Jazz began with African American musicians in the early 1900s. Despite some less reputable beginnings, this mix of European, Latin, and African American musical styles led to many of the popular music genres today, like R&B and rock and roll. Jazz is an American classical music genre.
As you can hear, jazz music creates complicated melodies and rhythms. It’s difficult to define but you learn to know it when you hear it. It also has heavy lean into improvisation and syncopation, which leads to its unique sounds. Because of those two qualities, jazz isn’t meant to be read on a page of music but experienced live.
The ‘Roaring 20s,’ also known as the Jazz Age, are long past, but jazz is still very alive and very American. Below is the playlist for our students to learn more about jazz.
We’re keeping up with the demands of our music community. We needed more space, and now we have created two new lesson rooms. With these new lesson rooms, we can now teach two drum lessons at once!
This renovation took us a while. We needed a wall, a door, some electrical outlets, and lights – not to mention some attention to the sound. If you didn’t guess, music schools can be very loud places.
As we got our first estimates last summer – original idea was in early 2023 – we looked to contractors to help us with the work. We chose Spectrum Builders who are local in our Gahanna Blacklick area, partly because we love investing in the area around us but also because we found Ross (one of the owners) to be extremely knowledgeable about sound attenuation and the Gahanna permit requirements. We were willing to wait to get the project done right with the builder who suited us best, and we’re finally ready to unveil the results.
This is lesson room 8.
This is lesson room 9.
These lesson rooms are ready to go and we’re very happy with our renovation. Thank you, Spectrum Builders, and also to our patient students for giving us time to get it done right. Let the lessons commence!
Hi. I’m your favorite MTMS blogger. I have two kids who have both been students of Michelle Tuesday Music School. Recently I picked up the guitar and asked myself why I’m not taking lessons.
Part of that is an easy answer, right? I work full-time, and I get my kids in lessons to enrich them for the future. My thoughts aren’t centered on what my own goals and dreams are, so I sometimes forget to take the time out of my day to do them. I’m slowly changing that attitude.
Fun fact: Michelle taught me my first guitar lesson in 2008, before she opened the school, on her guitar. I’m not focusing on how much better I’d be if I’d started real lessons with her then. I’m enjoying that I can play some now.
There’s difficult things along my journey. While I learned piano and trumpet when I was younger and my parents reminded me to practice daily, now I’m learning to practice when my kids can hear me. They haven’t started goading me into it, and I beat myself up for skipping a day when I had family stuff to do or I had to work on other projects.
One of the cool parts about taking a piece of my day for myself is that I’m happier. It’s a fun thing that sometimes gets sandwiched between the laundry and the dishes and I look forward to playing. Once I left my guitar on the bed for a few minutes to take care of something and the cat played a string by plucking it with his teeth. I’m waiting for that to happen again, but it hasn’t yet.
Enrichment and fulfillment don’t end when we become adults. Yes, we need to do give our kids the opportunities, but don’t forget yourself when we’re busy doing all of the things for family.
For September’s Music Lab theme, we’re focusing on the music of Bollywood – and all forms of Indian cinema. Bollywood is just one location where the music and dancing occur, in the language of Hindi. Tollywood (Telugu) and Kollywood (Tamil) are other examples, each in different languages and cities of India.
India may not have created the first movies, but they’ve been creating their own style of movies for more than a hundred years. The music and dancing are hallmarks of their unique style no matter which language or province is creating the films.
For a sneak preview of what students are learning in Music Lab during their music lessons this month, enjoy a few Bollywood favorites here:
Michelle Tuesday Music School held its 2024 Beach Party Recitals the weekend of August 9-11. We encourage all students taking music lessons at Michelle Tuesday Music School to play in our recitals and other performance opportunities. We host concerts at least four times per year, and we never charge fees to join the events. Many of our events, like this one, are coupled with a party. That way, our musicians who aren’t ready to play in front of an audience yet can just watch and enjoy the party.
Friday Night Teen & Adult Only Recital
Our Friday night Teen & Adult Only concert featured performances by adult music students learning piano, voice, guitar and mallet percussion. Jane played “Amazing Grace” on guitar, her debut performance as a student taking adult guitar lessons, and she did great! The percussion teacher accompanied her glockenspiel student on the gorgeous new studio Boston grand piano for a rousing, jazzy rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Disney’s Aladdin. Our audience took our teen & adult recital “rule” to heart, and they screamed, hooted and hollered before and after each performer, because it calms the nerves of the musicians, and it makes the event more fun for everyone.
Saturday and Sunday Recitals
Saturday and Sunday afternoons included contributions from our younger music students. The musicians featured are enrolled in music lessons on a variety of instruments. The student performers are taking:
songwriting lessons,
guitar lessons,
voice lessons,
violin lessons,
recorder lessons,
ocarina lessons,
drum lessons, and
piano lessons.
Performers learning piano played their prepared pieces on our shiny new lobby grand piano. Our aspiring musicians delighted their audiences with well-known favorites: “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” on violin; “Yankee Doodle” and “Old MacDonald” on piano; vocal performances of “Part of Your World” and “Candle on the Water”; and from our students learning guitar, a variety ranging from the classical “Spanish Waltz” to an improvisation on “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix.
Ocarina and Songwriting Lessons
Perhaps the most unique performances of the weekend were offered by Felix, who played “Amazing Grace” on ocarina (of Nintendo’s Zelda fame), and Millie singing her original composition, “The Good Old Days,” from her work-in-progress two-act musical starring her dog, Gwinnie. Watch for the upcoming puppet show, Gwinnie, when Millie has completed her first, but certainly not last, magus opus. Millie tells us she has already begun work on the sequel!
Beach-Themed Games and Prizes
After each 30-minute block of performers, the music students enjoyed the party activities outside, including beach bingo, a duck pond, and sidewalk chalk artwork around the perimeter of the music school, plus fabulous prizes to be had by all.
Kudos to the Student Musicians!
Thank you to all of the performers, parents, teachers and staff who made our Beach Party Recital a smashing success. Your teachers are very proud of you, and it’s always wonderful to see everyone having a great time.
Next Performance Event
Mark your calendars for our next performance opportunity. The annual MTMS Halloween Party Recitals have been our most popular concert each year for nearly a decade and a half. Sign-ups open October 14th!
Staff setting up for the Beach Party Recitals.Alex on violin, performing “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore” to the delight of her audience.Felix on ocarina. This was his second recital, so he’s officially a pro!Ella delighting her audience on our beautiful Boston grand piano.An engaged and entertained audience, ready for the next performance.
