign language. 371 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:30,640 So everyone has to be mightily aware of the curse of knowledge. 372 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:37,600 I realized that my training program, the one that Eric, you went through, you can be went 373 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:41,400 through a little bit, right? 374 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:49,520 It was kind of a brain dump of massive amounts of information, all front loaded. 375 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:54,840 And it's as I was going through it again, because I'm redesigning it now, I'm breaking 376 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:59,880 it into three different levels, basic, advanced and pro. 377 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:08,680 I'm seeing that I didn't follow my own advice that I've been giving to students of this 378 00:23:08,680 --> 00:23:13,960 whole growth spiral, which I didn't even talk about yet. 379 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:18,920 But I see it's this whole I was guilty of the curse of knowledge. 380 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:24,360 Okay, you guys all here is a gigantic box of information. 381 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:25,360 Go figure it out. 382 00:23:25,360 --> 00:23:30,800 I mean, it is a lifetime of information in there, but it could have been presented better. 383 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:36,240 And that's what I'm so excited about right now, because I've really streamlined it. 384 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:41,520 Yeah, there's things that you don't need to know on day one that would be super helpful 385 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:43,760 on day 30. 386 00:23:43,760 --> 00:23:44,760 So that kind of thing. 387 00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,520 That's where sequencing comes into play, right? 388 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:48,520 Yes. 389 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:49,520 Great. 390 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:53,640 You know, one of the hat you wear is a businessman. 391 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:57,600 So I kind of want to ask you about business side of the method. 392 00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:05,360 So first question would be, so you chose to do to licensing your method instead of just 393 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:09,860 selling method books like traditional method does. 394 00:24:09,860 --> 00:24:12,520 So can you explain to us? 395 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:14,120 Yeah. 396 00:24:14,120 --> 00:24:22,400 So it's it's really because it really does require a complete shift in mindset of like, 397 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:27,240 if I just put out my my my sheet music right now, people are like, what the hell is this? 398 00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:29,600 I don't understand this. 399 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:35,400 And there's like, it would take a long time to explain, even the books that are out now, 400 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,800 they're not really explaining everything. 401 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:44,320 It's just like, like, if you've gone through the program, this is great, because you're 402 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:49,360 like, oh, I have the tools here is already pre printed, it's nicely bound. 403 00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:52,640 And I can just presented to the parents and there's some little tips for the parents to 404 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:54,120 help them. 405 00:24:54,120 --> 00:24:56,040 But there's a whole it's like the tip of the iceberg. 406 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:04,720 There's a whole gigantic thing that is really a series of mindset shifts, thinking outside 407 00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:06,560 the box. 408 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:14,800 So one of my favorite thinkers is he's got this book called Deep Focus. 409 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:15,800 What's his name? 410 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:17,800 I'll get it. 411 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:23,600 Anyway, he was talking about how, you know, getting deep focus work done. 412 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:29,680 And he has another book about so good that you can't ignore you. 413 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:35,640 And I guess you can Google who wrote those books. 414 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:42,240 He was saying that as you get to be an expert in any field or anything you do, you get to 415 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:44,280 the edge of the world. 416 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:45,280 Right. 417 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:51,020 And that's where you start to see the adjacent opportunities that you would never ever see 418 00:25:51,020 --> 00:25:53,680 until you got to the edge. 419 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:59,640 And I feel fortunate that I've gotten to the edge in many different worlds. 420 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:04,640 Then I could actually say, oh, my God, that idea and that idea, they've never been combined 421 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:05,640 before. 422 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:07,240 Let me pull those in. 423 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:17,760 And that has helped me see a lot of business opportunities that were not available before. 424 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,760 Plus I've taken a lot of training, coaching and training. 425 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:28,920 One of my mentors calls it going through the process of putting on the green glasses. 426 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:33,240 Like all of a sudden you see opportunity everywhere that you never saw before. 427 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:37,160 By the way, I think the author was Cal Newport. 428 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:39,200 Yes, Cal Newport. 429 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:40,200 Yes. 430 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,080 Fantastic. 431 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,680 That guy is brilliant and incredibly productive. 432 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:49,920 He writes books as he's still a professor somewhere. 433 00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,320 And yeah, one of my favorite guys. 434 00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:57,880 It seems like you're selling your textbooks or the method books on Amazon, but you prefer 435 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:02,240 that teachers would get training from your method. 