Virtual studio tours!
We’ve all found workarounds since a micro-monster virus forced us to evacuate our tried and true ways of piano teaching.
We’ve forged new paths to get the job done.
In a pinch, those workarounds resorted to the “first available” which usually wasn’t the top or the best choice.
Renee Holliman, good friend and voiceover guru for my Key Ideas podcast, was curious about my set up. She claims she’s been limping along since the pandemic forced her to move her piano lessons online.
She texted me this picture of her work space and perhaps added a few items for dramatic effect.
The photo made me giggle because I knew she was aiming for shock and awe—which to her credit—it worked!
And of course, I’m not laughing AT her, just WITH her.
We’ve all be there, right?
Did you punt with an old fold-up game table to reconfigure your workspace closer to a piano for online lessons?
Did you grab a Costco or Amazon box for extra height to get your laptop camera at the right angle?
Did you dig out extension cords from storage to keep all those devices charged?
In honor of Renee’s request and in hopes that this post may upgrade her current status (and perhaps yours, too!), below are some pics and a virtual tour of my latest studio enhancements since the pandemic hit a year ago. In addition to my desk, I share some of my favorite items that have come to be items that I couldn’t teach without.
The side of the desk is magnetic so I keep the dry erase marker on the side so I can grab it quickly to jot stuff down.
YES! The charger is divine. The three H buttons allow me to save three height settings.
There’s a charging station for devices. The button on the left locks the desk at any height you want.
The story behind the desk
The Tresanti Desk from Costco was an unplanned purchase with a good story.
My son Levi needed a new desk for his bedroom turned home office and his girlfriend Erin and I saw the Tresanti desk at Costco. We thought it looked perfect as it automatically adjusts to various heights and has many other cool features as shown above. As we were loading the desk onto a cart, two girls informed us that this desk went “virual” on TikTok and has gone up in price because so many people adore it.
After we assembled Levi’s desk and saw how slick it was and after we heard that it was exploding on Tik Tok, Erin and I both became attached to the idea that we needed one, too. The “everyone else has one” and the “scarcity of supply” mindsets took over!
At the same time, we’ve been working on remodeling our son Carter’s bedroom into a home office space for my husband and so the next day, Erin and I went back to Costco and got ourselves each a desk and one more for my husband.
Yes, we bought 4 desks in total, close to the price of one desk found at retail stores like Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel.
Now, all of us can’t remember how we managed to work with out them!
Reflecting my iPad onto a wall-mounted monitor is a convenient way to point to the sheet music and still keep my distance! Never planned to use the wall monitor for this purpose! Photo by Nicole Dyk.
Other items featured in my virtual studio tour
Scientifically Proven Practice Strategies infographic
Hemp Triple Moisture Hand Sanitizer
Credit Card System for Studio Incentives
Digital Practice Stickers that can turn into Sticky Notes
ForScore for reading scores on the iPad
Effective Practice Tracker (that’s why you see the vinyl record on my Clavinova)
Manos Mount (this connects to the boom mic and holds my camera)
Boom Mic Stand (you may want something sturdier than this)
Simplified Calendar by Emily Ley
FYI: The links to the items in the video are affiliated which means I make a small cut if you click on the link and end up buying the items.
Take A Tour
Isn’t it fun to see how others organize their "stuff" and manage their work space?
The first video is a tour of my studio.
The ones to follow are virtual tours of teachers who volunteered to walk us through their studio.
Enjoy and be inspired!
Tour of Leila’s Studio
Tour of Christina Shimp’s Studio
I'm SO pleased that Christina Shimp volunteered to take us on a virtual tour of HER studio. I appreciate how Christina integrates her lovely studio into her immaculate home.
I was actually on a scheduled vacation last year when PA shut down. Because of that I was able to do some research and start to get the things that I needed to go online. I started off with my old PC and my son rigged my phone above my piano with a boom that he had. I had my iPad on the other end and did my lessons through FaceTime.
Fast forward a year and I couldn’t stand the disorganization and clutter any longer. Actually that was the case with my whole house. Lol.
So my husband and I set about to make a space that was pleasing to the eye, have everything accessible, functional and with little to no clutter. This video is the result of that endeavor.
-Christina Shimp, Make a Joyful Noise Music Studio
Studio of Valerie Alfonso Music Studio
It is my goal that the piano studio serve my family of 6 as a Swiss-army knife kind of room —one with many functions, but streamlined and tucked out of the way when not needed. Being limited on space is the lovely limitation that has stretched my creativity, pushing me to find how I can most effectively use the space I do have in the studio, especially while lessons (and school) in our area are mostly still online.
I updated my website http://alfonsostudio.com/ at the beginning of the pandemic. The main item of interest is probably the 3 minute teaser video that gives a short taste of online lessons for inquiring parents.
Thank you for the privilege to share my studio, and I hope it is beneficial to someone else. I am grateful for the chance to "pay it forward".
-Valerie Alfonso, http://alfonsostudio.com/
