Music Lessons for the Summer of 2013

Every parent knows how time flies – especially during the summer. Don’t let your child’s summer break consist of few backyard birthday parties, countless hours listening to Justin Bieber, and that trip to Tulsa for Cousin Maggie’s wedding.

Seize the summer, and sign up for music lessons with B&B! If your child’s always talked about wanting to start drum lessons, it’s the perfect time to give him a trial run. He may just be the next Ringo Starr. Summer can also give current music students time to test out a second instrument. Has your long-time piano player been itching to try a little bluegrass? Maybe summer banjo lessons are in order. And of course, current music students can also take advantage by enhancing their skills or supplementing school lessons.

Whether your child is starting something new or just staying on track with his current music program, playing music is a great way to keep kids sharp and active over the summer while giving them a lifelong skill and appreciation for music.

Plus, with B&B’s flexible program, students can fit lessons in where they can. We only need 24 hours notice if you need to skip a lesson. So students can schedule lessons around camps, long weekends at Grandma’s, and that trip out of town for Cousin Maggie’s wedding.

So sign up today. Summer is right around the corner. Make the most of it with B&B!

You’ll Learn Sheet Music as Part of Your Training!

Instruments: Guitar, Bass, Piano, Voice

Genres:

Rock, Pop, Folk, Electronic, Experimental

Location: Gaithersburg, Rockville, Potomac, Germantown, Bethesda, Silver Spring, MD

Why I work well with kids?

This is a quote from a current B&B Teacher and it is awesome to hear this kind of feedback:

B&B is a great company to work for.  Brad and Bhagwan have always treated me great, and they’ve always been helpful and encouraging.  Being a musician, I meet a lot of other musicians, and they are well known in the DMV area.  Everyone that I’ve talked to about them always say positive things about them.  I’m glad to see the company continue to grow and improve over the years.  I’ve stayed with them for so long because they work with my schedule; if I need more students, they give them to me.  I can honestly say that B&B is the best company I’ve ever worked for.

Drummer Cat

When should my child start taking private music lessons?

Student plays guitar.

Parents eager to expose their children to music education often wonder how old little ones should be before enrolling in private music lessons. While there’s no definitive answer, B&B generally starts students at the age of 5 or above.  Here are some indicators that your child is ready for one-on-one music instruction.

Attention span

If your child can remain attentive and follow directions for 20 – 30 minutes, he may be ready for individual music lessons. Being able to stay on task is also essential, since kids will need to be able to focus during regular practice sessions at home.

Reading and comprehension

Sheet music generally contains musical directions, like fast, slow, soft, or loud, in addition to song titles and lyrics that students may struggle with if they’re not yet reading. So, younger kids may want to hold off on lessons until they can read and understand the information written on their music and in any practice workbooks they are given.

In-home instruments

It’s important that students have instruments that they can use for practicing at home. Inexpensive or shared instruments are fine, especially for beginning students. But it’s important that students have regular access to an instrument, instead of just relying on weekly lessons.

Parental Involvement

If you can commit to driving your child to lessons, buying an instrument and instructional materials, paying for lessons, and helping your child stick to a practice schedule, your child already has a great foundation to start! (And of course, with lessons from B&B, you can leave the driving to us.)

By making sure your child is ready before starting music lessons, you can help learning an instrument be a rich and rewarding experience, the benefits of which will last a lifetime.

B&B Music Lessons.  Making the world a better place, one lesson at a time!

Battle the Beltway with B&B

In D.C., if chatter isn’t about politics, it’s about traffic – and rightly so in a town with more traffic disruptions than Starbucks. Only a horn-blasting, brake squealing, siren-flashing, bumper-to-bumper kind of town would give their traffic writer a lofty pen name like Dr. Gridlock and regularly celebrate him as regional hero.

Sure, we’re stuck behind your usual roadway time-consuming stalled cars or minor finder-binders. But we also get our share of, well, special traffic situations. Either you’re stuck in a major jam near I-270 because an 18-wheeler crammed with 70,000 pounds of pineapples overturned right in time for rush hour. Or on a Monday when you’re already running late, you get slammed with sixty minutes worth of detours and delays due to a measly 27-car presidential motorcade. Or maybe you end up late getting the kids because two or three snowflakes have made themselves visible, and area motorists, notoriously skittish when it comes to snow, have started to panic and drop down to 20 miles per hour on the Beltway.

No matter the issue – and there’s always an issue – traffic here stinks. And we didn’t really need the latest transportation institute study to confirm what we’ve known for years – D.C. has the worst traffic in America. Especially during rush hour. Compared to off-peak times, it takes District drivers nearly six times as long to travel during rush hour. Got a quick 10-minute trip to the office? Better set aside an hour for travel if you want to get there by 9.  And, as if you needed another downer, traffic here is only expected to get worse.

