Music Authority Family Newsletter for February 12, 2019

2/25/2019

Music Authority Family Newsletter - February 12, 2019

Introducing Bree Shannon, TKL Cases, Rock Camp, Jr, and learning new languages

Cómo estás

I have embarked on a new adventure. I am learning to speak Spanish with the help of a Music Authority dad. From the perspective of someone who spoke French fluently enough to survive in France without any English speaking help, this is a far more daunting task than I first imagined.

However, as my tutor reminded me, this isn't that much different than an adult picking up an instrument for the first time. (And then being tossed on stage in a Spring show - not that I'd ever do that to anyone. Cough.)

Music is a language, just like Spanish. You can learn to play (repeat phrases by rote without learning the whys behind what you're saying) or you can learn to speak (understand the language well enough to put together your own sentences.)

Music Authority teaches the language. We want you student to be able to speak the language with other students, to be able to function in a band or a group. To be able to write songs of their own. We don't want them just to tell us "what song do you want to play today."

Language is important. It engages the parts of your brain that do math and science, check out the studies on Google. Music makes your student smarter.

Adults, we handle you a little different. We want you to understand the language, yes, but we also want you to have fun and learn the songs you didn't a chance to play when you were a kid. Science shows music is good for you, too, helping to keep the brain engaged. Some studies even show music can delay dementia.

Much like throwing adult musicians onto the stage, I guess I just put myself out there. I'm trying my best (I can greet you, tell you my name, and ask how can I help you). Feel free to quiz me. But please also give me a sticker and tell me to keep practicing for next week.

Melissa A. Loggins, Owner

#MusicAuthorityFamily
#beyondthemusic

Click Here to Log In to Your Lessons Account

Introducing Bree Shannon

Bree Shannon is a native of Marietta, Ga and started singing and performing at the age of 12. She just retired from 12 years of working as a production performer and lead vocalist for Carnival Cruise Lines, where she sang and performed every genre of music, from rock, pop, r&b, country, classic soul and Motown. Bree loves to perform, loves teaching others and her main focuses are stage presence, audience connection and storytelling through song.

Bree is also a TV, film and commercial actor, a voice-over talent, and she’s a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and Actor’s Equity Association. Her passion is performing on stage for a live audience and sharing her gifts and knowledge of performance with others. She believes that you can never be too good at your talent to learn more, grow more and be better!

TKL

Music Authority is happy to now offer TKL Cases to the Music Authority Family! TKL offers deluxe gig bags and cases - an investment in protecting your gear. Don't see what you're looking for? Talk to one of our customer service specialists and we'll be happy to order what you need!

Rock Camp, Jr.

Jake Lanni, this year with the help of TA Dominic Perez, leads one of the most fun camps of the summer at Music Authority - Rock Camp, Jr. If your student, age 5-10, is looking to get their feet wet in a band, this is the camp for you! Shortened hours from our full rock camp, campers join a band, learn about instruments, do crafts, and put on a show Friday night. Sign up today! (Space is limited.)

Not in Lessons at Music Authority? Sign Up Here!

Rock Camp, Jr. 2018 - Jake Barnes, Brody Higham, Ryan Britto, and TA Kaitlyn Lahr. Under the direction of Jake Lanni. Sign your 5-10 year old for Rock Camp, Jr. today!

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Music Authority Newsletter for February 5, 2019

2/18/2019

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Music Authority Family Newsletter - February 5, 2019

The NAMM Wrap Up

Seeing the Forest

Sometimes, you need to get away from home to see the forest. Stuck in the daily grind of paying bills, managing students and personalities, and keeping the walls stocked, we forget to look at the big picture.

The big picture came into focus on Thursday morning when I presented my NAMM session. The room was packed. I mean, every seat was full, the overflow space where people could watch on a monitor was full, and people were lined up standing along the outside edges. I asked, is it normal to have this many people at a 10:30 session on Thursday? The reply: well, you're an expert.

Woah, let's not throw around that word. (Side note - shout out to Valencia School of Music, whom I know reads this newsletter, for bringing your people out to see the session!) Maybe instead of expert we should call it "too stubborn to give up."

A second surprise came later that day when I mentioned we'd completely recovered our student numbers from a situation over the summer that had caused something of a staffing and PR crisis. "Impossible," I was told. It should take eighteen months to recover from something like that. Well, I'm sorry to tell you, but it took six.

It's hard to see the miracles - the result of hard work by dedicated teachers, staff, parents, and students - when you're focused on solving the next crisis.

I bring back from California not a list of the new products you'll see on our shelves. (Those are coming, don't worry, watch our social media for the exciting arrivals and announcements.)

I come back with clearer vision, focus, and a drive to continue to innovate, improve, and inspire. I come back to keep working to give you, the Music Authority Family, the best in education, service, and product experiences.

