The Benefits and Disadvantages of Franchise Agreements

The Benefits and Disadvantages of Franchise AgreementsIf you are the owner of a tutoring center and would like to expand your business by hiring some additional staff or looking for more students, you may want to consider opening a franchise. Businesses that use franchising frequently sell at a premium because of the opportunity they offer; however, there are benefits as well as disadvantages to owning a franchise.The obvious benefit is the cost savings. With franchise agreements, a business owner is not investing capital and often will save on advertising and marketing costs. Because there is little inventory to maintain, there is no need to spend money on re-stocking supplies or equipment.Also, franchise agreements allow a business owner to retain control over the location of the tutoring center. By owning a franchise, the franchisor provides all of the operational functions, and sometimes even the ownership of the furniture, to the business owner. This gives them more flexibility in their planning.However, there are some disadvantages to franchise agreements. For example, it can be very difficult to decide on a franchisee if you are unsure of his or her qualifications or experience. In many cases, the franchisor does not have much input into the decision and therefore cannot ensure quality service.A franchisor also may restrict how the business operates. By law, any action taken by the franchisor must be 'reasonable.' This means that a franchisor must be prepared to deal with any disputes that arise between its franchisee and its customers.It can also be difficult to find the perfect candidate to work for a potential franchisee. Some franchisees require the same qualifications as those for an entry-level position at a regular school. Because of the need for a person to complete a specific number of hours of training, it is difficult to find someone who meets all the qualifications necessary to become a teacher without having to pay the fees required by tradi tional schools.If you are looking for a way to expand your tutoring centers and make them more efficient, consider opening a franchise. It is important to carefully consider the pros and cons before making a final decision. It may also be helpful to find a mentor or consultant who is knowledgeable about the industry to provide valuable information to help you determine which choice is right for you.

Endurance Tips for Brass Players

Endurance Tips for Brass Players Sign up successful Many players benefit from finding and working with a good private teacher. A great instructor will be able to offer direction and trumpet endurance tips to develop proper technique.  It is also crucial to have a teacher who is able to critique and monitor your playing until you’ve developed good technique. Bad habits learned at this stage in your development will be difficult to break and can form future roadblocks to your development down the road. Basic Trumpet Endurance Tips and Exercises Here are a few tips and exercises to get you started developing your endurance. • Buzzing is a great warm up and a good way to build up your chops without needing your instrument. Buzz your lips as if you were playing. Change the tension of your lips as you would when playing harmonic notes. Take a slight break every few minutes for rest. • Do the same buzzing exercise, only this time into your mouthpiece, still no horn.  Same sequence, taking a short break every few minutes. • Play an easy note and sustain the sound for as long as you can. If you have a metronome (and you should), set it to a quarter note = 60bpm. Each beat is one second; count and keep track of how long you can sustain the note. Strive to add one second per day. Do this exercise on several notes, with a break in between each. • Practice lip slurs. Start with the valves open, and play G to low C, then cycle back to G, then to C, and continuing. Start with quarter notes and slowly increase your speed until you can play 16th notes. Then cycle through the valves; repeat the exercise down a half step using the harmonics with the second valve, then the first valve, etc. This will help train your muscles to make rapid subtle embouchure changes, as well as build breath endurance. • Learn, memorize and practice your scales. Working on scales will not only develop your ear, breathing and embouchure, it can help you significantly extend your endurance. • Play as softly as possible. After your warm-up exercises, continue your practice as softly as possible. Practicing softer notes will force you to focus on your lip aperture. This will help you develop your embouchure and make it easier to expand your range. Start this exercise with scales, and as you become more confident, introduce more technically-challenging exercises into your routine. These are just a few exercises to help you get started. There are many endurance exercises readily available on the Internet. If you do have a private instructor, work with them; ask for trumpet endurance tips and etudes. Developing your endurance is one of the first steps toward mastery of your instrument! Photo by Frederick Noronha Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher

TakeLessons Rock Star Teacher of the Week Joshua M.

TakeLessons Rock Star Teacher of the Week Joshua M. ksurmacewicz This weeks Rock Star Teacher of the Week is the multi-talented Joshua M., who teaches several subjects including singing, acting and music performance in the Washington, DC area.   A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joshua has a strong background and interest in musical theater and also studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.   In addition to his role as a TakeLessons certified instructor,   Joshua has worked as a Musical Director/Rehearsal Pianist for many shows within the NY/NJ/DC tri-state area and serves as the Co-Artistic Director of No Rules Theatre Company based out of Washington, DC and Winston-Salem, NC. He remains active in theater and has performed in, written and directed a number of   musicals; some of his notable performance credits include roles in Godspell, Othello, Show Boat, Sweeney Todd, and Les Miserables. Joshua believes in creating a strong foundation for his students to learn, and focuses primarily on breath, placement and eliminating bad vocal habits early on so that students can grow and develop new skills.   His students describe him as easy to work with and incredibly patient, and praise his ability to help them understand the core principles and underlying concepts of singing and acting. Congratulations on a job well done, Joshua!

