The Fourforty (440) with Eric Branner

Some studios are booked solid. Some are rebuilding. Eric walks through eight questions to find your gap: landscape, network, who you serve, offerings, sales, marketing, retention, and you. Rate yourself, pick 1-2 areas to work on, and be a little better today than yesterday. 🌊 Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive...

Brian Witkowski (The Lucrative Voice) joins Eric to talk about why great teachers leave studios, how to price with confidence, and a new federal rule that could reshape music education. Structural thinking for studio owners who want to build something that lasts. Learn More About Brian's work here. Website Substack LinkedIn Facebook Instagram 🌊 Connect with us: Join a supportive community fo...

Shirley XiaoLing Wang moved from Taiwan to Los Angeles at fifteen, arrived without knowing English, and found her way back to her own voice through opera. Today she is an operatic soprano, two-time TEDx speaker, keynote concert speaker, and creator of The HUMAN Language™, a body of work built around one question: what changes when we become curious about the human being behind the words. In this c...

"What's your philosophy on teaching?" After an adult student unexpectedly asked me this question, I realized that after nearly 30 years of teaching, my answer had very little to do with any particular method. In this episode, I explore growth mindset, deliberate practice, curiosity, culture, artistry, and why ultimately I’m less interested in creating “good guitarists” than in helpi...

Connor Chee made his Carnegie Hall debut at 12, trained at Eastman and the University of Cincinnati's Conservatory, and was on track to be a concert pianist. Then he went home to Arizona, reconnected with his grandfather, a Navajo Hataalii (healer and medicine man) who carried hundreds of traditional chants in memory, and started arranging them for piano. This inflection point became a career...

If traditional marketing avenues don't feel wonderful to you, if daily posting feels exhausting, if asking for referrals feels awkward, this episode is for you. Eric shares a personal framework built from two decades of teaching and building MakeMusic Studio (formerly Fons): the most effective marketing strategy for most music teachers isn't a strategy at all. It's caring, rabidly a...

John Kozicki quit a marketing career and a touring band to teach guitar. He then built two music schools around a single conviction: students play longer, learn more, and have more fun when they're playing with other people. John is the founder of Michigan Rock School in Oakland County, Michigan, and the host of the Rock School Proprietor Podcast. He's built two schools from the ground u...

In this solo episode, Eric shares three things that have been on his mind. First, the story of Fons becoming MakeMusic Studio, from a 2016 studio management platform built for his own guitar students, through the years of growth, becoming part of the Peaksware brand family, and what the rebrand means for the community who uses it. Second, an encouragement for joining a professional organization, e...

Jason Sifford is a piano teacher, composer, and performer based in Iowa City. He runs an independent studio, writes pedagogical music published by Willis/Hal Leonard and FJH Music, composes original musical theater for a children's theater program that now reaches hundreds of kids across Iowa, and recently joined the MTNA Board of Trustees as West-Central Division Director. He also just launc...

Leila Viss has spent her career helping musicians find and trust their own creative voice. In this conversation, she shares the philosophy behind Space to Create, what her son’s accident taught her about music and grief, and why the opposite of anxiety is creativity. This episode is a must-listen for creatives, educators, and humans... Here's the blog post about her recent recital! Learn more...

What does a contemporary, thriving music career actually look like? Roberto Hermosillo has built it. He's a GRAMMY-nominated guitarist, studio musician, songwriter, TV actor, and the owner of Roberto's Music Studio, a boutique lessons agency in Santa Monica. In this conversation, Roberto and Eric talk honestly about the multi-hyphenate life: balancing artistry with entrepreneurship, ditc...

Jaci Mrozek just took the entire month of May off, and she's still getting paid. In this conversation, she walks us through exactly how she built a system to support her "radical sabbatical." Jaci is a piano teacher, presenter, and host of The Scrappy Piano Teacher Podcast. She's been teaching for 28 years and has spent the last several helping independent music teachers build...

Narciso Solero spent 30 years developing a framework in his head before he finally put it on paper. The result is Level It Up!, a series that organizes composers' piano repertoire from easiest to most advanced. Level It Up! has attracted teachers from across the country. In this episode, Narciso shares how the series came to be, what it means for teachers navigating the vast piano canon, and...

