I love accompanying other musicians in their performances. That love guided my decision to focus on collaborative arts in graduate school and it has led to my current position as staff pianist. The most frustrating aspect of the job has always been scheduling rehearsals. Soloists would call or text me to ask for a rehearsal, but they had no idea what my availability was really like. Comparing calendars was always difficult.
As I started splitting my time between Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee, I posted sign-up sheets for students to arrange rehearsals. Problems quickly appeared. It wasn't convenient for students to get to my sign-in sheet, so they didn't. Worse still, singers would sign up for a rehearsal after I had already left and I would miss the scheduled meeting because I didn't know about it. It was frustrating for everyone involved. I knew there had to be a solution that would help me maintain my professionalism while making the process easy for everyone involved.
That's when I discovered web-appointments.com. This online appointment center allows me to set aside rehearsal times based on my availability. Students are able to reserve rehearsals at their convenience as long as they have internet access. Once an appointment is made, it is not finalized until I confirm the rehearsal with the simple click of a button. To make things even more convenient, clients provide their phone number and email address at the time of registration; these come in really handy when I'm running late or need to reschedule.
While it is not necessary to obtain a domain name for the site, it has proven to be a worthwhile investment for me. The web address is now easy to remember (compared to the default address provided by web-appointments) and clients don't have to keep up with an awkward address on a random piece of paper.
When I first began using web-appointments.com, many clients were apprehensive and didn't want to use it. With a little encouragement (and using the site myself to schedule appointments for them), they quickly grew to appreciate the ease of scheduling. The best news of all? Reminder emails have resulted in a significant reduction in no-shows since using the scheduler.
I can keep singing the praises of web-appointments.com, but the best way to understand it is to check it out for yourself. Depending upon how you pay for the service (either quarterly or yearly), the cost breaks down to less than $10 per month. Once you get used to the system and get things arranged correctly, you'll wonder how you managed to schedule rehearsals (and lessons) before.
FYI - I have received no compensation from web-appointments.com or their providers for this review. KF
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Managing My Music Library
My music library has been taken over by binders filled with various photocopies of music. I rarely throw copies away because I want to have access to the scores in the future (in theory, at least). If I know I have played the piece before, I am tempted to toss it out, but I rarely do because I know that I cannot easily put my fingers on the music. What was originally meant to be a treasure trove of music quickly grew to an unmanageable mess! I literally have all of the vocal music I played throughout my graduate studies as well as the other random pieces I have encountered since then.
When I began to discuss this issue with other pianists, I found that most kept their music in a single binder. I decided to tackle this Herculean task until I actually counted and realized that I have 21 three-inch binders filled with music! I had to come up with a solution. After several faulty attempts, I finally arrived at a method that works for me.
Since most of my scores are art songs and arias, I separate the music by language. All French repertoire is located in one binder while another houses the English songs. (The separation is only by the text used and not the composer's nationality.) After I separated everything, I alphabetized the songs by composer's last name. This was so academic and beautiful in my mind, but I quickly found out it was not the most useful. Students could easily tell me the title of their repertoire, but didn't always know the composer with the same degree of certainty. After accepting that my library's usefulness was more important than its correctness, I began to alphabetize according to title. (Whether or not to include definite articles such as "der," "die," and "das" in the arrangement is a constant battle for me. At the moment I include definite articles in the alphabetizing.)
A master list of all works filed in the binders can be found at the beginning of each one. The first copy of the list includes only the songs in that volume arranged by title. Three additional copies of the entire catalogue follow, sorted by title, composer, and language respectively. These lists are helpful when trying to construct a set of songs by a single composer or in the same language.
Is there an easier way? Possibly....and I welcome hearing how you organize your amassed photocopies in the comments section below. Now that I have the catalogue begun, it is simple to update it at the end of each semester. I am still in the process of merging the music from the remaining 15 binders of graduate school music, but it's actually not too bad to do. As I organize the music, I'm reminded of wonderful music I have played and rediscover some gems of the repertoire that I had forgotten about.
When I began to discuss this issue with other pianists, I found that most kept their music in a single binder. I decided to tackle this Herculean task until I actually counted and realized that I have 21 three-inch binders filled with music! I had to come up with a solution. After several faulty attempts, I finally arrived at a method that works for me.
Since most of my scores are art songs and arias, I separate the music by language. All French repertoire is located in one binder while another houses the English songs. (The separation is only by the text used and not the composer's nationality.) After I separated everything, I alphabetized the songs by composer's last name. This was so academic and beautiful in my mind, but I quickly found out it was not the most useful. Students could easily tell me the title of their repertoire, but didn't always know the composer with the same degree of certainty. After accepting that my library's usefulness was more important than its correctness, I began to alphabetize according to title. (Whether or not to include definite articles such as "der," "die," and "das" in the arrangement is a constant battle for me. At the moment I include definite articles in the alphabetizing.)
A master list of all works filed in the binders can be found at the beginning of each one. The first copy of the list includes only the songs in that volume arranged by title. Three additional copies of the entire catalogue follow, sorted by title, composer, and language respectively. These lists are helpful when trying to construct a set of songs by a single composer or in the same language.
Is there an easier way? Possibly....and I welcome hearing how you organize your amassed photocopies in the comments section below. Now that I have the catalogue begun, it is simple to update it at the end of each semester. I am still in the process of merging the music from the remaining 15 binders of graduate school music, but it's actually not too bad to do. As I organize the music, I'm reminded of wonderful music I have played and rediscover some gems of the repertoire that I had forgotten about.
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