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I hope not! But it certainly seems that way.

Wow, what a mess is right! How fun is it that a post here asking about one of my blog entries has turned into a critique of my entire website and my character?

Thank you to whoever told me I was being talked about here, haha.

Okay I'll go back and reply to some posts later when I have more time...hopefully I can help clear up some of this confusion and offer up my take on some of the things.

First, my view on commercial music studios. I don't think it's an inherently bad business model, I know a few music studio owners and they are great people. I was actually approached to start one of my own as part of an afterschool program. I eventually turned it down for a few reasons, one of them was because of the contract I signed when I worked for Cameron at Irvine School of Music; it forbid the signee of the contract from starting a competing business for like...two years or something.

I used to think a lot of the commercial music studio owners are shady by nature, recruiting other teachers' students at festivals/evaluations, cutting various corners, breaking association rules to save money, etc; but, lately, through various other life events, I've seen how money changes people for the worse. While it doesn't excuse what they do, it does slightly alter my view of them. By the way, sorry if all the wise and experienced people on here already know this, but I'm still relatively young and learning, haha.

And if nothing else, they serve as warning signs for my own business future.

I'm assuming you're talking about the paragraph on my home page and not the blog post? Thanks for the feedback, I'll probably make a few changes to it since I wrote it awhile ago, but I can see how it'd come off that way. But again I'm assuming you aren't talking about the blog entry or the FAQ page?

I didn't realize italics were hard to read, to me cursive is, but then I'm not a designer. However, to answer your question, it's entirely in italics because I wanted it to be, it looked more like a written statement as opposed to printed, but then I didn't want it in cursive, so italicized it was.

I see what you mean about the colors, I think I can get rid of one or two so my action colors stand out more. But other then that, I would hope a parent looking to invest in piano lessons for their kid wouldn't be so easily deterred by a website with five different colors, and if they are, maybe they aren't right for my piano studio and that's okay with me.

Also, I'd say you're wrong about the website not drawing in a lot of students, but that's relative, so maybe you're right.

Thanks, I completely agree with the variety of studio names being confusing. I bought the domain name first but then later decided I didn't want to seem like I was proclaiming myself as THE Irvine piano studio, I might be thinking too much, but I guess my indecisiveness showed through in my website. I'm going to change Kevin Kao's Piano Studio on the top to FreshStart Piano Studio...however...I'm still undecided about what to do with my domain name and the other name for my studio even though I think it'd make more sense to just go with my domain name.

Sorry for the awkward writing, I'm trying my best, but English isn't my first language. I'd love to know which parts you found awkward.

A way to clear up the naming confusion: Pick a single studio name. Buy a domain name to match. Put your site on that domain name. Redirect from the other domain name to the new domain name, if you're concerned about broken links.

I couldn't agree with you more on the bit you wrote about hard work and striving to be your best being more important, that is precisely what I'm advocating, although with a slight caveat. Not just hard work, but hard, smart, and deliberate work. And if you really want to preach that with your daughter I think it's counterproductive to also be placing a ceiling on what she can achieve and placing an easy way out by preaching about talent. Maybe your daughter won't think this way, but I speak from experience, most kids start to use talent as a crutch--and this goes to the ones that think they have talent AND ones that don't think they have talent.

There's actually quite a bit of literature and research available on the "talent myth" that I think are worth checking out for any parent. Just search for "talent" in Amazon.

I could respond to what you said about Tiger Woods and Mozart and my crap comment, but if you read "Talent Is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin, you'll find that the view you have is inaccurate. Unless your daughter used to golf with Tiger Wood's dad before he passed away, which she might be, then by the time this "first coach" worked with Tiger Woods he had already gone through a lot of incredibly focused and intensive training.

If you don't buy the book from Amazon, just read pg. 29-31 in the bookstore. There's also a part in the book that talks about Mozart's "talent".

So in short, I stand by my comment. Compared to the amount and kind of work Mozart and Woods put in to be successful, their talent played a much smaller role in comparison.

I hope this helps, and I hope you'll check out the literature available on this subject

Kevin, the sooner you remove that negative essay about your rival and former employer from your website, the sooner you will present yourself as a responsible independent American piano teacher in the year 2013. Unless this is a slag-the-competition idea you acquired in a pedagogy class.

Kevin, FWIW, +1. When ever I'm at a store/service agency, etc., and they start bad-mouthing the competition, I politely make my exit. I'm interested in what positive you can do for me, not what your competitor cannot do. FWIW.

Peter, if this is a slag-the-competition idea I learned from pedagogy class, then I'd be slagging on every other piano and music studio out there. I feel like your last statement jabs at not only me but also the pedagogy program and professors I studied with. Just a side-note, that is actually what Cameron is doing on the Irvine School of Music website, putting down every other commercial music studio and private studio with items that are just completely untrue.

My review of Cameron is true. And speaking of responsibility, I do feel responsible to let people know about him. If I know he is a chronically dishonest person, I can't just turn away and say, "oh well". Truthfully, once I found out about his character and his website, I didn’t feel comfortable teaching at his studio anymore. I realize your view stems from the fact that I'm also a piano teacher and thus a competitor, but I don't think worrying about and protecting myself from the backlash I might experience from some people excuses me from sharing what I know. The parents that were lied to were VERY upset, as well they should be. Would you keep quiet if you knew?