How to Read Piano Notes Sheet Music 5 Easy Steps for Beginners

How to Read Piano Notes Sheet Music 5 Easy Steps for Beginners Sign up successful Step 2: Write the note letter names Now take a piece of music you want to learn, and underneath the music notes of the right hand in the treble clef, write the letter names.  (Use a pencil, that way you can erase it later!) This isn’t a great habit to get into in the long run, but it’s perfectly fine for just starting out. If there is one note youre having a hard time remembering specifically, feel free to just write that one note letter name. Keep in mind youre only focusing on the white notes on a piano for now. Don’t worry about the black keys, (your sharps and flats), just yet. Step 3: Memorize letter names, and move onto bass clef After youve memorized all of the letter names on the lines and spaces for your right hand (the treble clef), you can move on to reading piano notes on the bass clef, where the notes on the lines and spaces will be played with your left hand. Step 4: Name your spaces ACEGB and GBDFA Practice drawing the bass clef, which will start on the F line. Then with the spaces at the bottom of the page, name your spaces ACEGB (remember “All Cows Eat Grass,” and don’t forget to add your B at the top!). Next, name your lines starting at the bottom of the page GBDFA (“Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always”). Memorize these notations as well. Now transfer these letter names of the lines and spaces to your piano song from step #2, and name all the notes with your left hand in the bass clef. Step 5: Find a hand diagram and label each finger 1-5 There is another method with numbers that may be easier for you to read.  Find a diagram of your hands and looking at the right hand starting with your thumb, label each finger with 1-5.  Do the same with your left hand. There are many  easy piano songs  to begin with, such as “Three Blind Mice”, “Hot Cross Buns”, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, and “Jingle Bells” that only use notes C-G, or numbers 1-5. Starting on middle C of the piano, put both thumbs on the note, and align both your hands so that your right pinky ends on 5 (G) and your left pinky lands on 5 (F). You can write in the numbers next to letter names, if that helps you more. Remember to begin with only the white notes on a piano. Now, as you read through your song, play and sing the letter or numbers while playing, which will help you memorize the names of numbers of the notes on a piano.  Once youve practiced this for a while, try erasing the letter names and testing yourself to see if you still remember the playing pattern and tune of the song. With these steps, reading piano notes and music will start to become natural to you. For each piece you learn, write in the letter names or fingers, and then erase them when you get comfortable enough. Pretty soon you won’t even need to write them in! A Different Way to Read Sheet Music:  The Mental Flip Strategy One of the most difficult things about learning how to read sheet music for the piano, as opposed to most other instruments, is that there is not just a single melody to be played. Piano music requires you to play more than one part at a time. Usually these parts are interconnected they are part of a chord that you need to be able to accurately read. A Little History Behind Reading Music Notes Sheet music is read from left to right. The reasoning behind this is that music began as an exercise most focused on the progression of notes in a scale or mode in a horizontal fashion. When more than one voice was sounded together, they usually sang in unison and it was not till the 9th century that musicians became increasingly concerned with vertical harmony and polyphony. Keyboard instruments, such as the organ, the harpsichord, and ultimately the piano were instruments developed to satisfy this changing aesthetic and the increased importance of vertical harmonies. They were adapted into a notation that had been developed to address primarily horizontal concerns (i.e. what note comes next). This is not to say that sheet music cannot be read for the piano, but rather that the beginning student of piano must learn to think about the music on the page differently than they might read words on a page. The Mental Flip Strategy for Reading Music Notes You must flip the orientation of the sheet music in front of you mentally, so you can read the vertical orientation of the notes. In order to begin to think about and practice this mental flip, there is an extremely helpful strategy you can use. You can actually turn the sheet music so you are reading the notes down the page. Doing so allows you to more easily understand the spacing between the notes and more intuitively grasp where your fingers should be placed on the keys. This technique is also incredibly helpful for visualizing the grand staff as a whole and where the octaves on the keyboard are located. In order to properly perform this strategy and learn how to read sheet music for piano, follow these three simple steps: Take your original sheet music and flip it clockwise. The line of music you’re working on playing should be read down the page, from top to bottom, instead of across the page. Begin to identify chord units and think about each measure in terms of chordal units. Most bars or measures of beginning piano music contain one or two chords. Sometimes these chords are arpeggiated, other times there is an alternation pattern of notes in the treble and bass in quick succession. Your success with this technique depends on your ability to identify which chord is being outlined. To do this, simply name the notes. In beginning sheet music you’ll most likely see either major or minor triads. Match the notes on the page to your fingers on the keyboard. Notice how, with the sheet music turned, the sheet music is actually a diagram of the intervals between each note and how this realization helps you visualize where to place your fingers. Heres how it looks on your sheet music: With music, there are many different strategies that can help you move quickly to a better understanding. Everyone approaches music differently. Some beginners intuitively grasp complex concepts, others need a little help along the way. Some may even find this strategy more confusing than the standard approach. Whether or not this technique is right for you depends largely on whether or not it yields a type of “aha” moment, where you can better visualize the spacing of your fingers and their placement on the keys. If you need further instruction on learning how to read piano notes, consider taking piano lessons.  A professional piano teacher can walk you through these steps and ensure that youre building your skills on a solid foundation of music theory. Post Author: Liz T. teaches online singing, acting, and music lessons.  She is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music with a B.M in Vocal performance and currently performs/teaches all styles of music including Musical Theater, Classical, Jazz, Rock, Pop, RB, and Country. Learn more about Liz here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of prescreened teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for safe, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo  by Basheer Tome .paszone-container-74612 { display: none !important; }.paszone-container-74612 ~ .paszone-container-74612 { display: block !important; }

