Before I founded my music school, Expressions Music Academy in 2010 (which I have since grown to 5 locations, 2,000+ students and 115+ teachers), I was a full-time piano teacher maintaining 50+ students.
Since that time, I have been obsessed with developing programs to help motivate students to practice harder and essentially... not quit lessons.
In 2012, I launched my most successful program to date called the "Black Belt Achievement Program". In this simple program, students were encouraged to complete levels 1-10 by passing 3 official songs from each level. The program was a HUGE success in my school, and since that time, our growth exploded and retention rates improved. I pulled an extensive survey in my own school in 2016 with some impressive statistics including these highlights:
47% of parents chose 5 on a scale of 1-5 rating how much more motivated their child was to practice at home as a result of the Black Belt program. 31% chose a rating of 4.
58.5% said Black Belt was the reason they remained a student at our school!!!
81% of parents said the best possible enhancement we could add to the program was more non-song assignment options and an app to better track the program. So we listened!
We added more non-song assignment options, created the app, changed the name to Level Up, and now are offering it to you!