And to the stores in Buffalo, Westfield, San Diego, Smyrna, Tampa, and Cincinnati who reached out to know more about the Music Authority programs and the Music Authority Family, thank you for keeping me inspired to do more, to keep improving, to continue to do better. Come for a visit if you're ever in Atlanta, I'd love to show you around.

Melissa A. Loggins, owner

#MusicAuthorityFamily
#beyondthemusic

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NAMM: The People

One of the best parts of the show is the people. We met an amazing guitar manufacturer from France, case makers from China, talked to Santa Cruz guitars from California, and we got to see my Inside Sales Rep (Josh) from Taylor.

It's refreshing to talk about music lessons with different stores from around the country, to share stories and brainstorm new ideas. Stores in New Jersey, Florida, California, Ireland, and Australia, just to name a few, want to know more about the Music Authority program and Family. (And boy, are there some great new ideas coming soon to Music Authority!)

Yes, it's a bit embarrassing to almost cry all over the lessons guru who helped you out over the summer because you can't think of any words to say except, "Thank you." (See Pete Gamber in the photo. And yes, I almost cried.)

Whatever your industry, if it has a trade show - Go! Make friends, keep business cards, follow up. You never know what doors will open or what friendships you might find. You might even find yourself sharing a laugh with a sales rep you thought you'd always hate. Or inspiration in a field you've never thought about being a part of.

*Music Authority invites high school students who are part of the Rock Ensemble programs to apply to attend the Summer NAMM Show held each year in Nashville.

The Coolest Guitar at the Show

Melissa doesn't get excited about electric guitars. At least not until we stumbled upon a French company with only a handful of American dealers. Wild Custom Guitars. OMG, beautiful, well crafted, incredible design and visual look, and totally out of the price range of guitars we sell.

Ah, well, we can dream for now.

Meanwhile, we also looked at Santa Cruz, Collings, Larivee, TKL cases, visited with friends from Greer Amplification, Blue Ridge Guitars, BA Ferguson, and more. We'll have new arrivals soon from Taylor (we ordered two custom builds that are going to be AMAZING), ESP, Marshall, and a new line from Yamaha we're super excited about. (Unfortunately, the new Yamaha line is top secret for now...)

Keep your eyes open - new, cutting edge gear is coming soon! (And if anyone is in the market for an incredible electric, let's talk!)

Tecate, Mexico and Taylor Guitars

As a final stop on their west coast journey, the Music Authority travelers took advantage of an opportunity to visit both the Mexican and the American Taylor Guitar factories. The state of the art factory in Tecate, Mexico was spectacular. Their dedicated staff turns out top quality guitars with evident pride.

The American factory is equally impressive. The smell of the wood when you first arrive is worth the trip by itself. Two custom build guitars, one made from Blackwood and one sporting Black Limba back and sides, will be coming to Music Authority in the future months.

If you want to hear more about the Taylor Factories, stop in and see Andrew, Melissa, or Savannah to hear about the trip!

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Since Melissa and Savannah didn't get any great celebrity photos (unless you count pictures of Andrew), here's a video from Andertons Music in UK. Andertons has the BEST YouTube Channel for music geeks (and a big store in Guildford, Surrey, UK). We DID see the line for this meet and greet (it was so long it was disrupting traffic into the ESP booth where we had a meeting), so does that mean we almost met John Mayer?

Check out Andertons channel. It's amazing.

The Music Authority Roadies would like to announce the addition of Gary Kerr to the Roadies Board of Directors. He will be taking over the position of Vice Chair. Alice Lopez, the previous Vice Chair, will be moving to the position of Social Director.

The Roadies Board meets on the second Tuesday of each month in The Backroom at Music Authority. Meetings are open to the public, we would love for you to join us!

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Music Authority Family Newsletter Takeover

2/12/2019

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Music Authority Family Newsletter - January 29, 2019

It's a Music Authority Family Takeover while Melissa's in California!

How Long Will It Take?
A Guest Article by Natalie Fleckenstein

“How long will it take to learn how to play?”
A perfectly reasonable and frequently asked question when registering for lessons at Music Authority. This is not to criticize anyone who has ever asked this open ended and incomplete question - but it does require some background information in order to give any resemblance of a quantifiable answer.

First, let’s complete the question: “How long will it take to learn how to play...a note, chord, riff, a song, adequately, proficiently, professionally?” The list goes on. Let’s break it down a little more.

