My Music Staff Reviews

Couldn't run my music school without it

Pros:

It is extremely simple and easy to use. I only use the Students, Family and Calendar portions of it, and it serves well beyond what I need it for. So easy to view schedule and filter and organize it based on location, teacher, student, etc. i LOVE , as do the parents, the 24-hour in advance automatic reminders auto-texted or e-mailed (your choice).

Cons:

Besides a couple of very minor workflow impedances, it would be nice to integrate the calendar with an existing website, rather than only having the option to do so with the current website.

Alternatives Considered: Jackrabbit Music

Reasons for Choosing My Music Staff: Google Sheets became too cumbersome as our school grow, and I wanted something that the families/students could also access directly

Switched From: Google Sheets

Reasons for Switching to My Music Staff: Jackrabbit just didn't seem to fit as well as MyMusicStaff

Ideally for anyone managing a small music school

Comments: Really positive. Support staff are great and there is plenty of resources to problem solve any booking requirements. It’s nice to see that the software is still being updated and invested in which makes me hopefully for the tools it will provide in the near future.

Pros:

It has features that I didn’t realise I would need. It’s the best blends of resources for music teachers and management software.

Cons:

The experience on phones feels clunky and difficult to navigate. All my staff use it on their phones and would prefer an app that is more condensed for just their day of teaching.

Alternatives Considered: Timely, Trello and monday.com

Reasons for Choosing My Music Staff: Time and efficiency. I was also looking for something that would benefit my teachers.

Switched From: Google Sheets

Reasons for Switching to My Music Staff: Music teachers resources

My Music Staff Falling Behind

Comments: We've been using MMS for over 4 years now. When we first found this program it was the all-in-one solution we were looking for but unfortunately, as the years have progressed, the site has gotten much slower to work with, updates made are off-point and not helpful and the program is falling behind in offering features that are standard with others. Most noticeable is the lack of an activity feed or notification system. While other customer management and team work platforms have made this piece a base offering, My Music Staff has no way to indicate who is making changes in the database, when changes are made or a way to be notified. They occasionally roll out new features which are of little use. The Beta Attendance update, still in Beta after more than a year has more steps than the original method and makes the routine more cumbersome instead of streamlining. Despite being around since 2013, My Music Staff is still lacking an application made specifically for your phone further hindering their usability. While we'd really like to continue using this program, the lack of investment to keep up with development and customer needs puts it on the verge of being outdated.

Pros:

Ease of set it and forget it weekly lesson management and invoicing for clients.Calendar is user friendly

Cons:

Not responsive to feedback, input. No feed or alert for user changes in any way makes it extremely difficult to track if a teacher makes a change or someone has changed something that will impact your client's billing.The adjustments they do make seem to glitch the system at times.

My experience as an administrator user of the software for 3 months.

Comments: Overall my experience with this product was not so satisfactory, however the time I am testing it is short. Therefore, I will give it a few more months of opportunity.

Pros:

What I liked the most was being able to plan the lessons for the students, as well as the facility to make reports and statistics on the progress of the groups.

Cons:

What I did not like is certain errors that are presented, such as double payment and e-mail messages that generate some discomfort in users who pay for the service and get messages that confuse them.From my point of view an update is needed to correct these errors, improve the interface and reduce the cost.

My Music Staff from a Person who is not techie

Comments: The problems solved by using My Music Staff include: 1. Streamlining the administrative processes of teaching music. 2. Automating lesson scheduling, billing, and invoicing. 3. Keeping track of student progress and attendance. 4. Reducing the time spent on administrative tasks. The benefits of using My Music Staff include: 1. Increased efficiency and productivity for music teachers. 2. Improved communication between teachers and their students. 3. Easier access to resources, such as music theory and practice materials. 4. Increased visibility into student progress and performance. 5. The ability to customize the system to meet individual teaching needs.