Elizabeth Swift didn't start composing until well into her teaching career. She wasn't trained to improvise. And the first time someone handed her a lead sheet and said "just noodle for a few minutes," she broke into a cold sweat. Today she is a composer published by Alfred Music, the creator of the Saga Land series,(video game-inspired piano music now used in studios nationwid...

Anne Katherine Davis teaches piano from Mexico to students and teachers across the world.  Her approach is unlike what you’ll find in standard method books. Grounded in Edwin Gordon's Music Learning Theory, Anne is passionate about audiation: the idea that real musicianship is thinking in music, not about it. In this episode, she and Eric unpack why the 'eyes before ears' approach h...

Tim Topham, founder of TopMusicCo and author of No Book Beginners, joins Eric to talk about creative teaching, the four pillars of modern piano pedagogy, the challenge of keeping students engaged in the age of TikTok, and why in-person community might be the most important investment music teachers can make right now. Learn more about Tim's work here. topmusic.co YouTube Facebook LinkedIn Ins...

Dr. Lisa Neher didn’t choose one lane. She’s an opera singer, composer, professor, private studio teacher, actor, and President of New Wave Opera... and she does all of it at a high level. In this conversation, we explore what it actually looks like to follow your curiosity into a multi-dimensional career in the arts. Lisa shares: Why she didn’t follow a traditional conservatory path How she navig...

Tony Parlapiano is the creator of popMATICS , an online music school built on a simple but powerful idea: great music education lives at the intersection of structure and freedom . In this episode, Tony shares how popMATICS evolved from private and travel teaching into a membership-based, community-driven music school for adults. He talks candidly about the moment he hit a financial ceiling, why a...

There’s a lot of excitement right now, and also a lot of anxiety in the music lessons industry. After returning from the NAMM Show and talking with teachers and industry leaders, I’m still wildly optimistic about the future of teaching private music lessons. In this solo episode, I share why the demand for music learning isn’t going away, what the data actually shows about instruments and lessons,...

Brian Chung has lived a rare kind of career—one where music and business were never opposites, but partners. In this wide-ranging and deeply human conversation, Brian shares the full arc of his journey: from a five-year-old who wrote “musician” in his childhood memory book, to a performer, educator, and eventually Senior Vice President of Kawai America Corporation, where he spent over three decade...

What does a truly professional music teaching practice look like in 2026? In this episode of The FourForty Podcast, I’m joined by Michael Richey, owner of Tennessee Music Academy, a multi-teacher, in-home music studio serving Nashville families. Michael shares how he’s built a calm, sustainable, high-trust studio by making a few clear decisions and sticking to them. We talk about flat-rate tuition...

Candace Lark-Masucci is a harpist, educator, and musicians’ life coach helping artists build careers that are emotionally grounded, mentally healthy, and financially sustainable. In this deeply honest conversation, Candace shares her journey from aspiring ballerina to concert harpist, through burnout, illness, and identity loss—and how those experiences shaped her work coaching musicians today. We...

Brian Shepard, CEO of the Music Teachers National Association, joins the FourForty Podcast for a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation about the past, present, and future of music teaching. As MTNA approaches its 150th anniversary, Brian reflects on the organization’s founding mission, the role of community and association in a digital age, and why studio music teachers remain essential cultural l...

In this solo episode, Eric explores gratitude as a critical skill for musicians, educators, and creative entrepreneurs. Practice a guided meditation,  hear stories from the studio, and craft your own gratitude statement.  This one is especially for the days when your hands hurt, your students aren’t practicing, or a few families just left —and for remembering why you chose this musical life in the...

In this episode, Eric talks with guitarist and entrepreneur Anthony Sloan: co-founder and CEO of the Sloan School of Music. What started as a family idea grew into a two-location music school, retail operation, and community hub offering more than 30,000 lessons a year. Anthony shares the full story: building a business with friends, creating a welcoming “coffeehouse” atmosphere, attracting and re...