The start of a new school year is the ideal moment to plan ahead—not just to teach, but to grow and sustain your music program all year long. In this month's More to Start, Fewer to Quit (MSFQ), Dr. Angela Ammerman shares simple, low-effort strategies for recruiting new musicians, retaining the students already making music with you, and setting your program up for success.
Recruitment Tip
As your school year gets started, it is all too easy to take a break from program building, but this is actually the perfect time to plan out and schedule recruitment and retention strategies for the rest of the year! As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Failure to plan is planning to fail.” So, take that calendar out, and let’s start adding a few self-imposed due dates to ensure your year is off to the best possible start!
Consider these low-effort ideas for recruiting new musicians into your program. When you find a favorite, take action on it today by either adding it to your calendar, adding a reminder, or taking the first step to get started today!
Plan to send your students to help out at a concert featuring your future students. Bonus if you send them with silly signs that say things like “Break a Peg!”
Set up a day to go visit with your future students. Remember that the best recruitment (besides word of mouth) is simply to make music with them and to let them know that they are wanted in your program!
Create a simple autograph sheet for your upcoming concerts. Encourage the younger kids you are trying to recruit to get autographs from your musicians! Win! Win! Win!
Retention Tip
Are you marking your calendar already? Good! Here are a few more to add to keep the kids who are already making music with you every day!
Open the lines of communication between you and your school counselors. Ask them if you can get a few updates on your roster ahead of time so you can remind students to stay in music.
Use the communication rule of three for your students to remind them of the benefits of staying in your ensemble (and that you want them to continue!):
Physical paper note
Email parents (and students)
Text message home
Add something really fun to the week students sign up for classes. Make that week be the most enjoyable, most successful, best week ever! This is the week you need students to remember how much they love your class. So… go all out with games, fun music, positive notes home, and big successes!
General Success Tip
As you go through this year, simply try to talk less and make music more. When we talk less, we tend to listen more. When we listen more, our students are seen more. And when our are students are seen more seen, they will know they are more loved more.
Talk less, listen more, and send some love out to your students this year and stand in awe of the little glimmers of greatness that begin to arise.
Happy Teaching, Friends!
Angela Ammerman, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor of Music Education
Director of Online Graduate Studies in Music Education
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Yamaha 40 Under 40, Class of 2024
Music Teacher’s Guide Series Author & Instagram Hostess
More to Start, Fewer to Quit (MSFQ) is a monthly open-source newsletter offering practical recruiting, retention, and success strategies for music educators.