I don't see how the review has to do with being in the year 2013 or being an American.

Thank you John, I'll think about what you said.

Kevin:
I really like your energetic and vision about your FreshStart Piano Studio that gives Irvine community a fresh stream through your website. You put in so much work, as I said before, your blog is very informative and I especially like your interview with Dr. Kolar.
As you see, I am in Irvine too but I do not see you as a competitor. I wasn't so sure what to think about when I see your blog about Conrad Tao, that is why I posted it here to ask other people for opinions.
I am totally agree with you that there are too many mega piano school around, they are mass producing "McDonald-Type-Like" students. We need piano teachers who can nurture each student personally in this community.
Please keep up your good work, we need piano teacher like you.

Kevin,

Please reconsider the suggestion of deleting the critical blog posts about your former employer.

There are no winners in that type of situation and it can taint all your efforts moving forward.
Stay positive.

Your website should only contain the positive attributes of your philosophy and your passion for your students. Zero negativity. In your attempt to differentiate yourself from your competitors it is easy to sound critical of them and this is always a losing strategy.

Re-work your site with the branding clarity others have suggested and remove all thing critical or negative. You are more likely to succeed by only speaking/writing positively.

just a thought.
But I was in this business a long time and probably made these exact mistakes.

Thanks Sue(I got your name from your website), I really appreciate that, honestly I thought nobody read my blog...now I have the whole piano world criticizing it, LOL. The articles were mostly for my own reference. I already have 2 other interviewees who've agreed to be interviewed and another one that I'll call tomorrow

I don't see you or other piano teachers as competitors either! And I think that's the problem, I see it as me warning others about a specific person, but some people see it as me bashing a "rival" or a "competitor". To be honest I find the whole "rival" view as comedic, because I don't feel that way at all.

Oh, and I'm talking about Cameron Tong, not Conrad Tao, LOL. Conrad Tao is a concert pianist, Cameron Tong is the ISM director.

I'm actually okay with some dissension over the Christian bit because that is who I am and I think websites for piano teachers shouldn't just serve as a lead generator but also a lead qualifier.

While it wasn't meant to be offensive, it does serve as a qualifier. The people who read that and are put off by it wouldn't be a good match for my studio anyway because that is who I am. I'm saving their time and my own time by being upfront about that on my website. Now the people who read that and are drawn by it? Well, those are the prospects I actually want to spend the time to set up an interview for.

With all that said...I do think finding this to be “extremely offensive” is a bit….extreme.

Hey AZNpiano, I'm glad you find the information on my site useful, I appreciate it. Like my reply to ezpiano, I didn't think anybody actually read it.

I agree with you, there definitely are good teachers at commercial music studios. Some of the teachers were great at Irvine School of Music too and we've become really good friends-part of the reason I decided against posting the review at a bigger site even though I urge potential students to seek the teachers out privately. Ultimately that is what every piano teacher at commercial music studios would want if they could. You just can't make a decent living teaching at commercial music studios, getting paid 40% of the lesson fee. It's the music studio owners here that tend to operate on the shady side, but even there I know a couple of great music studio owners.

You hit several good points over the head for sure.

Hi edhamgtr, I see what you mean, thanks for the advice. I will definitely consider it.

I'm starting to think I should have just posted the review on google and be done with it Just kidding. It's okay, everything happens for a reason and I definitely appreciate all the feedback I've gotten

Google or Angie's list or this forum are better places for a critical review. It's even ok on a blog, but the blog should be separate from your studio site.

As for the quality of the writing, my suggestion is to contact the University and hire an editor; a graduate student in the writing program could be perfect. Although if your audience is exclusively non-native speakers of English there may be no need to clean up the writing on the site.

Aren't all studios "commercial music studios?"

If a studio isn't commercial, then it's non-profit.

Also, there are a lot of different business models for commercial studios. I've worked for two. One was as an employee, and they offered retirement and health benefits. The other was as an independent contractor. The first was a community music school that rented facilities from a church. The second is inside a music store.

I'm sure this thread makes sense to people living in Irvine, but to me, I honestly have no idea what is meant by the phrase "commercial music studio" in this context. (It's sounding more and more like we're talking about a specific studio - Mr. Tao's, but then why not just name that particular one?)

There has been an incredible growth in music studios located in places like strip malls. They may have one credentialed teacher, but the rest are independent contractors that may or may not be qualified and try to ride on the coattails of the owner, who may or may not have scruples.

Here in California, this has become a real problem, especially in southern California. They are undercharging and pulling the business out from under the feet of the private teachers. The owner teacher is entering students in events under his or her name, but the teachers actually teaching the students aren't members. Eventually, parents might realize what's wrong, but more often than not, the child simply drops piano because they aren't making progress.

The other thing these studios do is steal students. Really. I've seen it in progress. I was in the lobby before a concert when one of these teachers went up to some middle school students and their parents and tried to solicit their business. I couldn't believe the claims they were making. I saw it happening and informed their teacher when she arrived.