Melissa Ashby: This is How Music is Taught

Hi, I'm Melissa. I grew up in Alberta, Canada. I now live in Hillsboro, Oregon with my husband and our 3 kids ages 14, 11 and 6.

This is How Music Should Be Taught

Music has played a big part in my life. I started playing piano when I was  9 and flute at 11. I was always involved in music lessons, bands, music productions, and choirs. I have  a B.S. in Child Development and have always enjoyed teaching. When I taught private piano lessons, I always tried to find ways to incorporate games and fun activities. The students could not seem to sit at the piano for 30 minutes! 

Then I found Let's Play Music! This is exactly how music should be taught! This was something I wanted to teach! I have been teaching Let's Play Music for 6 years now. I love it; I can't say enough wonderful things about it.  


Seeing is Believing

I started teaching LPM in Utah and after 2 years moved to Oregon. I didn't know anyone in Oregon except my in-laws. I asked my sister-in-law to send an email to her friends telling them about my sample class. With just one sample class, I filled 2 Red Balloon classes. These parents had no idea who I was, but they could see how amazing Let's Play Music is. This program sells itself.


I love that teaching LPM has taken me out of my comfort zone. Just last week I admitted to my current Red Balloon parents that my biggest fear when I first started teaching was singing in front of parents!  It terrified me!  Now, I don't even think twice about it. I am having too much fun! I break into song all the time, embarrassing my poor teenage son.

It Makes My Day
I have really enjoyed teaching my own children, although they can sometimes be the toughest students in the class. My youngest was 1 when I started teaching.  Let's Play Music has been a big part of his childhood. He is now in his 3rd year of LPM. I love listening to him sing all the time. I love his grasp on music theory. It makes my day when I hear him make up songs on the piano. 


I love learning. I really enjoyed college. Over the years I have enjoyed various community college classes and I'm currently doing an online program.  I love that with Let's Play Music I feel like I'm always learning and growing. Whether I'm brushing up my theory skills in order to answer an extremely inquisitive student or parent, rearranging classroom management strategies to help each child have the best experience, or attending an amazing LPM training or symposium, I love it all and feel like I am continually learning so much.

- Melissa Ashby, B.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher 

Sign up for my classes and watch a video of me teaching HERE

Brooke Stevenson: This program does it ALL

Hello from Oregon!

I am really excited to talk about Let's Play Music.  Ever since I first started hearing about it, I couldn't talk enough about it to my friends and neighbors.

 

Brooke and some of her students celebrate on recital day.

Passion for Music

I have always enjoyed music; I took piano lessons and played flute as a teenager, but really became passionate about high school choir.  I was lucky to have a teacher, Kelly DeHaan, who instilled in me a deep love of music.  He changed my life and helped me realize music must always be a part of it.

I majored in vocal performance in college, but really excelled in my theory and composing classes.  My senior year I was selected to teach a college-level music theory class for music majors and I had a blast preparing lessons and teaching all the elements and rules of Baroque style music.

Shortly after graduating, I accepted a position teaching music at an elementary school.  I was impressed by the Kodaly curriculum and all the folk songs and games I played with each class.  The kids were receiving a great music foundation, especially in learning to sight read with solfege.

Where Do Music Teachers Send THEIR Kids??

After I had my first child and moved across the country, I quit teaching in the elementary school, but taught some private classes on the side.  I stumbled upon Let's Play Music after hearing about it from two different college music-major friends in the same week.  Both had put their children in Let's Play Music and they LOVED it.  They loved the theory and aural skills their five- and six-year-olds were learning in class each week.  To top it off, their kids thought the class was tons of fun! I wanted that for MY kids, too.

Sure enough, after browsing the Let's Play Music website, I realized how right my friends were.  LPM incorporates the Kodaly elements I love, even more than I thought possible! Full-body involvement, aural training, chord training, solfege, rhythm and harmony training, classical music listening, piano foundations, and a culminating composition of the student's own! I could NOT believe it was all included. This program does it all!

I have been a Let's Play Music teacher since 2011, in Portland, OR, since 2012.  The time has flown by and it's been like a match made in heaven for me to be involved in LPM.  

I get to teach my passion (music theory and aural skills) to kids just at the age when their brains are wired to learn it like a native language AND I get to teach my own kids right in my home.  

As a bonus, the kids think it's all just a really fun class each week.  One dad told me his daughter looks forward to class each week like it's Disneyland.  She can't wait to get there, and is super pumped up and excited the rest of the night after she gets home.  AND she loves practicing every single day.

This is why I enjoy teaching more and more each year.  I strive to give my students what my high school teacher gave to me: a passion and joy for music that will last the rest of their lives.

-Brooke Stevenson

You can learn more about Brooke's Portland, OR, studio, and register for her classes HERE.