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8 Things This Composer Learned From Creating His First Course

Dec 29, 2023

Hans Indigo Spencer has always been a music lover during his high school years. He composed music as a pianist and played saxophone as well as dreamed of becoming an accomplished musician.

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In the following years, he earned an undergraduate degree in composition. He then pursued an advanced degree in jazz performance. After that, he formed a group in Boston. "Along my journey I've composed for major ensembles, worked as a choreographer, and also for television documentaries" He shares his experiences with .

While working on his various side projects, Spencer became passionate about the teaching of music in elementary schools. While completing his master's program, he learned about something known as the Kodaly pedagogy, which is an approach developed by the Hungarian composer and ethnographer Zoltan Kodaly. This pedagogy was the foundation of his education to kids at Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In the present, he is a teacher of ear training to musicians at The University of Southern Maine.

After the attack of covid the road, his entire university teaching was moved online. This was a great opportunity for him to master Final Cut Pro so that the ability to edit and film the teaching material. Inspired by his new skills, he decided to create a side hustle---specifically so that he could create a course that would make learning to play by ear as organic and enjoyable for grown ups as it was in the classroom with his elementary school students.

The Accelerator program is an annual live course created to assist creators in creating and sell their online course by step and with confidence.The result was that he designed the course Holistic Ear Training for Busy People. created to assist people in playing the piano "with an unpredictability which lets their imaginations run wild," as described by his.

While his program has only been live for less than four months and the enrolling rate has been sporadic, he's learned a ton along the way--much of which will help others who are first-time creators discover their own way to online course success. "It's been an arduous, slow process," Spencer reveals. "Along the way I'm studying marketing, and doing things that I've never done before. It's just in the process of getting off the runway. ."

Here are some essential steps he used to create his very first online course

He has strategically packaged his course

In the process of selecting the most appropriate e-learning platform He spent the day conducting research. "Then, once I got on , I just stayed on it," he says.

He began his program in August 2023. "It's not fully constructed yet," he shares. "I'm building it out with the few people who are taking it ."

In total, there are ten chapters. Each chapter has around 20 minutes of content--with the chapters varying in length and longer. "It begins slowly, in order that students can begin slow and continue to learn for a long time," he continues. "This course is really about cultivating perception and awareness of playing by ear over time and being able to connect with music that you really care about. This naturally requires a certain time ."

"The course is packaged with a format that ensures it's a blend of audio-only and video material," adds Spencer. "The idea is that you could download the audio, as well as everything, even the videos, as audio-only. That way, you can listen while walking the dog or drive, or workout. ."

He started a school community

For Spencer the group that he provides for his students is as essential to their education as the content of his course. "It's where interaction between myself and students could be a reality," he explains.

For the purpose of the class the students select a song they like, and then they are taught how to recognize the "spine" of the song by decoding every key. "You need to be able to discern the note's sound before you can find the note," he says. "That's where the community is into the picture. The class you attend, you tell me what song you want to work on Then we get to work together. As a member of the community I guide students to find the solutions ."

His course was geared to a particular, specific target audience

In his book's title --Holistic Ear Training for busy people, Spencer's course is geared towards a specific audience. "Busy individuals are those who feel like they don't have the time to learn a new instrument, or they have an interest in music but have too many things to do," he explains.

"In the Accelerator program, we spoke about market fit for products and the importance of titling products so that they can be interpreted as who it's for," continues Spencer. "That seems to be an important marketing strategy. ."

With regard to demographics, Spencer did some testing to see who exactly these "busy people" are and how they interact with his content. To do so Spencer released content via social media posts and advertisements. "Presently, it seems that the people who engage with my ads are men older than sixty," the author explains. "I could not have imagined that, but those are the people who've been taken a bite ."

For other content he's posted, he says it is not a mix of men and women.

He believed completely in what he's teaching

While his students have been beginning to slow, Spencer is confident in his course and the power of the information he offers. "I believe in what I'm doing and that's why the people who have similar programs don't possess the credibility and pedagogical authority to make it work like I do," he says. "I'm highly confident, because of my education, I have an unique combination of curriculum design skills and knowledge of how to compose music over a long timing ."