436 00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:07,120 Yeah, actually, that's an announcement that I'm going to make here publicly that those 437 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:09,280 books are not going to be on Amazon for long. 438 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:17,360 They're going to be pulled because I'm going to have them only for licensed teachers through 439 00:27:17,360 --> 00:27:23,600 my website and you can buy them in bulk at a discounted rate. 440 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:28,640 The other thing is that there is another opportunity for parents out there that's coming. 441 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:30,160 I can't announce yet. 442 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:31,160 OK. 443 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:32,440 That's exciting. 444 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:33,440 Yes. 445 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:34,440 Great. 446 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:39,280 So how many countries you've reached out? 447 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:44,120 That's it's really hard to tell. 448 00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:50,600 Because using Amazon's distribution network was really surprising. 449 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:56,080 And how many people just discovered me without me ever even knowing. 450 00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:03,000 Like about a year ago, I woke up and found in my inbox an article from the Telegraph 451 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,880 UK that was a whole profile on me. 452 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,720 And I was like, how did this happen? 453 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:14,760 And I reached out to the author via Twitter and she was like, oh, thank you so much. 454 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:16,960 I really appreciate the books. 455 00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:21,000 And I actually did this with my kids and she wrote about it. 456 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:27,560 And I also have a Spanish version of my first book and that has been selling really well 457 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:32,880 actually in Mexico and South America. 458 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:34,800 My wife is from Colombia. 459 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:39,240 So I had a lot of help. 460 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,760 Oh, great. 461 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,960 One of my teachers helped me a lot too. 462 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,400 So Amazon was part of the marketing strategy, I guess. 463 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:53,760 That marketing is a whole another ball game even in business. 464 00:28:53,760 --> 00:29:00,160 But everybody has to kind of become a salesperson of your own profession. 465 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:01,760 So what is your strategy? 466 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:08,760 It seems like you have some professional advice, but as much as you can reveal your secret 467 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:10,240 about marketing. 468 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:11,600 Wow. 469 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:19,240 Well, that's a huge question and it's not really a secret. 470 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:32,200 It's just that most people completely, I guess they underestimate what it is to run a business. 471 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:37,060 Marketing should be like 60% of your day's activities. 472 00:29:37,060 --> 00:29:43,600 Even if you're doing something else, like if you're a teacher even. 473 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:50,320 It's the same thing like you're starting a restaurant or something or a bar or something. 474 00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:55,160 You should be like working on getting people to taste your food instead of worrying about 475 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,080 how fancy your business card looks, right? 476 00:29:58,080 --> 00:30:00,400 There's certain steps to the order. 477 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:04,920 But the biggest problem I think most people, most music teachers I've talked to have is 478 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:07,960 that they think it's one quick fix. 479 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,560 They said if I just knew how to get big on social media, or if I could just have one 480 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:20,720 thing go viral, it doesn't work that way because you've seen people go viral and they last 481 00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:22,860 for a day and that's it. 482 00:30:22,860 --> 00:30:28,680 You have to have something to take advantage of all these opportunities so that when opportunity 483 00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:31,920 does strike, then you actually can make it work. 484 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:38,800 So marketing is really about crafting a clear message. 485 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:43,460 First of all, so here's, oh, okay, if you want to know the big secret behind marketing, 486 00:30:43,460 --> 00:30:49,000 this is huge, but I didn't understand this until I spent thousands, tens of thousands 487 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,440 of dollars. 488 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:58,440 So the whole thing about marketing is about knowing who is your audience first, right? 489 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,720 Specific audience, not multiple audiences. 490 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:01,760 Just one audience. 491 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:03,040 Make one audience. 492 00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,700 Make that your king audience. 493 00:31:05,700 --> 00:31:12,880 Then figuring out what is the offer you're giving them and why is it such a great thing? 494 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:17,120 And then figure out the messaging around it, how to tell that story. 495 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:20,960 And most people start with like trying to tell this story, but not being clear about 496 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:21,960 the audience. 497 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,200 So it's like, it doesn't connect, you know? 498 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:28,640 But when I started teaching, I made Park Slope music lessons. 499 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,080 I said, okay, very clear. 