Five Years of Musicologie

Musicologie is five years old this month. We began in our humble Grandview space, with no recording studio, no blue doors, no signs, no computer, a worn concrete floor and two teachers: Kay and me. Now, five years later we’re still here and working hard with four locations, three recording studios and fifty teachers.

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The Why

When we moved into our Grandview space, we had high hopes, big dreams, and not much experience running a business. It was a big leap, and it was scary. But we knew if we had a purpose and vision — if we had the why behind what we wanted to do — we would succeed. We could figure out the business stuff if we built Musicologie on clear core values, and stuck to those no matter what.

So that’s what we did. We knew that for students to have a great experience, we needed to attract and keep great teachers. It sounds obvious, but we looked around and didn’t see many studios that understood this. So we created a inclusive space that allowed teachers flexibility and creativity. We brought them in to the decision making process. We asked them if our policies were helpful and clear. We provided free rehearsal and recording space, and free lessons with other teachers. We included them in changes and development. We sought their feedback and opinions. Our teachers helped us create the studio Musicologie is today.

Community and Collaboration

Because of that, our teachers have thrived. And by extension, so have our students. We’ve collaborated with our whole community to develop programs like our own toddler music experience called Musicologie Junior, and offer group classes on beatboxing, improvisation, musical theatre, chamber music, rock band, recording, taming performance anxiety, Suzuki strings and more.

We’ve constantly asked our students and teachers what would make their lessons better, more convenient, and more fun. From those conversations we rolled out online scheduling with unlimited rescheduled lessons, we opened up our studio to student practice hours, we wrote a guide to help parents of young kids get the most out of their time at Musicologie, and we’ve hosted adult-focused performances to give our older students a chance to perform for peers.

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What’s Next

Since opening Musicologie Grandview in 2014, we’ve opened three more, larger music studios around Columbus and have created the Community Manager Partnership, helping entrepreneurial teachers open and grow their own studios in partnership with Musicologie. It’s thrilling to be able to share what Kay and I have created with other great teachers, and give them the resources we didn’t have when we started.

So thank you, thank you, thank you, to Grandview, to our teachers, and most of all to our students, for being a part of our amazing five years, and building with us an incredible place to make music.

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