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Welcome, Claudia! It is wonderful to have another Bostonian in our training! I am so glad you were able to join us for this course. I look forward to journeying with you over the coming weeks!
ModeratorThanks, Elana! It is wonderful to have you join us! I think you will find lots of ways to incorporate this course content into your current work. Please try out the new skills and songs and report back to the group about how it is going!
ModeratorWelcome, Jen! I am so glad that you have found your way to our course. I think you will find that the materials will definitely reinforce your work in the early childhood settings. You will have a much deeper understanding of both the why and the how! Be sure to take the time on the videos and bring the new songs and interventions and even Sprouting Melodies Sayings that we share in the videos into your sessions, and then report back here to all of us how it is going. We just had an open house at our music therapy center, and I was singing and speaking with parents and little one. The mom commented at one point that her little one, a 9 month old, was doing everything I said he would do! It was like I could forecast his musical exploration based on what we know about music and development. It was a good reminder about just how remarkable what we come know is! This mom was amazed that her little guy could do all of these things – and that I knew he would do it! I look forward to seeing you grow in your work throughout this course!
ModeratorThanks for all of your introductions here, everyone! It is great to get to know you. As Carolyn noticed, sometimes online forums, and any form of technology causes things to vanish in thin air! We don’t want you to lose your well thought out responses! Erica always recommends that you start a word document on your computer and answer the questions fully in a word document. Then it is easy to copy and paste into the forum and you have a hard copy of your answers for your records. That way if you ever lose your internet connection, or the post fails to go through you can just copy and paste it again.
Regarding all of the interests in Sprouting Melodies stated above, we are so glad to have you all here! Beth and I firmly believe that as music therapists, we have the skill set to create and develop music programming for families. We have worked to create a system in Sprouting Melodies that provides you with a depth of training and then allows you to use the music, songs, and interventions that are appropriate for your group at any given time. Other programs that some of you are involved with have a formed curriculum, and in Sprouting Melodies we decided not to have a curriculum. Since all of our Sprouting Melodies Providers are already Board Certified Music Therapists and they have completed this additional training in early childhood development, we want you to create responsive and flexible programs that will meet the needs of the children and families in your area. And Beth, Erika and I are here throughout your journey to help you figure out how to do that.
We encourage those of you who are familiar with other programs to think of this as a clean slate as you jump into learning about the Sprouting Melodies approach to working with families and young children. Let your music therapy-self shine as you explore all the ways you can use your skills to help children and families grow! Enjoy!!
We are so happy to have you all here!
ModeratorHi Alison, It is wonderful to have you join us for this online course! It was a pleasure to meet you at the Great Lakes Region Conference MTBO Mastermind Institute and I’m thrilled you have decided to join us for this course! Enjoy your sightseeing if you are still in DC, and I look forward to hearing your insights throughout this course.
ModeratorHi everyone, I’m going to try this again.
Here is another link.If that doesn’t work, try copying and pasting the text below and putting it directly into your browser.
https://gofile.me/2wqrJ/dJtyUfxx
Please let me know if it works.
Thanks!ModeratorSorry about the trouble, everyone. When I first posted, I was able to get the document through the link, but now I can’t get it to work either! I am working on this and hopefully will have an update soon. Thanks for your patience.
January 25, 2016 at 2:56 pmModeratorAnother note regarding the forums — It is a good idea to type all of your responses into a word document and then when you are ready cut and paste it into the forum online. I know I get very frustrated when I create a long response and it disappears into the internet, which for no known reason does happen from time to time!! Also, if you are ever having a hard time getting something to post, please send an email to Erika Svolos and myself right away so we can try to figure out what is going on. Erika does keep track of all the posts, so we do look for your answers to each question. If it is not working, let us know and we will try to troubleshoot with you. Erika’s email is erika.svolos@gmail.com, and I can be reached at Meredith@RaisingHarmony.com.
January 25, 2016 at 2:52 pmModeratorThanks for all of your great comments. A couple of thoughts here —
Nonjudgemental environment is key!! This makes the groups gel and develop a sense of community, which really enhances the relationships and the experience in Sprouting Melodies.