500 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:37,600 My audience is Park Slope parents just like me in my neighborhood, my one zip code. 501 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:38,600 Okay. 502 00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,120 I know how to talk to them. 503 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:41,720 Hi, I'm Andrew. 504 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:43,760 I'm a parent just like you. 505 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:49,560 And this is what I'm looking for, helping kids like my son with music. 506 00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:54,720 What we do is this and why we do it is this and we do it better because of this and this 507 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:56,440 is how much it costs. 508 00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:58,240 Book the lesson. 509 00:31:58,240 --> 00:31:59,240 Here's the price. 510 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:00,240 Boom. 511 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:01,240 Right? 512 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:07,000 So it gets to be from audience to offer to message. 513 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:13,040 And when you have like, I've had many teachers say, well, I say, who's your audience? 514 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:14,540 Who's your primary audience? 515 00:32:14,540 --> 00:32:19,400 And they're like, well, I have like one guy, he's 80 years old. 516 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,640 He wants to just play, you know, classical music. 517 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:27,800 And I got three teenagers trying to learn enough to get into college. 518 00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:33,120 I have, you know, five kids who are like, you know, two years old and they're, they're 519 00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:35,040 just doing mommy and me. 520 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,440 I'm like, wow, that's like three different audiences, whatever. 521 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:46,280 You really have to pick one and, and actually really just talk about that one. 522 00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:47,280 Right. 523 00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:52,600 And then you can be clear that when people get to your website or they're people know 524 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:58,480 they're talking about you, it's like, oh, they're talking to me, exactly me. 525 00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,760 It's not like, do I fit in this category? 526 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:08,200 If you focus on that singular audience, you will generally find more of their friends 527 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,000 who are just like them. 528 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:11,000 Right. 529 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:12,000 Yeah. 530 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,200 And I want to point out that you have been incredibly successful with this strategy because 531 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:19,000 Park Slope lessons has how many students now? 532 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,200 We were at 110. 533 00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,880 And how many teachers? 534 00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:27,680 I'm just hiring a 15th now. 535 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:32,800 Not everybody has a full caseload because it's not, everybody wants a lot of students. 536 00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:41,320 They have other gigs somewhere else, but yeah, it's, it's been very, it's been, I'm, I feel 537 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,600 humbled and blessed and grateful. 538 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:48,920 I know that there's, you know, a lot of these kids I've worked with them for nine, 10, 15 539 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:50,840 years, and I'm like family to them. 540 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:52,720 They're like family to me. 541 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:57,280 So and then supporting my teachers is, is super important. 542 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:02,800 I spent this whole last week preparing for our recital coming up and we have 76 kids 543 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:03,800 signed up. 544 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:05,800 I'm like, oh my God, it's a long recital. 545 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:11,000 We're going to have a few different concerts. 546 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:15,600 And they're all going to be prerecorded so we can maybe trim some of the dead air time. 547 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:16,600 Right. 548 00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:17,600 Good idea. 549 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:23,760 Andrew, we're running out of time, but I wanted to ask you quickly, you know, and this year 550 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:27,360 we have to ask everybody, how has COVID affected you? 551 00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:30,540 And I mean, obviously it's difficult for everyone. 552 00:34:30,540 --> 00:34:33,880 People are dealing with it in different ways as it's been. 553 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:42,960 Yeah, well, I, I feel extremely grateful and fortunate and blessed to not have had anybody 554 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:48,560 I know get seriously sick or die from it. 555 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:58,520 My lessons business, as soon as the city announced that we were going to have shutdowns, I had 556 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:02,760 a mandatory training for all my teachers on Zoom because I've been using Zoom for years 557 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,080 for music color coaching. 558 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:08,360 So I did a full on training on that. 559 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:13,540 And by the next week, all of our lessons were switched to virtual. 560 00:35:13,540 --> 00:35:21,260 We did lose maybe in the first month, we went down about 30%. 561 00:35:21,260 --> 00:35:27,200 And then we jumped back up to like, maybe like 15% lower. 562 00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:32,960 And now I looked at the end of the year, we're really just down 5% overall. 563 00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:33,960 Wow. 564 00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:34,960 That's great. 565 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,820 I'm very lucky and feel very fortunate. 566 00:35:37,820 --> 00:35:44,920 But also, I think we were prepared for this because my school is a virtual school in that 567 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:50,960 I send teachers to students' homes and they have a very strong bond with these people. 