Teacher & Clerk | Aug 2013 - Jun 2018
Main Tasks:
Full Process (Teacher):
There are three main areas in the music studio:
Due to the fact that I was RCM 7 prior to teaching, I was tasked to teach the advance students 95% of the time. So I will be focusing on the description of teaching the advanced section. Every 8 years the RCM curriculumn changes so we have to adapt our teachings to better guide the students to advance in Piano RCM. We have a set of flashcards that goes from:
After recording the time it took for each student to complete the flashcards we go into scales ("Do-Rei-Mi") that falls into the RCM curriculumn. If scales are not up to expectations we will guide the students on techniques to learn how to play them, correctly, and up to tempo (the speed of playing) standards.
It is now time for practical playing. Teachers generally listen to 2 songs from each students or up to ~10 mins, which ever comes first. They then provide insights on if it qualifies as a pass or not. Passing is determined by if the students followed along well with the appropiate tempo (speed), rythymn, expression (designed intention of the musical piece), and dynamics (volume changes) presented by the RCM books. On the chance that students decide to part-take in the official RCM exam for their grades the marking will be more seriously. Passing a song in RCM means a student can further advance in the RCM books, which gives the incentive for students to continue their learning.
We end it off with ear training (counting rythymns and replicating a melody while not seeing it initially) and sight reading (student reads a musical piece for the first time and play how it's intended). Teachers reveal answers afterward and provide insights. At the end of the hourly class, teacher's setup the new schedule for the next batch of students.
Full Process (Clerk):
Clerks are the only people who are authorized to open unless stated given temperorary permission. Upon opening they must power on all pianos and check inventories such as more books or missing headphones. They must do a quick inspection of each piano to ensure all keys are functioning. Clerks tend to show up 20 minutes before opening. They also check voice messages and emails for anything unexpected such as, reported absence. For the previous day, we check attendance and call/email any unexcused absences and reschedule if needed.
Clerks must handle any new students that want to enroll for piano lessons, therefore I must explain policies, promotional sales, and teachings to new students or guardian and register contact details to the database system. Payments are either monthly or buy 10 and get one free, clerks must be made aware of that and take in payments cash or card. The usual payments that customers line up for are: renewing lessons or buying the next piano books.
For every hour the I must go to the beginner's circle and time flashcards to each student. This serves as a double check system for the new students and even though I am aware from my front desk, I must also be readily avaiable for any incoming customers at the line up phone calls. Clerks at the end of every month will generate a report of all employee work schedule and issue them a cheque, and for closing, I must power off all pianos and record daily sales.
Insights:
My most favourite job of all time! That is where I am going to start. I loved everything about it. I love playing the piano. I love sharing my skills to people. I love to see other ways of learning the same topic. I love it when I come up with new teaching metheods that students can grasp onto. The list of "I love..." can go much longer, but this is the important one, I love seeing that I had an impact in a student's learning. As of Jan 2024 and 24 years of my life, this was the job that I have stayed the longest in a employee setting. This job encouraged me to think outside of the box constantly and inspired me to even privately tutour piano and translated multiple pop songs onto the piano sheets, you can see them here {link coming soon}.
You can see view a sample of my own personal piano books that I made here {link coming soon}.
Being a teacher and clerk may seem repetitive to the masses and can be labelled as eventually boring to some, however they fail to realize that students develop both maturity and appreciation to learning. That is what makes teaching interesting and ever-changing. Enjoyed the environment so much, showed me what it is like to take leadership, and would consider any acceptance to any teaching jobs, both educationally or music.
Video Editor & Broadcastor | Oct 2016 - Apr 2018
Main Tasks:
Full Process:
Route Carrier | Sep 2010 - Mar 2012
Main Tasks:
Full Process:
Every Wednesday morning, around 6AM, a delivery driver would deliver a pile of newspapers with advertisement flyers in a seperate pile. Newspapers were your standard weekly news within the city while the flyers tend to be store flyers or coupons. They also gave a data sheet of home addresses that have requested no newspapers to be delivered to their houses; via the sign on their mailbox saying "No Junk Mail" or "No Flyers".
After manually inserting flyers into 300+ newspapers, I am tasked to deliver them to mailboxes based on my given route; generally the route assigned is always the same and tends your nearby area. Upon completing my route, I now have to markdown how many newspapers are remaining and notify the newspaper company if there were any new mailboxes that don't or now want their papers. This process is required so that they can assure an appropiate amount of papers are delivered to my doorstep for the upcoming weeks. They usually send 5% more.
Finally, I calculate my pay:
Here is a documented example that appears to be consistent:
During the 2010 timeframe direct deposit was not as a common way of paying. I got a check instead through the mail. Bi-weekly payment that is.
Insights:
This was my very first job. Yes, at the bare minimum, meaning no flyers are sent, would indicate a payment of ~$30/week, while working for 5 to 6 hrs a week it does not matter! Why? Simple. I was a 10 year old kid. BAM!
Working as a Route Carrier for the Examiner exposed me to what it is like to earn an income and that asking my mom for a toy "that is only $10" made me see that working for 2 hours of labour equated to the cost of that toy, and I should consider something of more value to spent on my income. Time to time when I go shopping digitally or locally I can't stop thinking about:
I am sure we can concur that this job is labour intensive and maybe seen as not worth, even if the pay was converted to today's value. We think this because we have to manually insert flyer(s) into each newspaper; which you don't get paid for, carry around a heavy cart of the sorted papers in the freezing cold or super hot days, and walk into properties to put the paper in the mailboxes all of that just for at least 10 cents. My mom made a joke that I could just find a bunch of bottles around downtown and make even more, arguably less intensive. She is right to believe that. Again, this was my first job and it taught me the importance of time spent to work for an income at a pre-teen age.
I will end off on this note:
Yeah, I saw a bunch of cute pups.