About Postpartum Depression – There is definitely increasing interest in working with mothers with postpartum depression. I have been able to support a couple of moms within our Sprouting Melodies classes as they were struggling with depression, and supporting moms in connecting with their little ones in music was a vital support for one mom in particular. As music therapists, we are definitely in an ideal position to support both the moms, the babies, and help nurture the connection and relationship between the parent and child using music. As far as literature goes, we will get back to you on that. I know there is a growing interest within our field in this area. I’ve spoken with many music therapists about it in the last year or so.January 25, 2016 at 2:46 pm
in reply to: What was your most valuable takeaway from this weeks’ content?
ModeratorI’m really enjoying reading all of your takeaways! This conversation also reminds me of the importance of understanding typical development in order to best serve our clients with developmental delays or other disabilities. When we have unrealistic expectations based on what we think development looks like, we limit our clients. Letting development develop, in relationships and in skill building, is a fascinating and exciting journey!
ModeratorHi Everyone,
It is so wonderful to meet all of you and hear your stories! As for me, Sprouting Melodies has been an incredible part of my professional journey! I began Sprouting Melodies 6 and a half years ago as a way to meet a need in my community and I am thrilled to share this opportunity with all of you! My family enjoyed our years of Sprouting Melodies classes as my husband would bring them to Roman Music Therapy Services every Saturday morning! Even though our kids, now 10, 8 and 5 don’t attend classes, the 9am Saturday class is still on our calendars as a reminder of the great memories of time in class!
Then later, one of my greatest joys in developing our Raising Harmony community was knowing that my sister who lived across the country was able to bring her baby to Sprouting Melodies! That was my baby shower gift to her and she kept going because she and her son enjoyed it and their family valued it deeply!!
I look forward to being in touch with you throughout the course, and I too will jump into the forum from time to time. Erika and Kristina will be post even more frequently, but please don’t hesitate to reach out to me personally as well at Meredith@RaisingHarmony.com if you have any questions at any time. I look forward to getting to know you more throughout this course!May 20, 2015 at 10:07 pm
in reply to: Share how you can explain to parents the difference between music for development and music for skill building.
ModeratorHi Everyone, just wanted to chime in and let you know we talked about this question in particular a lot on tonight’s call. The mp3 will be posted soon. Make sure you listen to the recording so you don’t miss anything. We also talked about the question of working with babies who are premature and the idea of musical development of children who are not exposed to a lot of music in their home environment. It was a great conversation!
Thanks for all of your thoughtful comments on this page! It is great to hear your thought process as you think through the question!ModeratorKate, I will try to be organized in my response here, but I want to try to respond to as many things as possible.
I’m glad you’ve been able to listen in to the recordings. What do you think of the idea folks brought up to charge for a demo class and then apply that fee to the cost of registering for a session? That does value your time, and covers your costs, and attracts folks that are willing to pay for a valuable service, rather than people looking to take advantage of a freebie.
Related to paid ads, I didn’t mean to suggest that you were paying for pinterest ads, but technically, it is costing you to have someone on our staff focus on creating and maintaining a presence on that platform, and as visual boards, they are in effect ads for your company. And while they may increase visibility, your ROI on time (and money) spent there may not be as valuable.
What does MOPS stand for? What other groups have you looked into that are booked? Keep in mind your target audience and think about where these moms and dad’s gather. Have you found any nursing support groups? babywearing support groups? parents of multiples support groups? For local retail stores, are there any small independent baby retailers around? The parents who will seek out your group will probably be the same parents who would drive further to a local baby store than go to Babies R Us. That being said, I just noticed in our Babies R Us that they were doing some parent events. As far as target market, the parents who seek out our class are most often first time parents, both parents working, highly educated 50% or more have graduate degrees, and they care a lot about the quality of education and early childhood experience they provide for their children and they want to share, play and engage with their kids. The question is how you can you find those parents in your community? Also, have you connected with local early intervention (0-3) services? We often get referrals from them. Sometimes connecting with pediatricians or developmental psychologies who do evaluations can be great resources for referrals. You can leave printed materials in their lobbies and make sure the providers knows who you are?
