In this episode, we're diving into the inspiring journey of Kristina Arellano, a dedicated music educator, independent studio owner, church musician, accompanist, and composer. Her love for composing and arranging, particularly in music education, has driven her to develop a new piano curriculum for beginning students, set to release in 2025. She shares the challenges she faced in balancing the creation and marketing of her method book, and how the Music Teacher Startup Course provided essential guidance in transforming her vision into reality. She also discusses her triumphs and invaluable lessons learned along her entrepreneurial journey. Tune in to hear her insights and advice for fellow music teachers looking to bring their creative projects to life.

• Kristina shared a brief overview of her background and her music studio in Wisconsin.


• Her entrepreneurial journey and how she was inspired by her mother’s wedding shop.


• Her method book creation, which focuses on a different approach to note reading and musicality.


• What her piano curriculum entails, including her note reading approach.


• Effectiveness and expansion of her method, including the potential to help other teachers facing similar challenges.


• Importance of marketing and messaging, focusing on the unique aspects of her curriculum.


• Kristina emphasizes her research into marketing strategies used by other independent composers.


• She shared a personal and emotional story about a car accident in 2018, which led to a near-death experience.


• How the Music Teacher Startup Course helped her understand the big picture of creating and marketing a product, including the steps and scope involved.


• The value of understanding the market, validation, and marketing strategies.


• Some challenges in business and marketing.


• Advice for other teachers who wants to create their own product or business.


• Kristina shared her appreciation for TopMusicPro Membership.


• The current state and her future plans for her method book.

Guest Links Mentioned

• Kristina Arellano Website


• Kristina Arellano LinkedIn


• Connect with Kristina at KAPianoMethod@gmail.com


• See sample pages of Kristina's method book at topmusic.co/kristina

Links Mentioned

• Register for the 3 Secrets Workshop here


• Find out more about the Music Teacher Startup Course here

Today’s Guest

Kristina Arellano is a music educator, independent studio owner, church musician, accompanist, and composer. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Church Music and a Master’s Degree in Ethnomusicology. She enjoys exploring music from all over the world and participates in contra and international folk dancing. She loves composing and arranging music, with a primary focus on music education and a passion for developing new curriculum. With an interest in sharing her compositions and music curriculum with the wider world, Kristina enrolled in the Music Teacher Startup course in 2019. Her current project is a novel piano curriculum for beginning students with an expected release date in 2025.

Today's Sponsor

Alfred Music, the leader in music education for over 100 years, produces educational, reference, pop, and performance materials for teachers, students, professionals, and hobbyists spanning every musical instrument, style, and difficulty level. Alfred Music is located in Colorado, with offices around the world, including Germany, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

Since 1922, Alfred Music has been dedicated to helping people learn, teach, and play music. Alfred Music currently has over 150,000 active titles and represents a wide range of well-known publications —from methods like Alfred’s Basic Guitar, Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, Premier Piano Course, Sound Innovations, and Suzuki, to artists like Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, and The Rolling Stones, to brands like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, and Billboard.

In addition to its own titles, Alfred Music distributes products from over 150 companies, including Advance Music, Belwin, Edition Peters, The FJH Music Company Inc., Faber Music, Jamey Aebersold Jazz, and LudwigMasters Publications. Alfred Music is now also paired with MakeMusic, which is part of Peaksware Holdings, LLC portfolio of companies, to transform how music is composed, published, taught, learned, and performed by bringing together the leaders in educational music publishing and music technology.

Visit their website at https://www.alfred.com/.

Exclusive Discount for Podcast Listeners

Exclusively for TopCast listeners, go to alfred.com/podcast and use code TopMusic at checkout to save 30% on these titles and everything else on alfred.com.

Thank you for tuning in!

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