Pros:

- My Music Staff allows users to manage their music teaching business from one convenient location. - It is easy to use and navigate, with an intuitive interface.- My Music Staff provides great customer support and they have a wide variety of features such as scheduling, invoicing, and communication tools.- It offers a comprehensive range of features and is constantly being updated with new features.

Cons:

Some users have reported that the customer service can be slow to respond.- Reports can be difficult to generate.- There are some limitations when it comes to customizing the look and feel of the website.

Does everything you need for a great price

Comments: I've found that the software fits my needs. I have looked around extensively to see if there is anything out there better and currently there isn't. There are similar platforms but they are more expensive. I also like how it specifically caters to music teachers rather than a generic software for all industries.

Pros:

It does everything I need it to do in terms of scheduling, billing and expenses and has other features that I use sometimes such as lesson notes, file sharing, newsletters and lending library. It also has a website included, blog and online signup.

Cons:

It would be good if students were able to edit/comment on their lesson notes. Also if there could be a blog or newsletter that is not public but only accessible by your clients with the ability for them to comment.

A Must-Have

Comments: Overall, MMS has made organization, scheduling, and communication with studio families easier!

Pros:

This is an all-in-one platform for running your music studio! Before finding My Music Staff, I was using 3 different spreadsheets, 2 paper notebooks, a phone to-do list, and a paper planner to run my business. MMS consolidated this down to one affordable program that is customized to the needs of a music teacher. I love it!

Cons:

I do occasionally encounter technological issues, or notice that there is a task I would like to achieve that I do not know how to accomplish. When this happens, the answer is not always intuitive. (For perspective, I am of the millennial generation, and consider myself technologically savvy enough to independently learn most computer programs oriented for the workplace).

Game changer!

Comments: My overall experience has been amazing. The customer service reps are so kind and helpful, and the software itself has given me all I need to run my flute studio in one website.

Pros:

I really like how many features are included with this software, it really is mindblowing.

Cons:

Nothing! I like everything about this software.

Amazing resource!

Comments: Marvelous!! They are prompt and very helpful whenever I've had a question.

Pros:

I love the ability to manage many different facets of my business--student progress and notes, materials loaned, billing, attendance, etc.

Cons:

I can't think of anything! It is fantastic!

music class management

Pros:

My music staff staff is a software built for music class sheduling and management. it is easy to set up a calendar

Cons:

the sheduling tools must offer more ways to set up a proper calendar

A great All-In-One Business Manager and Scheduler

Comments: The scheduling alone and automated charges and billing are amazing - so much easier to keep track of everything. I'm also loving the additional features and ease of communication to students and parents from one place.
The improvements they've made over the past 2 years (most especially becoming more friendly to syncing to Google Calendar) have been unobtrusive and are generally making the software easier to use - and all at a reasonable cost!

Pros:

First of all, the price is fantastic for a small business - you pay per teacher you're managing and the base subscription price is outstanding! Any equivalent scheduling software charges as though you are a large company and was many times the price for just me and my partner! The scheduling interface is easy and pretty intuitive, and I love that I can opt to allow people to change their own times (but only to a time that I've already set aside for teaching). I continue to have control over the times and days that I teach, and I have to deal with fewer make up lesson headaches! I've only started using some of the other functions this school year (file sharing, practice tracking, sending notes to parents/students, etc) so only a few months, but so far it's working really well and I love being able to contact the parents with concerns or suggestions when the child is not present.

