What Does a Piano Lesson Really Cost?

A few years ago, my son Benja was taking drum lessons through a School of Rock program near us. I want to say up front that the program itself was wonderful. The instructors were talented and kind, Benja truly loved drumming, and I loved what the experience was trying to give him.

We were paying $375 a month for it.

I didn’t think much about that number at first. It was just what music lessons cost, and we did our darndest to cut out other things in the budget to make it happen. But Benja has special needs, and after a full day of school he was often completely maxed out by the time his lesson slot rolled around. So we’d get there, and he’d hit a wall and refuse to go into his lesson, and I’d end up canceling last minute. No makeup lesson. No credit. Just $375 leaving our bank account every month for an experience that, more weeks than not, wasn’t actually happening. Continue reading “What Does a Piano Lesson Really Cost?”

Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

Who Was Mozart? His Life Story, Explained Simply

If you’ve spent any time around classical music, you’ve heard the name. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of those composers everybody’s heard of, whether they can name a single piece he wrote or not. But who was he, actually? I dug into his real story for my podcast, Busy Kids Love Music, and I wanted to write it out here too — because the real version is more interesting than the “genius in a powdered wig” image most of us grew up with. Continue reading “Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?”

Why Is Pachelbel’s Canon in D So Popular? The Real Story

Why Is Pachelbel’s Canon in D Everywhere? The Story Behind the World’s Most Famous Wedding Song

If you’ve been to more than one wedding in your life, I’d put money on the fact that you’ve heard this song. You may not know it by name, but the second those opening notes start, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

It’s Pachelbel’s Canon in D — and it has one of the strangest backstories in classical music. This piece sat in a drawer, essentially forgotten, for almost 300 years. Then it came roaring back and became one of the most recognized pieces of music on the planet. I dug into the whole story for episode 104 of my podcast, Busy Kids Love Music, and I wanted to write it all out here too, because it’s too good not to. Continue reading “Why Is Pachelbel’s Canon in D So Popular? The Real Story”

Why Piano Lessons Still Matter for Kids in the Age of AI

Wondering if and why piano lessons still matter in a world full of AI? Here’s why hands-on music education might be more valuable for kids than ever.

A few weeks ago I was at my daughter Ella’s bookstore for a craft night with some friends. We were bedazzling books — you know, gluing sparkles and sequins onto paperbacks to make them look pretty. Everyone else’s turned out lovely. Mine looked like a craft project a raccoon got into.

And I loved it. I still have it sitting on my shelf.

I loved it because it’s a memory of laughing so hard with my friends that my face hurt, not because it’s a good piece of art. It’s proof that something real happened in that room.

Continue reading “Why Piano Lessons Still Matter for Kids in the Age of AI”

Add Piano to Homeschool: A Real Starter Guide for Moms

Adding piano to your homeschool year takes a keyboard, fifteen minutes a day, a structured online program, and about two weeks of finding your rhythm. Done right, it’s one of the lowest-friction additions you’ll make to your curriculum this year.

Every August, without fail, I pull out my favorite coat and boots even though it’s still ninety degrees outside, and I start craving pumpkin-flavored everything a solid month before anyone else does. I can’t help it. There’s something about that first hint of fall — the light changes, the air gets a little different, and even here in Georgia where summer holds on stubbornly, I feel that reset energy kick in.

If you’re a homeschool mom, you know exactly what I mean, because you feel it too. Fall is when you actually sit down and put the finishing touches on what this school year is going to look like. And if piano has been on your “someday” list, this is the someday. Continue reading “Add Piano to Homeschool: A Real Starter Guide for Moms”

Summer Piano Practice: An Honest Pep Talk for the Moms Who Wonder If It’s Enough

Every summer, I watch something happen in our piano families. The school year ends, the schedule loosens, and somewhere around the second week of June, the question starts to creep in: are we doing enough summer piano practice?

Maybe practice has been shorter than usual. Maybe it’s been skipped a few times. Maybe your child has been playing the same piece on repeat because they love it and refuse to move on (which, honestly, is a great sign — but we can talk about that another time). And maybe you’ve been standing in the kitchen wondering if this is the summer that sets them back, undoes the progress they made, or signals that you’re not cut out for this home-teaching thing after all.

Here’s what I want to say to you, from one person who has been teaching piano for over twenty years: you are doing better than you think. And summer — real summer, with its softened routines and long evenings and absence of pressure — might actually be one of the best things that could happen to your student’s musical development.

Let me explain what I mean. Continue reading “Summer Piano Practice: An Honest Pep Talk for the Moms Who Wonder If It’s Enough”

What the Circus Taught Me About Folk Music for Kids

This past week, our whole family piled into the car and drove into Atlanta to take our son to the UniverSoul Circus for his 14th birthday. (He picked it himself, which I loved, partly because it meant I didn’t have to be the one to come up with a brilliant idea this year.) This was our fourth time going. You’d think the novelty would wear off after four visits, but somehow it doesn’t. If anything, I think I love it more each time we go.

If you’ve never been, UniverSoul is a little hard to describe. It’s a circus, yes, with acrobats and motorcycles and the kind of stunts that make you grab the arm of whoever is sitting next to you. But it’s also a giant, joyful, foot-stomping celebration of cultures from all over the world, with music pumping through the whole tent from the very first minute. The audience doesn’t just sit and watch. We clap, we sing, we get pulled up out of our seats to dance. By the end, you truly feel like you’ve been to a party rather than a performance. Continue reading “What the Circus Taught Me About Folk Music for Kids”

Piano Teacher Resources: I Built Busy Kids Do Piano for Studios, Too

A piano teacher emailed me last month during open enrollment and said something about piano teacher resources I’ve been hearing more and more often:

“I love what you’ve built. Can I use it with my own students?”

The honest answer until recently was no, the membership is built for families. But the request kept coming — from solo studio teachers, from homeschool co-op music leaders, from teachers who are scaling their businesses and teaching group classes.

So I built out that option. As of this month, Busy Kids Do Piano is available as a studio license. Continue reading “Piano Teacher Resources: I Built Busy Kids Do Piano for Studios, Too”

When Practice Feels Stuck: Piano Practice Ideas for Kids That Actually Work

There is a photo I will never delete from my phone. My son — small, maybe five years old? — standing on our coffee table with his trombone, eyes closed, completely lost in the music.

He wasn’t supposed to be on the coffee table. But I had made a judgment call: I could spend the next twenty minutes fighting him back to the music stand, or I could turn the coffee table into a stage and let him pretend he was Trombone Shorty performing for a crowd. I chose the stage. And he practiced. Happily. For longer than I asked him to.

Here’s what I learned from that moment, and from many more like it over the years: kids don’t resist practice because they don’t love music. They resist practice because practice — in the way we often think about it — doesn’t feel like music. It feels like work. It feels like rules and repetition and sitting still when everything in their body wants to move. Continue reading “When Practice Feels Stuck: Piano Practice Ideas for Kids That Actually Work”

How to Teach Piano at Home (Without a Music Degree)

Moms can absolutely teach piano at home without a music degree. What you need is a basic keyboard, a structured online program, 15 minutes a day, and a willingness to learn alongside your kids. The idea that piano requires a private teacher and a baby grand is leftover from a different era — one that excluded most families by design. Continue reading “How to Teach Piano at Home (Without a Music Degree)”