What is it Like to Attend Harvard College

What is it Like to Attend Harvard College The tutors behind Varsity Tutors are not just here to teach theyre sharing their college experiences as well. James is a New York City tutor and graduate of Harvard College. He studied History during his time at Harvard and now tutors many subjects including World History tutoring, Literature tutoring, and College Essay prep tutoring. See what he had to say about his alma mater: VT: Describe the campus setting and transportation options.How urban or safe is the campus?Are there buses or do you need a car/bike? James: Harvards campus is located in Cambridge Massachusetts, next to Boston. Thus, it provides a perfect balance of urban opportunities and the serenity of a quieter, less hectic environment. I dont see urban and safe as antonyms. The campus is both urban and reasonably safe. VT: How available are the professors, academic advisers, and teaching assistants? James: When I was an undergraduate, professors were mostly quite remote figures, except for certain subjects where the departments and classes were smaller, and professors therefore were more available. Professors were typically illustrious figures who lectured and otherwise dedicated themselves to research. Consorting with undergraduates was not high on their list of priorities. Obviously, there were plenty of exceptions, and graduate studentsoften very accomplished scholars in their own rightcould be very cordial and helpful. VT: How would you describe the dorm life rooms, dining options, location, socialization opportunities with other students? James: I found dorm life a bit disappointing, but it was probably adequate. Given the size of the school, it is difficult to generalize about student life. However, MIT was reputed to have livelier parties and socializing opportunities, which says something. VT: Which majors/programs are best represented and supported?What did you study and why? Did the university do a good job supporting your particular area of study? James: Some programs certainly were rumoured to be more prestigious: Social Studies, History and Literature. To some extent, the undergraduate majors followed the fortunes of the graduate schools. For instance, English was reputedly a somewhat disorganized and fractious department, with numerous tensions between the faculty, and this seemed to affect the undergraduate experience in subtle ways. However, in almost all cases the university made an effort to ensure that undergraduates were taken care of. My advice is to pick a smaller department and less common majors. That was the path to more attention and TLC from the departments. VT: How easy or difficult was it for you to meet people and make friends as a freshman? Does Greek life play a significant role in the campus social life? James: Meeting people was not hard, but depended to a considerable extent on the initiative of individual students, like most aspects of life at Harvard, intellectual or social. The Greek Life consisted of a few clubs that only were sufficient to include a fraction of undergraduatespresumably rich and connected ones; I would say that these clubs were not a huge factor in undergraduate life. VT: How helpful is the Career Centerand other student support services?Do many reputable companies recruit on campus?The Office of Career Services was very helpful and accessible. James: Certainly, there was plenty of recruiting on campus, though the efforts of the CIA and other government agencies to do so was a political hot potato, as I recall. VT: How are the various study areas such aslibraries, student union, and dorm lounges? Are they over-crowded, easily available, spacious? James: I remember a wealth of libraries and places to study. Students there are very fortunate in this sense. VT: Describe the surrounding town. What kinds of outside establishments / things to do are there that make it fun, boring, or somewhere in between?To what extent do students go to the downtown area of the city versus staying near campus? James: Cambridge is a quaint, manageable town with fine cultural and gastronomic resources. Boston, nearby, is big enough to accommodate any reasonable desires for entertainment, cultural immersion or escape. The diversity of these towns culturally and racially was quite rich, though Boston and Cambridge when I was there were both still quite racially divided, echoing the tensions and turmoil of the 70s and 80s, perhaps. Whether or not this is still the case, I dont know. VT: How big or small is the student body? Were you generally pleased or displeased with the typical class sizes? James: The student body is large, and class sizes could also be big, as in one Political Philosophy class with c. 700 people. Although this question does not ask me about the quality of my peers, only their quantity, I probably learned more from my fellow students, and that despite containing a disproportionate number of socially inept and tunnel-visioned overachievers, the student body is a remarkably fascinating and impressive bunch of students with an enormous range of interests and accomplishments. I was very impressed by them on the whole. VT: Describe one memorable experience with a professor and/or class. Perhaps one you loved the most or one youregretthe most. James: The Political Philosophy professor of the above-mentioned class of c. 700 people (Michael Sandel) was very charismatic, and the well-conceived and organized class stimulated my thinking, due to his teaching and the excellent reading list. I wrote him a quixotic letter challenging the courses central communitarian premises, and received an invitation to come speak with him in his office. Though the conversation was brief due to my being overawed and tongue-tied, it was an honor to be taken this seriously. Check out James tutoring profile. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Varsity Tutors.

