School friends

The most obvious use for studio buddies is to provide a link for students who are already friends. You'll effectively be providing them with their own spam-free message network through your studio website, and they can use it to contact each other as they wish.

It doesn't have to be music related - they can swap homework details, invite each other over, double check what time the basketball game starts this weekend...whatever.

It all helps reinforce the message that sharing music lessons is a part of what they have in common. (Students who are thinking about quitting are much less likely to do so if they have a good friend who they know is continuing)

"Spotting" for each other when they practice

"Spotting" is a practice that people sometimes use at the gym to train a little harder. The idea is that you have a training partner who will encourage you - telling you to do just another half dozen pushups when you don't think you can move any more.

Studio Buddies can "Spot" each other by using the Message Center to send each other progress reports on their practice, and encouraging their partner if it looks like they are falling behind.

One way to help encourage this is to offer a prize if between them, the students can complete a certain practice total, or a certain number of new pages of repertoire. Because it's the total that counts, not only will each student be working hard (partly because they don't want to be seen as letting their partner down), but they will also be encouraging their partner to new heights.

It's easy to set up, doesn't require any maintenance from you, and everybody involved wins.

Student Mentor programs

Buddies don't just have to be students who are already friends. It can also provide a powerful way for newer students to benefit from the experience of your more advanced students.

The idea is that when a student is preparing for their very first concert, set them up as a buddy with a student who has done dozens of them. The role of the mentor is to send encouragement, inspiration and reassurement, and to help with any questions that the newer student may have.

The mentor would attend the concert itself, would introduce themselves afterwards so that the newer student can finally put a face to the name, and could give some further feedback. And when the mentor's turn comes to perform, the younger student will be watching with enormous interest.

Again, it's about community building, and helping your students realize that they are not alone.

Students who share a common goal

If you have students who are preparing for the same competition or recital, it's often worth setting them up as buddies, even if only temporarily.

Their job is to give each other progress reports, and to swap frustrations, fears and breakthroughs as the big day approaches. It provides the students with a way of being able to share with someone who really understands what they are going through...because the buddy is actually going through it too.

They can also play for each other, and send critiques. So many people go into concerts feeling completely alone - your students will know that somewhere in the crowd is the buddy who helped them get through this, and that this support will be reciprocated when their turn comes to play.

Theory groups

Believe it or not, students actually have a lot of fun with this - because of a little twist that you can throw in. The plan is to buddy together students who are working towards the same theory exam.

Their job though? To create a dozen questions for their buddy - questions that are part of the syllabus, but are as fiendishly difficult as they can manage. All the horrible key signatures, the tricky cadences and the rhythms that look the most unfriendly, trying to stump their buddy.

Naturally, they know they'll be on the receiving end of similar questions, and that their buddy will not be doing them any favors either. Their job then becomes to prove that those questions weren't so tough after all.

The aim is to make sure that compared to the questions they have been giving each other, the exam itself is easy.

Concert organization

Organizing a concert can be a massive undertaking - you can lighten the load enormously by delegating parts of the job to students.

So for example, you might make a couple of students responsible for decorating the hall, while another couple might be responsible for providing tea and coffee after the big occasion.

How does studio buddies fit into all of this? The idea is that you set up students as temporary buddies if they share a common job. That way, they can send each other messages and co-ordinate their efforts.

The result again is a greater feeling of community in your studio (especially if you buddy students who didn't know each other before), and also the fact that you can fret less about details for the concert, and concentrate instead on producing great performances.

Students who share common difficulties

Next time you have a student who is in tears because their sightreading is "hopeless", don't just counsel them yourself. Buddy them with another student who regards their sightreading as being "hopeless" - or better still with a student whose sightreading used to be hopeless, but has now turned it around.

They can use the Studio Buddies system to encourage each other, to set each other mini reading challenges, and to swap tips.

Problems for students feel much smaller once they realize that there are actually other students afflicted by the same malady. Asserting that they are not alone is a step in the right direction - but nothing beats actually putting them in touch with a real student who understand exactly what where they are coming from.

Head to Head Competitions

Some students can be intensely competitive - and you to use this to your advantage if you're smart about which students you buddy together.

You want to find two students who are not working particularly hard at the moment, but who have shown strong competitive streaks in the past. Buddy them, and announce a Practice Competition.  Great prizes await for the student who records the most practice over the next fortnight (if you are using a time-based practicing model) or for those students who complete the most tasks that you set (if you are using an outcome based model - have you read PracticeSpot's "The Practice Revolution yet?")

They can use the messaging system to send each other updates, taunts ("You're going down!" type messages - the plan is to hype this like a WWF event!)...anything at all that is likely to whip them into a practicing frenzy.

Buddied reminders

There's only so many times you can remind a student to bring their books to a lesson. When all else fails, and to save you having to be the nagger, create a "Reminder Buddy".

Their job is to send a short message a couple of days before the student's lesson that simply says "Don't forget your books! :)"

If the "Reminder Buddy" sends the message, and the other student replies with an "OK", they both get a chocolate from you next lesson.

If the second student does NOT reply, both chocolates go to the "Reminder Buddy". Everyone has an incentive to do the right thing, and those books are much more likely to be where they should be.

Review each other's performances

Peer feedback can be a powerful thing - it's amazing how  closely students will listen to the opinions of other students sometimes.  (And we all wish they would listen that closely to us!)

Before your next studio recital, Buddy up your students. After the Big Day has been, have your students send a message to their buddy with a short review of their performance.

You can then use those reviews as a springboard for discussion next lesson.