Practice Space User Spotlight: Piano Central Studios
Piano Central Studios (PCS) has been providing Kindermusik classes and music lessons for families in Greenville and Simpsonville, South Carolina since 1979. They’ve grown over the years into not only the oldest, but the largest community music school in the area. Their mission is to nourish hearts and minds with music making for life, and they do an amazing job of doing just that!
It’ll be a year in June since Piano Central Studios started using Practice Space! We sat down with Theresa Case, MEd, the owner of PCS, to discuss how she’s been using the Practice Space app to benefit her students, teachers, and parents.
Q: What attracted you to Practice Space?
Theresa: “I’d been looking for an app to use that would help promote practice for students and give our teachers an easy way to digitally create assignments. I was finding a lot of apps that did some things well, but not other things and once I found Practice Space through a Facebook ad, I was really intrigued. The more I learned about it, the more I knew it was just right for us.”
Q: What do you find the students like most about Practice Space at your school?
Theresa: “They really love the gems! We’ve had several students get 100 day practice streak awards! It’s really remarkable how consistent they are with practice and the progress they’re making as a result. We love surprising the students with balloons, a gift card to an ice cream shop, and a special brag tag when they hit that practice streak. And we promote that on social media as well, so hopefully then too, there’s a lot more encouragement for the students. I think it’s the gamification, that instant reward, the gems piling up- it just really motivates them!”
Q: What do the teachers at PCS like about Practice Space?
Theresa: “I’m lucky to have a good group of teachers that follow me when I say, ‘I have an idea!’ I think what they really love are the features that the digital technology allows- to be really specific about assignments and to have way more space in the digital format than they would’ve ever had in the printed assignment books… Also they really love the media library and being able to upload demo videos of something they did in the lesson with the student that can help them at home, putting worksheets in there for the students to use, links to other videos that they might find on the internet that could help the student with practice, and overall, being able to know that the work you put in to uploading media into the library is something you can go back to and use again with another student. Before, when a student would forget their assignment notebook, now there’s no problem with that! Or if a student is sick and wants to do their lesson online, the teacher is just as prepared for that because of having the digital assignments in the Practice Space app.”
Q: How have parents received Practice Space at PCS?
Theresa: “I would say we’ve had a really good adoption rate with the Practice Space app from our families. I’ve been really pleased- it’s a new idea, it’s new technology, but once you get in there and use it, you absolutely love it. The assignments are so much clearer for them to follow, they know that their child is practicing and they know what they’re supposed to practice. There’s a timer in there, there’s a metronome in there, all things that the parent no longer has to worry about.”
Theresa also uses Practice Space for make-up lessons at Piano Central Studios! Watch this short video clip to learn how she implements this process and how it’s worked for her!
The Practice Space app is designed to keep students engaged and motivated in order to help with consistent practice. Due to this, it can also help with retention at your studio! Listen to what Theresa had to say about her students’ response to using the app and how it helps with PCS’s retention rate.
Thank you so much to Theresa and Piano Central Studios for using Practice Space and allowing us to feature your studio. We’re so happy to hear that Practice Space has been helping your students and teachers thrive in their musical endeavors! Learn more about PCS here.
Has the Practice Space app made a positive impact on your music students? Reach out to us at info@practicespaceapp.com to set up an interview so that we can feature your studio next!