The Fourforty (440) with Eric Branner

The FourForty Podcast is where musicians and music teachers share their journeys as educators, entrepreneurs, and creative leaders. Each conversation explores the real work of building a meaningful career in music... and the impact it makes beyond the studio.

The Fourforty (440) with Eric Branner is a business podcast hosted by Eric Branner, with 39 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Eric Branner hosts The Fourforty (440) with Eric Branner, a business show with 39 episodes published.

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  Episode #38

  Building a Compounding Studio with Brian Witkowski

  Sep 28, 20261h 3mS3

  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 for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers & creatives Follow on Instagram: @makemusicstudio Learn more about MakeMusic Studio (Formerly Fons)

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  The Fourforty (440) with Eric Branner

  What Now? An Interview with Shirley XiaoLing Wang

  Sep 9, 20261h 1m

  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 conversation, Shirley and Eric talk about teaching immigrant teenagers to take up space through breath and sound, why persona and performance can be a path to authenticity rather than a detour from it, and what she is learning right now as she rebuilds her voice through a years-long recovery from Lyme disease. This episode is about intentionally harnessing the connective and nurturing power of music. Learn more about Shirley's work here. Website Linktree Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers & creatives Follow on Instagram: @makemusicstudio Learn more about MakeMusic Studio (Formerly Fons)

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  Episode #35

  Why I Don't Care If You Become a Good Guitarist

  Aug 25, 202628 minS3

  "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 helping people become curious, expressive, engaged human beings. Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers & creatives Follow on Instagram: @makemusicstudio Learn more about MakeMusic Studio (Formerly Fons)

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  Episode #34

  A Song in Any Key with Connor Chee

  Aug 12, 202657 minS3

  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: five albums, a commission honoring the Navajo Code Talkers, and a growing catalog of piano works, including Sand Paintings, published by Alfred Music. In this conversation, Connor and Eric talk about composing by ear, the challenge of writing music for beginning students, his journey from prodigy concert pianist to celebrated Navajo composer, and projects like working with the Frances Clark Center commissioning Indigenous composers for elementary piano students. Learn more about Connor's work here. www.connorchee.com TikTok Instagram Facebook Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers & creatives Follow on Instagram: @makemusicstudio Learn more about MakeMusic Studio (Formerly Fons)

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  Episode #33

  Care Is the Strategy

  Jul 28, 202631 minS2

  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 and voraciously, about the people you already serve. Eric tells the stories about how single moments of care ripple through a community and grow a studio more effectively than any flyer or ad could He talks about noticing what shoes his students wore, just to understand them better, and how that small attention became part of his brand. He shares ten years of hosting an annual recital called the Guitarbecue, cooking for a guest list of 200, and how that one event was his entire marketing strategy without ever feeling like one. Eric draws on three books that shaped how he thinks about business: Seth Godin's This Is Marketing, Lisa Earle McLeod's Selling With Noble Purpose, and Simon Sinek's The Infinite Game. He also shares a moment watching Suzuki guitar veteran Mary Lou Roberts teach, and how her unwavering belief in the medium itself was more compelling than any technique she demonstrated. If you've ever felt like you should be doing more marketing and it just doesn't feel like you, this episode offers a different path: focus on the people in front of you, and let the story take care of the rest. Connect with us: Join a supportive community for teachers & creatives at the Fons Family Facebook Group a supportive community for teachers & creatives Follow on Instagram: @makemusicstudio Learn more about MakeMusic Studio (Formerly Fons)

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