I don’t know about you, but I like to know what’s around the bend and there’s nothing like a pandemic to make that desire even stronger.  I also know that necessity breeds innovation and while the future is blurry, the vision is clear. New ways of learning are here to stay.

Creativity can’t be stifled amongst those that have ideas and pandemic teaching has brought forth many valuable ideas amongst my fellow private music teachers.  We connect through social media, create groups to share them with as well as express the woes and successes that we feel teaching online for the first time.

Shortly after the pandemic started I felt a strong pull to create something new to help me continue to offer what I desire for my students.  The platform I was using felt limited and I was using what felt like a hundred different apps just to keep myself and my students/parents organized.  My sister was feeling the same and we connected with interested developers/entrepreneurs pretty early on to help create Muze. 

The question I get a lot of the time is, why create a platform when the pandemic will be over soon and we’ll all go back to normal?  Well, that is a great question.  My answer is that Muze is the kind of platform that I would have loved to have as a teacher early on in my career.  It organizes my studio in a way that I would have probably never had achieved if COVID-19 hadn’t slammed into our lives.  I plan on using it as a teaching/learning companion for myself and my students long-term whether I’m in person or teaching virtually.  

I’ve been reading a lot about how the pandemic has changed the workforce.  There is a significant portion of our population that loves working from home, loves being close to their families and loves the simplicity of being able to walk from the breakfast table to their offices for work.  54% to be exact according to the Pew Research Center.  That’s a lot of people and I’d venture to guess that the percentage is similar amongst music teachers.  Many teachers are considering a hybrid approach to their teaching and Muze will allow them the flexibility to easily shift gears whether they are in-person or online.

Muze is comprised of a team of musicians, experienced teachers and developers constantly brainstorming ways to make our experience better for students and teachers.  While I can’t see the future, I know that we now have more tools available to us as teachers and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to bring something new to our music education community.