What is your goal in wanting to take lessons?
One of the best answers I ever rescued to this: “My wife and I are having a baby soon and I want to be able to play lullabies.” Precise and relatively quantifiable given the end goal but still not easily determined. But, truth be told, there are no imperfect answers to this question. Some students take lessons because they simply enjoy music and want to learn more about the process, some wish to hone the skills they learned in their youth. Some want to be rock stars or concert pianist while others don’t fit into other extra-curricular molds and just know they like the way guitars look and sound. Each reason comes with a different level of dedication and once again, cannot be quantified. But, a desire to learn, to expand your knowledge and add “musician” to your repertoire is an awesome goal and is to be applauded on any terms.

How much time are you willing to practice?
A questions that begs to be answered in an exact number. Most Instructors at Music Authority will ask you to practice a minimum of your age in minutes per day. If you Google “how long will it take me to learn how to play an instrument?” You will find a slew of answers. The range is 30 minutes to 3-4 hours per day depending on your dedication, willingness and aptitude for learning (we will get to this later). In his book, “Outliers: The Story of Success”, author Malcolm Gladwell mentions a study that dares to put out a more specific time frame stating it takes “10,000 hours, or roughly ten years, to become a genius at something.” This is based on the fact that “every great composer practiced for at least 10 years before they wrote their master work.” Even the most honest and realistic responses to this question will not earn you a guaranteed deadline answer. Even Google agrees!

How good are you at learning a new skill or task?
This question is VERY relative but an important one for the staff and instructors at Music Authority. Each skill or task is as unique as the student willing to take it on. How do you learn? Are you a visual learner? Do you do better in a traditional structured learning environment? What is your taste in music, rock, country, show tunes? From young children to adults - when you become a student, you learn at your own pace, in your own way based on your desire to achieve your goal. Some students take to their instrument from the first lesson, practice minimally and become amazing musicians while others struggle to get through each of their first lessons, practicing endlessly before they catch on or find their groove. Not giving up is the key here and giving it at least three months before any decisions or instrument changes are made is a good time frame. Making your lessons work for you is Music Authority’s goal. Struggling doesn’t mean you’re unable to learn, it just means we need to figure out what’s not working and fix it to the best of our ability and with your help. Maybe it’s the instrument, maybe it’s the wrong size. Could it be your lesson time? Maybe it’s too late or too early or the wrong day. Maybe you do better under pressure and you need a performance date locked down.

Even with all the information gathered experts still cannot give you an exact quantifiable estimate as to “how long” it will take. But the professionals at Music Authority are here to provide a personal experience to get you closer to an answer. We do our best to make sure you have the correct instrument. Each instructor gives you personal feedback on a lesson-to-lesson basis and advice to help you get closer to achieving your goal. Once you get comfortable in your lesson, we want to know how your classes going? Are you and your instructor clicking? Not feeling your first instrument choice? How about trying another instrument? Your instructor says you’re ready to try preforming, how about a recital, show or maybe one of our ensemble bands? What do you think about Rock Camp? This is part of the personal experience that you get at Music Authority that can help us get a little closer to answering your question. How long will it take for you to learn to play? The best answer may be, “as long as it takes.”

Natalie Fleckenstein, Lessons Administrator

#MusicAuthorityFamily
#beyondthemusic

Click Here to Log In to Your Lessons Account

What Eclipse Means to Dominic Perez by Tina Perez

My son Dominic is a drummer at Music Authority. He first took piano lessons at Music Authority back in 2013, then guitar, and then finally drums.

Since starting in Unveiled in January 2016, Dominic’s goal was to one day play drums in Eclipse. That opportunity came sooner than we all expected last July. Dominic jumped in and learned 30 songs in about two weeks!

Dominic loves being in Eclipse. He was ready for the challenge, and it has made him a much better musician. He loves the opportunity to play more gigs, to write and perform original music, to meet other bands, and to get great experience seeing how things work in the music industry. It really has been a dream come true!

Jackson Warren's Favorite Piece of Gear

My favorite piece of gear is the loop pedal. The loop pedal is a pedal that records what you play and loops it over and over again. It can be used with a variety of instruments. The loop pedal can help any student practice soloing and playing along to chords or a melody. The loop pedal also gives you the ability to stack different parts of a song making an excellent tool for writing music. The loop pedal gives one person the ability to play as thousands of people making it my favorite piece of gear.

Jackson Warren is a sales employee and multi instrumentalist in our showcase band, Eclipse, Guitar Ensemble, and Tribute. He is a Lambert High School student hoping for a job in the music field. He has been playing music since he was in second grade.

Teaching Music with Shae Humphrey

Teaching music is an incredibly intense occupation, if done correctly. Our students develop technical skills and devour information with such hunger. We, as educators, have the overwhelming and exciting job of keeping students engaged by introducing them to a broad spectrum of interests. But, each student is wildly diverse. Whether it is in age, circumstances, or motivations for being a part of Music Authority.
This is what I believe makes being a teacher so fulfilling. We are able to interact and understand the student on a level that many other activities are not able to provide. We are teaching our students life and personal skills. Music teaches them patience, responsibility, how to interact with others and to feel comfortable within themselves.
“That’s what is important:
we can help make both pupils enjoy their own success at their level and,
along the way, we can try to teach them not to make the destructive (and meaningless) comparisons that can spoil it all.”

