The Fourforty (440) with Eric Branner

Some studios are booked solid. Some are rebuilding. Eric walks through eight questions to find your gap: landscape, network, who you serve, offerings, sales, marketing, retention, and you. Rate yourself, pick 1-2 areas to work on, and be a little better today than yesterday. 🌊 Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers & creativesFollow on Instagram: @makemusicstudioLearn more about Ma...

Brian Witkowski (The Lucrative Voice) joins Eric to talk about why great teachers leave studios, how to price with confidence, and a new federal rule that could reshape music education. Structural thinking for studio owners who want to build something that lasts. Learn More About Brian's work here. Website Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram 🌊 Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers &a...

Shirley XiaoLing Wang moved from Taiwan to Los Angeles at fifteen, arrived without knowing English, and found her way back to her own voice through opera. Today she is an operatic soprano, two-time TEDx speaker, keynote concert speaker, and creator of The HUMAN Language™, a body of work built around one question: what changes when we become curious about the human being behind the words. In this conversation, Shirley and Eric talk about teaching immigrant teenagers to take up space through...

"What's your philosophy on teaching?" After an adult student unexpectedly asked me this question, I realized that after nearly 30 years of teaching, my answer had very little to do with any particular method. In this episode, I explore growth mindset, deliberate practice, curiosity, culture, artistry, and why ultimately I’m less interested in creating “good guitarists” than in helping people become curious, expressive, engaged human beings. 🌊 🌊 Connect with us: Join a supportive community for...

Connor Chee made his Carnegie Hall debut at 12, trained at Eastman and the University of Cincinnati's Conservatory, and was on track to be a concert pianist. Then he went home to Arizona, reconnected with his grandfather, a Navajo Hataalii (healer and medicine man) who carried hundreds of traditional chants in memory, and started arranging them for piano. This inflection point became a career: five albums, a commission honoring the Navajo Code Talkers, and a growing catalog of piano works, in...