Tonara Review: Six Weeks In

After hearing other teachers rave about Tonara, an innovative practice app designed for music teachers, I decided to take the plunge and test it out this year. We’re about six weeks in to the semester now and I’m loving the results.

If you’re a music teacher considering switching over, here’s a quick rundown of my experience thus far.

Transition Process

At the start of the semester, I sent an email giving parents of younger students the option to switch to Tonara or continue receiving their assignments via My Music Staff. Since we’re all going through a huge learning curve of adapting to distance learning and lots of new tech for schools, I didn’t want to contribute to more tech overwhelm by forcing a transition to a new app at the same time, and I figured the best system for sharing assignments is one they will actually check, so offering the choice seemed the best way to go. I let teen and tween students with their own devices make the decision themselves, and all of them said an app would be easier than email (thanks digital generation!). For all students switching over, we spent a few minutes at their first lesson getting the app downloaded and set up, and then touring a few of the features together.

Sending Assignments

I’ll be honest, the first couple weeks transitioning over felt super overwhelming as I tried to figure out how to fit Tonara’s assignment system into my workflow. The app allows teachers to create a library of pre-made assignments and attach any necessary images, links, reminder notes, and practice goals, like this:

Once you’ve created an assignment, you can save it in your library and quickly assign it to students. Eventually, this feature saves a ton of time for teachers that use similar repertoire and materials with many different students- once you’ve inputted the name of the piece, you can just click and assign to any student working on the piece, without re-entering the info.

Pro: This system is particularly wonderful for my Piano Safari students that need access to reminder videos for rote pieces, and for sharing supplemental music in pdf form (with appropriate copyright licensing of course!). Everything they need to access is linked right there in the app, I don’t have to send a separate email with links, and I’m not copy-pasting the link to the Charlie Chipmunk reminder video over and over every time I teach it.

Con: But. That means there’s a lot of front-loaded data entry needed to make this feature useful. That wasn’t something I’d fully anticipated before switching over, which meant a lot of extra time in the first few weeks spent getting assignments ready to send. If I could go back in time, I’d dedicate a few hours before the start of the semester to pre-enter assignments for some of my most common method books and give myself a head start on that bit.

Pro: Over time I’ve gradually got more and more assignments saved, and now I can generally update the student’s assignment list during their online lesson, just as I’d do with an assignment binder for in person lessons, which means fewer late-night data-entry sessions of sending assignments after a long teaching day.

Student Features

Tonara offers an in-app messaging system for students to ask questions during the week, plus lots of cute motivational stickers and emojis.

Pro: I was not expecting to love this feature as much as I do. Not all my students are using it, but for those that do, it’s provided a quick and easy way to clear up any confusion about assignments during the week and make sure they know what to practice and how. The student in the conversation above says she particularly loves the stickers, so we have fun sending cute images back and forth

Pro: The app also allows students to track practice time during the week, earn points, and compete on a studio leader board. I’ve generally moved away from extrinsic motivators in my studio so haven’t emphasized that feature too much, but I’ve got a few students that are really into getting points and competing with their colleagues. Tonara has been a godsend for those students, and I’m seeing a definite uptick in practice and lesson preparedness from them.

Summary

The combination of messaging, clear and organized assignments, and practice points have been great for the students that have opted in to using Tonara, and as I get more organized and comfortable with the interface, I’m seeing more time saving benefits for me as well. Like any tool, it works better for some students than others; in my studio at least, there’s a bit of a bell curve with a few students really loving it, the majority using it fairly well, and a few that barely remember to check. But that’s going to be true of any organization system, and I’ve just barely started scratching the surface of some of the more creative assignment and engagement ideas I’ve seen other teachers using. Overall, I would definitely recommend purchasing a subscription, especially for teachers that are teaching piano online due to Covid.