Gareth Dylan Smith (2014)

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The video of the week has been taken over by Savannah Hughes, guitarist from Music Authority's Eclipse. Savannah's favorite performance with her band from 2018 was Mr. Brightside on New Year's Eve.

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January 22, 2019

2/1/2019

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Music Authority Family Newsletter - January 22, 2019

The Importance of a Network, Dawn Blair's Favorite Performance, and the NAMM Show

The Importance of a Network

This week is Winter NAMM, the week of the winter trade show for Music Retailers. I'll be making my third appearance at NAMM University, talking about the Music Authority educational programs and student retention. (The first two appearances were in Nashville. This is my first trip to California and I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous.)

Throughout my time in the industry, I heard a lot about the importance of the NAMM network. If you have enough friends and colleagues, someone can help you with just about anything. I never tested that theory until this summer.

When difficult times hit, and I needed an understanding ear who'd been there before, out came the NAMM contacts. I reached out, found other store owners who'd gone through what I was experiencing, and formed a support system. (I also got a healthy dose of humor when, after telling my very dramatic story, a good friend laughed and said, "that's happened to me twice!" So much for me being unique.)

This is a time to recharge my retail batteries, hear ideas from around the world, see new products, and share a piece of myself. It's humbling when you think you're going through the toughest experience in your professional career and someone walks up to you to say, "Thank you for your presentation. We're really struggling and you've given us hope."

Music Authority isn't all about me. It's not even my story I'm going to present. It's the story of every student, teacher, staff member, and parent who has walked through our door. It's the story of the network of Music Authority - a network that stretches across the country and around the globe.

Be a part of our journey this week. Follow me on Music Authority's Facebook and Instagram, see what I'm up to as I tell your story. NAMM is so much more than just products. It's sharing, building a network, laying a foundation for better things.

Like so much more in the Music Authority world, this week is about the network beyond the music.

- Melissa A. Loggins, Owner
#MusicAuthorityFamily
#beyondthemusic

Click Here to Log In to Your Lessons Account

Dawn Blair's Favorite Musical Memory

I have a "special" music memory that includes my father-in-law Sid Blair. He was an educator and a renown tenor sax/clarinet player from the Detroit area who played in the Detroit Symphony and with people like Glenn Miller, Tex Beneke and Artie Shaw and many others.

My father-in-law was to be the head-liner for a jazz concert in Daytona Beach. This was going to be his last live performance before retiring his horns; my husband and I were working this concert with him.

During this sold out performance, with press present, Sid pulled a "quickie" and had the rest of band take a break while he had me, my husband and himself play an unrehearsed song on the spot for the audience. Suddenly we became the 3 Blairs. (no pun intended. Ha.)

It was a spontaneous musical moment, but jazz is about spontaneity. It was memorable in that he created an awesome musical moment between 3 family members in a way I never, ever forgot. Sid is now 92 years old and he still remains one of my favorite and most respected musicians of all time.

ESP Guitars

ESP Guitars have been part of the Music Authority Family almost the entire time we've been open. We'll be looking at gear to stock while we're in California - what would you like to see on the walls? Message us with the models and colors you're excited to try out!

Add an ESP guitar to your collection by stopping in to try one out at Music Authority today!

Off to California!

Melissa will be representing the Music Authority Family by speaking at the NAMM Show this week. Check out our social media starting Wednesday for updates from Anaheim!

Before she hops on a plane home, she'll be stopping by the Taylor Factory in Tecate, Mexico. Follow her adventures on Music Authority's Facebook and Instagram!

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Every once in a while we like to look back and remember concerts of years gone by. This show, from March 12, 2014, has a very familiar current student playing guitar. Can anyone recognize the student playing the white guitar? (Stage kick!)

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Music Authority Family Newsletter for February 12, 2019

Music Authority Family Newsletter - February 12, 2019

Introducing Bree Shannon

TKL

Rock Camp, Jr.

Music Authority Newsletter for February 5, 2019

Music Authority Family Newsletter - February 5, 2019

NAMM: The People

The Coolest Guitar at the Show

Tecate, Mexico and Taylor Guitars

Music Authority Family Newsletter Takeover

Music Authority Family Newsletter - January 29, 2019

What Eclipse Means to Dominic Perez by Tina Perez

Jackson Warren's Favorite Piece of Gear

Teaching Music with Shae Humphrey

January 22, 2019

Music Authority Family Newsletter - January 22, 2019

Dawn Blair's Favorite Musical Memory

ESP Guitars

Off to California!

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