Cons:

1. Most of my students pay on an automated monthly tuition model, and I would love to be able to set the month beginning/end dates for something other than the 1st. (mid month starts, 2nd pay period, etc) 2. While it is great to be able to message parents with notes, notifications of uploads, etc, it would be great if there were a way to group all those messages together instead of spamming them the day after the lesson. 3. Sometimes changes I make from my mobile device don't save properly (attendance is bad for this)

Invaluable to my business and teaching

Pros:

I have used My Music Staff for several years (four, I think). Implementing this software has revolutionized my work flow in big ways. I can manage multiple calendars, create invoices, and receive payments in simple steps. I have used two other studio management softwares and by far, I love the ease of My Music Staff the best. The developing team at My Music Staff has done a great job of making this software intuitive to the user experience and thinking through what the most important and valuable aspects for an independent teacher or a teaching studio with multiple teachers are. Every year, I have expanded the way I use the software as there are numerous features I could not implement right away. This past year, we have used the make-up credit feature to allow students to cancel their lessons to receive credit and use the credit to schedule make-up lessons when they see openings created by other cancellations. While my studio does not have a make-up policy on our official policy (no make-up lessons, period), allowing this to happen (without teacher putting effort towards it) has created added value to our offering and a more gracious atmosphere. I have contacted My Music Staff on many occasions with questions and their responses always have been super quick and competent (like they actually heard my question and answered them in the way that was helpful to me). I highly recommend it!

Cons:

There are a few more advanced features I would love, such as allowing different policies for different kinds of events. But this is a very minor issue that I don't feel I'm entitle to for the money I pay to use this software.

An extremely high value product

Comments: My Music Staff has become indispensible and almost makes life a breeze. Accounts, invoicing and lesson management, notes and plenty more are brilliant. If they can upgrade some and smooth a couple of other areas I'd gladly pay more.

Pros:

After trying a number of other systems which felt like a real pain, I must say I can't find a system anywhere near as good for even double the price. There's a learning curve but it's really nothing like many others out there. TOP PROS: - Invoice for a period for all students in one hit and then email in one more. - Calendar view is powerful: attendance, great filtering by student/teacher/and many more - Setting up lessons is a breeze with conflicts detected automatically (although I wish it picked it up conflicts before pressing save, saving me a click-and-loading cycle) - Love the ability to clone days, run indefinite recurring group lessons with blocked out dates - Account management is brilliant too with a running list of billables and balance at any particular date - Sign up form is embeddable - SMS support mostly great - Notifiations to clients are great

Cons:

SMS INTEGRATION IS PATCHY - Fantastic for e.g. deleting a day. Except to send SMS messages needs to be activated in each profile manually which is slow - can't be turned on by default either - If the student doesn't have SMS turned on they don't get sent - Deleting lessons obscures the account: there is no longer record of that lesson even if it was previously included on an upfront invoice. - Marking a teacher absent is ideal EXCEPT there is no option to SMS all students without activating the feature in each individual profile first. NO SECOND FORM Other than the signup form - you need another service to handle this LEAD MANAGEMENT - No real (even simple) LMS, need another system. hello double handling data - Can classify as "lead" but then they can't book an open lesson. They need to be "Active" to do that, which is confusing because then they're "current students" which they aren't. It would be nice if leads could be added to lessons, then be automatically converted (semi-workaround via Student view sorting) INVOICES - need more templates & automation for outstanding, reminder before due, overdue, overdue 7/14 days - XERO integration please! NO STOCK MANAGEMENT - No stocking books to smooth the process. To sell, a manual entry for every book sold is required. No prefill or stock - I've stopped selling books because of this ATTENDANCE - For group lessons needs optimising too many features has bloated the process & created too many loading panes

Communication and Organisation

Comments: This software definitely has 'bang for buck'. All of the things teachers are able to do through this platform certainly impress me. I started teaching 40 years ago and everything was done in hardcopy by hand. Wow, what a difference. What has impressed me the most, and continues to impress me, is your customer support. My questions are answered quickly and always with courtesy too. I feel like I am dealing with real people who care about my ability to use their product with as much ease as possible. It is an absolute pleasure doing business with you.

Pros:

There are quite a few things I like about MMS. The first is communication with my students. Being able to create lesson notes each week, schedule lessons on the calendar and do invoicing through the platform helps me to keep things organised. I also I like that it allows me to invoice my students and keep track of their payments easily. The library is very helpful. Now I don't lose things I loan out anymore and students (I believe) are notified when they have something that need to be returned.