"I wouldn't like to set the shingle in a place that I wasn't sure of what I was doing," adds Spencer. "You have to be aware of how to speak about it and then bring depth ."

Furthermore, believing in the course He is teaching will help him to promote the course. "I can't sell soda or pottery, but I'm able to market this course since it's in my bone structure," He says confidently.

To up his intake of students, he plans on relaunching his Facebook ad campaign using some of the videos created over the course of summer. "So so far, I've only seen a couple of nibbles coming from the advertisement, which feels good," he says.

The instructor priced his courses in an accessible method

He chose to price the course at $98 USD. When choosing the price the instructor compared his course to some competitors. He then decided that he wanted to choose a more accessible price than the other options so that he could get people into the program and keep testing the program.

He uses  Payments, so that--like Communities--everything is under one roof. "I already have  Mailchimp, Zapier, Meta and even my own site. It would have been excessive to create another payment method," he states.

His goal is to be profitable enough to pay for the business. The goal is to reach at least 100 active users in the coming two quarters. He would then like to create an advanced level course that has more advanced content, in order to allow students to continue through the next class. "In Level 2 I'd like to share the things I've done to enhance my own hearing," shares Spencer. "It would be a master level type of course. ."

He enlisted help

Spencer's most challenging learning curve has been wrapping his head around marketing. "They don't show the art of marketing in music school," he laughs. "Learning how to feel comfortable at home with marketing has taken my a long time. ."

Social media is described by him as being "maddening" as well as "time-consuming" at times. He is fortunate to have two assistants on a temporary basis. One assists him with his social media accounts, while the second assists with high-level funnel design. "I have found these folks through Upwork and have really enjoyed."

In fact, one aspect he'd like to have done differently is to hire earlier. "Part of what I've learned as a musician and composer is that I attempt to complete everything on my own," he reveals. "I consider that if could have had more assistance earlier, it could have been helpful ."

"In my experience I've seen so many tiny pieces to put together between producing social media-related content, learning how to repurpose content, understanding how to link the content to the curriculum content, and learning how to handle every interface of MailChimp and , Meta as well as Google," he says. "You need to complete the same tasks over and over again until you become comfortable and don't require as many hours, or employ someone else to assist you.

He writes all his contents himself, like newsletters, the content of his courses advertising, and course content.

He updates his students via email about the latest methods or lessons included in the class. The students who sign up through his lead magnet are on another email list and get sent the series of five emails which direct to free classes in hopes of encouraging students to enroll in the paid course.

He is planning to use Instagram, Facebook ads, along with Google search terms to promote his courses.

He created free classes as lead magnets

When asked about his customer experience, he admits that it's not finished. He has more the work of making it more refined.

At present, he is running two Facebook ads, which are video clips of him instructing. The message on these ads is to take free classes. He is also taking advantage of a feature that allows students to take a few lessons for free. "My theory is that those who click on the ads will get an experience that is directly related to my work," he shares.

Spencer gives these free classes that are scattered across the course so that once people are inside, they are able to browse through every single piece of content for free. He then has Zapier installed that can send the information to Mailchimp that takes them on an automated five-email journey. These emails direct the customer or prospective customer to look at certain different features in the course.

He played around with HTML0.

A big part of Spencer's first online course creation is being open to new ideas.

"Everything can be an experiment" He says. "If there aren't many plays in an Instagram video, it's not because it's poor. There are videos that get 11,000 views, and others have 25. What can I do to try to test? It is possible to examine the approach to marketing and I can determine if there's something I'm not being clear about ."

Even though Spencer hasn't had instant overnight successes (which the majority of first-time course designers don't see right away! This is a lengthy game and you must remember that) He is committed to the process and is passionate about the information he hopes to pass on. "If you're compelled to impart your knowledge, I honestly believe that there is an audience who will appreciate it," he concludes.

Ready to turn your expertise into revenue? Your own audience--and online course--awaits. Sign up for now for a free trial and experience what you think.