Luckily, with B&B at least there’s one thing you don’t have to fight traffic for – music lessons! Since we give all of our lessons in students’ homes, we do the driving you so you don’t have to. Just sit back and relax in the warm comfort of home. All you have to do is open the door when we get there. And instead of battling the Beltway for one more thing every week, you can treat yourself to a long bath, or slip your shoes off and read the paper, or start working on that model plane collection you fantasize about every morning during your commute.

We’ve got the music lessons covered. Rest easy, and enjoy the beauty of a B&B traffic-free extracurricular today; I doubt the soccer coach will be quite as accommodating tomorrow.

Instruments: Piano, Violin, Voice, Harp, Beginning Cello

Genres:

Classical, Contemporary, Pop, Rock, World Music, Japanese Music Instrumental

Location:  DC, Silver Spring, Bethesda, Potomac, Bowie

Why I work well with kids?

Music Teachers Just Got Easier to Find

Music instructors nationwide just got help.  In fact, they just got Savvy.  Savvy Lessons provides teachers the ability to market themselves to prospective students.  Music teachers and students alike now have a website where they can match needs and services. 

Every city in the United States (and the rest of the world!) has well educated and capable music teachers who can help the community by sharing their knowledge.  Every city around the world also has people who would love to find the right music instructor for their needs. Savvy Lessons.  Get Savvy.  Be Savvy.

Savvy Lessons Music Teachers

Nayan Bhula, Bach to Rock, & the NRIs

 We all know that B&B is the best place to get individual home music lessons in the DC Metro area. But from time to time, students ask us about group lessons. And when they do, we call our good friend Nayan Bhula. Nayan’s the site director at Bach to Rock, a music school that focuses on giving students ensemble experience. Nayan and Bach to Rock have worked closely with B&B for years now, and we can’t recommend them highly enough. If you’re interested in group lessons, now’s the time to get started. Bach to Rock’s “Bach to School” Open House is August 26 at their Bethesda location. Visit http://www.b2rmusic.com/bethesda-md for more details. 

 But Nayan’s not just some stuffed-shirt administrator calling all the shots. A professional guitarist with nearly 20 years experience, he traveled up and down the East Coast touring with his post-punk band, Gist for over half a decade. And in 2009, wanting to create a more laid-back, acoustic sound, Nayan, a non-resident Indian, formed the NRIs, a six member folk-rock band with a little Indian influence thrown in. Their third album, The Charm was just released last month. You can check it out for free here. And if you dig their style, swing by the Black Cat Backstage on August 27 to see them live and in action. We hope to see you there!

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Detour Jazz Festival with the Eric Byrd Trio and Brother Ray Band

Most of you know Brad and I work together making the world a better place through music – one lesson at a time. But did you know that we actually play together too? As members of the Eric Byrd Trio: Brother Ray Band, we perform classic Ray Charles hits with a few other guys who dig the legendary musician as much as we do.

If you like jazz and blues, come check us out at Detour Winery on September 2. Despite the location, this is a great event for the whole family. In fact, kids get in free! So come, unwind, enjoy some live music, and end the summer with us. We hope to see you there!

Because music matters,

Bhagwan

The attendees, parents and friends of our students, of July 8, 2012′s recital.

*scroll down to view videos

click here to view Group A

click here to view Group B

B&B’s 2012 Summer Recital, Group C

This Sunday, our students took to the stage for B&B’s 2012 summer recital at the Strathmore Mansion. All of the performers had a blast entertaining the crowd with their own renditions of some incredible jazz, pop, and classical numbers. Plus, they got solid experience playing in front of people – and that’s what music’s all about!

“They’re casual, low-pressure events in a fun, friendly atmosphere.”

Well, I guess it’s not all about the performing because music’s also about having fun. From weekly lessons, to personal practice time, to listening to MP3s, students should enjoy the process of learning music. And we treat our recitals the same way. They’re casual, low-pressure events in a fun, friendly atmosphere. After all, performing in front of people is stressful enough on its own!

“…we know that a four-hour recital can be a lot to sit through.”

Music aside, one of my favorite parts about our recitals is that they’re such social functions. I finally get to meet our parents face-to-face. And the students get to hang out with one another and see what their peers are up to. Our busy parents like that we break our recitals into four mini-sets, instead of having one big show. So they can just come for their child’s set. (We love music, but we know that a four-hour recital can be a lot to sit through – especially if you have toddlers in tow.)

Enjoy a few videos of the event below…

If you made it out on Sunday, thanks so much for coming! I hope you had a fantastic time as we did. You can now enjoy a few videos of the event below. Enjoy!

Because music matters,

Bhagwan Khalsa

B&B Music Lessons Co-founder

*Be sure to click the word “playlist” in the bottom left hand corner of the video player below.