Cons:

I am not very happy with my website and wish there was more support on how to do this well. Being a sole proprietor I cannot afford to hire someone to do this and it isn't very intuitive (although better than many others I looked at, especially when you consider what you get with the package). More videos that give direction, suggest and examples of this would be helpful. Maybe reach out to some of the teacher who have created exception sites and ask them to share their secrets. We're teachers, we can't help ourselves. : ) It is a little thing, however; buttons for social media (like Facebook, Instagram Linkedin, etc) would be really nice on the site as well.

You Need This in Your Life!

Comments: Customer support is very helpful!

Pros:

I don't generate invoices until I have my schedule set. Once I have my schedule for the month/semester/etc figured out, I create invoices and send them to parents. I love that this program makes it easy to create and send invoices based on the schedule. What used to take me HOURS now takes minutes. I also like how it tracks payments, adjustments, etc in the program so that even parents can see. No more angry parents claiming they paid when they simply forgot; they can see everything. My studio size doubled because I am so much more organized with everything. I also love that students can see notes that I've taken, assignments, download music, etc. I also send out mass messages for my upcoming concerts which is posted on the group studio page. ALSO I love that it automatically sends reminder texts and emails. I rarely have students forget to come to their lessons anymore (and when they do, I just remind them of my cancellation policy, so I never lose any dollars). I love this program. Just amazing. I will never use anything else.

Cons:

I wish there was an phone app that would allow me to work offline. I frequently work in practice rooms that block out cell phone signal, so I can't load students' notes when I teach. Also, It took forever to figure out how to navigate through the site at first. Lastly, I wish I could figure out how to automatically send my students their lesson schedule for the month (not essential since it is listed in the invoice, but I would like to have the kids get a list of lesson times in the email).

MMS is a solid product which covers most of the bases

Comments: MMS has made scheduling quite efficient. It is fairly easy to navigate once you get used to it. We have been using it for a long time and I know there are features I haven't even gotten to yet. I don't think we've worked with the support team much as we've been able to figure things out. I would be very interested in taking a live class if it were offered just to appreciate the full potential of the software.

Pros:

I especially like the attendance notes. It informs our students (parents) what is to be expected at the next lesson. This is especially good for parents who are not particularly musical, to remind the child specifics of the practice material. I also like the auto reminder sent for next day classes. This gives the student an opportunity to cancel class in time to qualify for a make up class. And, if a class had been verbally cancelled, but the teacher did not log it as such, (s)he is reminded that the class has been cancelled.

Cons:

I wish there was an entry to list the specific instrument being taught at each class. We can list the instrument in the student information section, but it'd be more convenient if it were right there on the calendar. Many instructors teach multiple disciplines and knowing which is being taught at a given class would make it easier for us to book the right room and/or the right substitute.

Music Dancing Feet Partnership and My Music Staff - Life has become easier for both staff and pupils

Comments: The main benefit that we have found has been increased reliability of pupil attendance and an enhanced way of keeping track of lessons that need to be caught up.
It has made invoicing easier for both us as a business and for the pupils to see what they owe at a glance.
The Music Dancing Feet Partnership have been really pleased to have joined in partnership with My Music Staff, I would like to say thank you from all of our pupils and staff for making our lives easier.

Pros:

The ease of use to link with pupils. With the ability to create lessons notes as you teach and email them for assistance with practice is a great benefit for both teacher and pupil. The Lesson reminders. the lesson reminder have a two fold benefit in that they reduce the number of no shows for lessons and ensure that pupils remember to let you know if they cannot attend to allow you the scope to offer other lessons to them and to fill their slot; it also gets a lot of correspondence to you in advance of the lesson so that you can have other material ready for the lesson in advance. Invoicing. This has proven to be a very reliable package for invoicing. Student records. A very easy way of keeping all notes up to date and to hand. Library facility I haven't had much call to use this yet but on the occasion that I have lent music out it is an invaluable way of keeping track of who has what. Blog This is an area that is looking to be exploited later in the year.