I understand your reluctance to offer anything for free, however, there is a time and place for investing your time, or your staff’s time to increase your visibility. It’s through community involvement and being seen and recognized as someone who is willing to give, share and contribute in your community that your reputation in early childhood circles will grow. The library programs I do get paid for, and we usually are able to charge something for community music events, but sometimes the rate is lower because I recognize that the promotional value is worth it to my business.
Unrealistic expectations? It depends on how long you thought it would take to develop a solid following. Sprouting Melodies can definitely help you increase your revenues and it is a significantly larger market, but if I’ve learned anything in my last 10 years in business and starting 3 businesses along the way, nothing in business is a quick fix. You have a reputation in your area for a specific service and now you are branching out to a new market and service and it does take time to develop those connections. Take advantage of every opportunity you have to grow your connections, grow your network, build your reputation for early childhood and get people in the door!! You will never get a 100% conversion rate for anything, music therapy services or Sprouting Melodies, so you need put out a ton of touch points and invite them in, again and again and again. And even once you get things going, kids age out, so you need to continue to market to the new families in your target audience. Early childhood is always developing. That said, we have many families returning now with their 2nd and 3rd children, so that helps, and they continue to tell everyone they meet about the class. (And about our other services!)
Remember you have to give to receive! Be generous with your knowledge and passion for music and young children in your community. Be will to give parents a credit if they refer others, give discounts to get people in the door and consider using the time of your team as an investment in growing the program.
More thoughts?? 🙂ModeratorHi Kate,
First of all I am totally impressed with your Pinterest Page! You have obviously put a lot of effort into developing those boards. Have you tried doing demo groups? We had a great call about that last week and it is a great way to get people in the door and experiencing your program. We offer Test Drives. If you can get people to experience the class, not just see a link about it online I think that will make a big difference. When you did the MOPS group, did you do a parent presentation, or a parent child music making demo? I always find that making music and showing parents how their little one will respond works better than talking about it. If you can set up a demo at a library or community center, you can also capitalize on their network and marketing channels. I do a library program once a month and it serves as a great feeder to our weekly classes. We’ve also looked for oppotunities to do community music concerts for little ones and we always offer a coupon for a discount on the next session. I will say that it sometimes takes a little while. Remember people don’t generally commit to something the very first time they hear about it. They commit to it after they have heard about it a number of times and experience it. Expanding the Neurorhythm reputation to include early childhood music classes will take some time, but as you expand you will develop a reputation for both. I would be curious to hear if you’ve tried demos and what your experience has been with that. Also are there any resource fairs for young children in your area? This is the time when preschools are marketing for next school year and you might be able to get a table and a demo set up.
I would encourage you to connect with baby stores, and offer to do a music program in their store! 30 minutes maybe, and give out your postcards and coupons! Better yet – Get a newsletter list circulating and email the coupon code! Send them to your website directly from the email.Also, about the pinterest page, I’m curious to know if you have ever seen any increase in paid clients or enrollments from pinterest ads. My experience is that people aren’t on pinterest to buy. I think targeted facebook or google ads would be better. I’m working with a company here figuring out all of the kinks with our boston groups so that we can expand it to all of our providers, and I’d be happy to talk with you about how we are running those ads and see if that would help you more than Pinterest.
I’m clicking follow-up, so let’s continue the conversation!!
MeredithOctober 22, 2014 at 7:46 pm
in reply to: Share your thoughts with the board members on the role of music therapy in community based settings.
ModeratorHi Everyone! I’m really enjoying reading everyone’s posts!! As you may have already noticed, I am a strong proponent of getting involved and being active in our communities as music therapist. We are a needed and valuable resource to our communities! Being willing to think outside of our clinical treatment plan, but with all of our training and expertise leads us to new opportunities for community building, interpersonal growth and amazing music making!
I encourage you to keep working on your “pitch” as you go through this course. These questions are here to make you think and to give you the opportunity to put the words together to tell others about what we offer. You can’t just do great work, you also have to be able to articulate it. Consider these questions as an opportunity to increase your effectiveness in communicating who you are and what you do! It will help you tremendously as you bring a new Sprouting Melodies program into the community!
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