568 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,900 These teachers and students are very bonded. 569 00:35:54,900 --> 00:36:00,440 So moving to a virtual thing feels like, oh, okay, I see you, I know you, right? 570 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:01,440 Yeah. 571 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:06,120 So it's a little easier that I know that some of those big schools that are once a week 572 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:10,680 in a giant room and with a group class, it's a little harder. 573 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,120 Yeah, certainly group classes for sure. 574 00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:19,220 If you had one piece of advice for music teachers, piano teachers, what would your most important 575 00:36:19,220 --> 00:36:21,120 piece of advice be for them? 576 00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:25,440 Besides, by your method, of course. 577 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,060 And a weird shirt. 578 00:36:28,060 --> 00:36:33,440 I would say listen to all kinds of music. 579 00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,720 I can't stress that enough. 580 00:36:36,720 --> 00:36:43,640 There's so many music teachers who are so fundamentalist almost and purist. 581 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:48,480 It's like nothing but Bach for me. 582 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:55,480 We only do 17th century piano concertos, whatever. 583 00:36:55,480 --> 00:37:03,880 I listen to all kinds of music and I love teaching everything from the guinea pig Olympics 584 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:08,680 to Metallica to Van Halen. 585 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:15,720 When Van Halen died, I was showing some of my students some cool riffs. 586 00:37:15,720 --> 00:37:21,320 And then Beethoven Bach, of course, and all the masters. 587 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:25,160 Listen to all kinds of music and be not afraid to teach it. 588 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:34,480 But I would say that using the timeline of musical history to know when to teach something 589 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:37,520 is also a useful idea. 590 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:46,440 Young kids need to have consonant sounding things from the classical and Baroque period. 591 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:55,680 You jump too far ahead and you're doing Debussy and all these heavy colored 13th and 11th. 592 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,800 It just doesn't make sense. 593 00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:04,320 And the same thing from blues to rock to jazz, that kind of thing. 594 00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:07,880 I think that's great advice. 595 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:11,340 We never know what kind of music we're going to be called on to teach in order to be able 596 00:38:11,340 --> 00:38:14,240 to connect with the student. 597 00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:18,200 I completely agree with you, even if it's the guinea pig Olympics. 598 00:38:18,200 --> 00:38:20,760 Have to check it out. 599 00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,000 Maybe talk faster on that. 600 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:29,560 Where can we obtain information and inquiry of your method? 601 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,320 So we go to my website. 602 00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:33,440 It's a new website. 603 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:38,960 It's www.musiccolormethod.com. 604 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:40,560 And that's with one C in there. 605 00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:50,280 So music and it's M-U-S-I-C-O-L-O-R method, no space.com. 606 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:55,760 And I'm going to actually create a coupon code for your audience. 607 00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,240 Oh wow. 608 00:38:57,240 --> 00:38:59,240 Piano pod 21. 609 00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:00,240 Awesome. 610 00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:01,240 Awesome. 611 00:39:01,240 --> 00:39:02,240 I like that. 612 00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:08,600 Whoever buys our new basic training, which is going to be much more affordable than 613 00:39:08,600 --> 00:39:13,480 in the past, will get a special bonus training from me. 614 00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:14,600 All right. 615 00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:15,600 I might be the best. 616 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:16,600 Great. 617 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:17,600 Thank you so much. 618 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:18,600 All right. 619 00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:22,600 So now the fun segment is here. 620 00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:24,000 This is a new segment. 621 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,780 It's called the Piano Pod Rapid Fire Questions. 622 00:39:27,780 --> 00:39:32,960 So we will ask fun questions to you and you just need to give us a short answer for each 623 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:33,960 question. 624 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,040 So make sure it's a short answer. 625 00:39:36,040 --> 00:39:37,040 Okay? 626 00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,080 I'm more nervous about this than... 627 00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:41,080 Don't screw up. 628 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:42,080 It's really important. 629 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:43,080 Yeah, exactly. 630 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:44,080 You can't... 631 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:45,080 The music in the background. 632 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:46,080 Yeah, no wrong answers. 633 00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:47,080 All right. 634 00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:48,080 Are we ready? 635 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:49,080 Yes. 636 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:50,080 All right. 637 00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:51,080 What is your favorite food? 638 00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:55,080 Depends on the day of the week. 639 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:56,080 Thai, Korean. 640 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,080 All right. 641 00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:58,080 Great. 642 00:39:58,080 --> 00:39:59,080 All good choices. 