Cons:

I have not really found any down sides to the software.

A Game Changer for All Private Music Teachers

Comments: MMS has made running my own private studio a breeze. Everything I need for my studio is in one place, and the automation eliminates my need to spend hours at the computer or have a secretary. I can't imagine having to manage my studio any other way.

Pros:

I love the billing process with My Music Staff! Before using MMS, I spent hours creating and sending invoices and then I would have to chase down payments every month. Now it creates and sends the invoices automatically each month and parents pay me on time, because they receive reminders and it is so easy for them to push a button and pay online. I was so surprised in my first month with MMS when parents were sending me payments while I was out enjoying my time off with family - I completely forgot that invoices had gone out already, and I was able to sit back and let MMS do all the work.

Cons:

The only improvements that could be made to MMS is in the website section. I love the design and look of MMS, and that is one of the reasons I chose to use it. It looks so much better and it is so much easier to use than some of their competitors like Music Teacher's Helper. I even love the designs of MMS's ads on facebook and instagram, and the designs of their new printables. While the design for MMS is the best I have seen, the website template designs are not good. The designs look outdated and the personalization features are no where near Wordpress, Squarespace, or other website design companies. This issue is not a big deal breaker for me, because so many of the other features on MMS are fantastic, however it is the only section of MMS that I don't use.

Awesome software. I couldn't live without MMS!

Comments: I've solved so many business problems with MyMusicStaff which have allowed me to spend less time on administrative work and more time teaching my students! I recommend this software to my other teacher friends all the time. This software is such a good value for the price and I love how they really put teachers' needs first!

Pros:

The things I like most about MyMusicStaff are: - The ability for me to send professional-looking invoices to all of my students, ensuring that everyone pays me the correct amount and streamlining my billing process - The ability for students to reschedule their own lessons in the Student Portal - The ability to manage my schedule, leave lesson notes, track progress, handle billing, and use the practice timer all in one place

Cons:

It takes a lot of time to manage on a daily basis, and sometimes it takes me several clicks to get where I need to go. For example, when navigating to the student view to view my Studio News posts, I have to... 1. Click on the 'Students' tab on the left 2. Click on one of my students' names 3. Navigate all the way to the right to where it says 'Student Portal' 4. Click on 'View As Student' 5. Wait for the student view to load 6. Click on the 'News and Blog Posts' bar And finally, see what I wanted to see. The email interface for writing emails within MMS is also a little bit weird. The user interface gets better and better all the time, though, and the staff is very good at responding to suggestions!

Much More Than I Expected!

Comments: Part of my music teaching is done in a school that requires a rotating timetable so the students skip a different class each week for their music lesson. For years I tried communicating these times to students and parents in many ways, none of which seemed effective as there was a great deal of confusion and absenteeism. I searched frequently for some kind of notification system such as the one my dentist uses, but they were all very prohibitively expensive. One day, toward the end of 2014, one my searches turned up My Music Staff, which could send automated email event reminders for a low monthly fee. After using it for a while, I found unexpected features such as keeping track of attendance, make-up credits, lesson notes, providing downloads for students, an online student/parent portal, a sign-up widget, as well as integrated billing to be indispensable for the way I’m now able to run my studio.

Pros:

What I like most about My Music Staff is the Lesson Notes function as it enables seamless continuity from lesson to lesson with each student, which, to me, is most the most important aspect of teaching.

Cons:

As each feature in My Music Staff is likeable in its own way, the only reason why I like the Expense Tracker the least is because I use different accounting software and, therefore, have no need for it.

Super Staff Sorting Software.

Comments: Superb, It really has made life so much easier and efficient. The fact that students can log in and see their notes, make payments and feel more involved helps to build the community feel that we struggle to get with one to one lessons.