Holiday Break Learning Activities

Holiday Break Learning Activities For most families, holiday break is symbolicyouve reached the midway point of the school year and its time for a breather. However, that doesnt mean your child should spend the next two weeks scrolling social media. Here are eight holiday activities for kids you can try over the break that will boost your childs brain power: Reading Dont force your child to crack those textbooks, but do encourage him or her to choose a book (or several) to enjoy over break. Head to the library for an afternoon at the start of break to stock up. Consider reading something together to make it a fun family activity. Classes for fun Look around and youll discover many fun holiday learning activities and classes for children over break. Your nearby recreation center, library or bookstore are good places to look for winter break classes and workshops on things like cooking, holiday crafts, writing, art or even sports. Museum hopping Art galleries, history museums, and nature and science museums make ideal day trips for children of all ages. Check out those in your town for any special exhibits for the holidays. Holiday break is a chance to explore some of those lesser-known museums too, like a heritage museum or sports museum. Educational movies/TV Who doesnt love curling up on the couch around the holidays to enjoy some entertainment on screen? When you visit the library, look for interesting documentaries or based-on-true-events movies that might pique your childs interest. Perhaps theres a thought-provoking TV series (think science, animal and history channels) that your family could watch together over break. College research If you have a high school student, holiday break is a great time to do some college research and/or preparation. That might include browsing college websites to start gathering information, reading up on financial aid or fine-tuning that admissions essay if you have a senior who is working on applications. Cooking Many families do a lot of entertaining and hosting over the holidays, which means lots of food. And guess what? Cooking involves practical math skills such as measuring and shopping, and time management skills for the planning and preparation. Hand your child a cookbook and put him or her in charge of your holiday menu. Family history documentation Your child could devote some time this break to creating a cherished book of family history. Have your child call or visit family members to ask about their childhoods or favorite holiday memories. Science projects What is your child curious about? Whats going on around you? Have your child come up with a few things to track or measure over break (e.g. snow accumulation or hourly temperature). Have him or her research easy science experiments online that he or she can do with household materials and try a few a day. Holiday break is the perfect chance for your child to explore something new and relish learning for the fun of it. Get creative. There are all kinds of ways for your child to keep her mind engaged over break while having fun at the same time.

Heart Expands Program To Sedgefield And Piney Grove

Heart Expands Program To Sedgefield And Piney Grove Heart Expands Program To Sedgefield And Piney Grove Elementary Schools Heart Expands Program To Sedgefield And Piney Grove Elementary Schools May 18, 2015 Thanks to the good work of our volunteers and the willingness of more Charlotte community members to become volunteer tutors, Heart Math Tutoring will partner with two additional schools in 2015-16 to ensure that all students develop the strong foundation in math and enthusiasm for academics needed for long-term success! Sedgefield Elementary and Piney Grove Elementary will join Heart’s five Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools partners in welcoming 50-70 weekly volunteers to work one-on-one with students in grades 1-5 who are performing below grade level in math. Heart’s existing school partners are Billingsville Leadership Academy, Highland Renaissance Academy, Montclaire Elementary, Westerly Hills Academy, and Winterfield Elementary. Volunteer tutors provide academic support using a structured curriculum and build valuable relationships with students over the course of the school year. Many tutors come before work or at lunchtime to spend 30 minutes to an hour with their elementary-aged mentees. To date, 98% of students have met program growth goals in math. Sedgefield and Piney Grove were chosen among more than 10 applications based on factors including school leadership, community partnerships, and location. An eighth school for 2015-16 is yet to be named and will depend on funding availability as of June 2015. Heart places a Program Coordinator and tutoring materials at each school. The program was designed to be replicated, and Heart plans to provide tutoring to additional schools that applied within the next two years. Thank you to our tutors, our school partners, and our funders for making this math intervention available to some of our most valuable citizens â€" our children in need! Sign up to volunteer at Sedgefield, Piney Grove, or any of our existing schools. Make a donation to help Heart reach an eighth school next year.