643 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:00,080 Cats or dogs? 644 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:01,080 Cats. 645 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:02,080 All right. 646 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:03,080 Obviously. 647 00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:04,080 All right. 648 00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:05,080 Next one. 649 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:11,080 What is your word to live by or words? 650 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,080 It's bullions. 651 00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:15,080 Oh, good one. 652 00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:16,080 Good one. 653 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:17,080 All right. 654 00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:22,080 What is the most important quality you look for in people? 655 00:40:22,080 --> 00:40:24,080 Passion. 656 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:26,080 Oh, great. 657 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:31,080 What is the worst quality in people you want to stay away from? 658 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:33,080 Ignorance. 659 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:40,680 So which historic speaker or composer do you want to learn or take lessons from if he or 660 00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:42,080 she were alive? 661 00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:43,080 Bach. 662 00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:44,080 Bach. 663 00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:45,080 Woohoo. 664 00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:46,080 All right. 665 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:47,080 Next one. 666 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:48,080 Yep. 667 00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:53,080 Which historic figure or composer do you wish to hang out at the bar if he or she were alive? 668 00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:57,080 Well, I don't know. 669 00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:02,080 It might be someone more like John Coltrane. 670 00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:04,080 All right. 671 00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:06,080 All right. 672 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:10,080 Name one piece in your current playlist. 673 00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:12,080 One piece. 674 00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,080 Oh my God. 675 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:20,080 What's the, I can't even remember the names of these songs, but all right, I'll give you 676 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:22,080 one that comes up all the time. 677 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:24,080 Soy Joe. 678 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:25,080 Okay. 679 00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:28,080 What's a book you're currently reading? 680 00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:32,080 The Promise Land, a Promise Land by Barack Obama. 681 00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,080 Oh, yes. 682 00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:41,080 And what's your desert island piece that you only get to listen to for the rest of your 683 00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:42,080 life? 684 00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:44,080 Oh my God. 685 00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,080 Wow. 686 00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:48,080 Heart questions. 687 00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:52,080 One piece for the rest of my life? 688 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:54,080 Uh-huh. 689 00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,080 Oh, boy. 690 00:41:56,080 --> 00:42:01,080 It might be La Mer by Debussy. 691 00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:02,080 Oh, I love it. 692 00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:03,080 Nice, nice. 693 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:04,080 Beautiful. 694 00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:05,080 All right. 695 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:06,080 I think we're going to end it there. 696 00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:07,080 We've tortured you enough. 697 00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:09,080 Those are hard. 698 00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:10,080 Yeah. 699 00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:11,080 Oh, yeah. 700 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:14,080 That's the whole fun of it. 701 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:15,080 All right, guys. 702 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,080 Well, I think that concludes this episode of the Piano Pod. 703 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:22,080 Thank you so much, Andrew and Kavette, for joining our program today. 704 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:26,080 And thank you, as always, to the audience for tuning in to us. 705 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:33,080 We want to remind you guys that the Musicolor method is available on Andrew's website, which 706 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:34,080 is musicolor.com. 707 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:37,080 The link will be in the description. 708 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:42,080 If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review on whatever podcasting platform 709 00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:43,080 you use. 710 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:48,080 If you're watching it from YouTube, please hit the thumbs up button and be sure to subscribe 711 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:49,080 to our channel. 712 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:52,080 You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 713 00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:55,080 The links are in the description below. 714 00:42:55,080 --> 00:43:01,080 If you have feedback for us, please leave it in the comments or DM us via social media. 715 00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:07,080 Or you can also email us at thepianopodnyc at gmail.com. 716 00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:08,080 All right. 717 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:12,080 Hope to see you for the next episode of the Piano Pod. 718 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:13,080 Bye, everyone. 719 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:14,080 Thank you. 720 00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:15,080 Bye. 721 00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:16,080 Bye. 722 00:43:16,080 --> 00:43:17,080 Thank you, Andrew. 723 00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:19,080 Thank you, Andrew.