Pros:

I can track what and where staff are meant to be at any one time quickly and see if they have any free slots for new customers. I can also trac customer payments and make sure every one is getting paid when they should be.

Cons:

Not being able to have more than one teacher added to an event - I have to set up events for each teacher, then pick one who will charge the customer and then set the others to no charge for the customer. It would be great if it was possible to set multiple teachers in an event and that it would automatically show on their calendar. Also I can set different pay levels for different teachers even different groups but somehow if I pay a teacher £20 per hour and they have a 45 min lesson the system doesn't always calculate the new charge automatically - this could just be me not setting it up correctly.

The best!!

Comments: I had a studio of around 30 students before beginning to use this software. I don’t think that I could have expanded my studio up to students without this tool to help me out. It has made my personal finances easier to manage, scheduling and billing matters a breeze to keep track of, and I could never go back to teaching without it

Pros:

MMS has truly allowed me to grow and expand my teaching business with ease. The ability to send professional looking invoices via email to all of my students has been excellent and it has definitely reduce the amount of late payments or forgetfulness regarding payments. I love that I can take notes during my students’ lessons and email them directly to students and parents or just keep notes for my own reference. I feel that the cost of this software is very low for what it provides so I am grateful for the great value for such a great product. I will continue to use my music staff without hesitation and recommend it to all of my colleagues

Cons:

The only con that I can think of is that when you are viewing a student profile in my music staff, phone numbers and email addresses are not hyperlinked. This is a simaple feature that would be really wonderful to have

Just what is needed!

Comments: So much easier to organise my week. I wish there was an app that I could have on my phone as most schools don't have wifi for my laptop to connect, which means I either have to remember everything when I get home, or try to use the desktop site on my phone. It would awesome to have an app for teacher and student (like the desktop). Pretty much all kids have phones these days so I think they would explore the features more if that was possible. The app could have a built in metronome, fingering charts, or stuff like that. Maybe the teacher can have access to scales, and can assign scales to students, and the app can hear the student play them at home and let them know if the notes are right/wrong? Could be a bit tricky ay!
But overall, I really do love the app. Very reasonable price too.

Pros:

Very easy to use interface, friendly design, thought out options. I like how since joining I am noticing small changes to things and each change has been for the better! Very easy to design website function, and I like how specific you can be with everything!

Cons:

I find my students don't enjoy logging their practice time. Perhaps a personalised widget page (when they sign in) would be more useful. Like, notes from previous lesson, blog posts, and things like that can be customizable? Is there a space to put contracts in so I don't have to write seperate documents when new students sign up? That would be cool.

The Best thing since slice bread

Comments: My overall experience with My Music Staff is fantastic .It makes my time more productive in actually teaching not in administration. I give this program a ten out of ten.

Pros:

The best part of the program is organization it makes my time more reproductive in actually teaching rather than admin. the automatic reminder of lessons to students reduces the absent rate tremendously. The Invoicing system is fantastic from raising an Invoice to payment received ,the tracing of payment is made easy with auto reminders when payments that are not made. at a glance you can see if a payment has been made. Communication with student and parents is fantastic it all around your fingertips within the program.

Cons:

Learning how to use the program. even though it is easy to use, if you haven't used a particular section of the program for a while it tends to take a little time to remember what to do again,

McKee Music quick feedback.

Comments: Excellent. We would be a mess without it.

Pros:

Multi teacher, professionally developed. This is our 'office'.

Cons:

Some small features I'd like to improve on. The main feature is the "parents owing' view that we had in Music Teacher Helper. Very quick to see who needs a nudge to pay. Also, the widget for online registration is a little unstable or not well designed: www.mckeemusic.com.sg you'll see it. I'm not a web developer and I threw this webiste together but we will be integrating the widget to our school websites so I'd like to know how to get this looking slick