Meet Becky Steinsultz of Stage Notes School of Music in Hurst

Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky Steinsultz.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Becky. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I studied piano my whole life, but always as a hobby. I never knew it would shape my whole future! I moved to Texas in 2008 and began teaching piano lessons out of my apartment. I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, but didn’t always have a clear idea of what type of business I wanted to build. It wasn’t until a year later, when I moved the lessons into a small two room office space and hired my first teacher that the vision for Stage Notes slowly began to emerge. Another two years later, after marrying my husband, Devin, we moved into a larger, six room office space, and grew the staff to seven instructors offering additional instruments such as guitar, drums, bass, and voice. Two years after that, at the beginning of 2014, we moved operations to our current location, our first retail space! The school has grown to a staff of 13, teaching roughly 230 students each week on a large variety of instruments. The journey has been incredible! To watch the school develop into something that is beyond what I ever imagined is such an amazing opportunity.

However, despite the success of Stage Notes, we are always looking ahead and asking, what’s next? Always looking for the next idea or opportunity. Sometimes to our own detriment, as we don’t always know when to stop! haha We knew that we wanted to have another school at some point, but after the birth of our son, Cohen, building another school from the ground up seemed like an impossible task. So when we got the opportunity to purchase another music school in Keller, which was very similar to Stage Notes, we knew we had to do it. In May of 2017, we purchased Stomp Music Studios, effectively doubling the size of our music school business overnight! We are super excited about the coming fall semester, when we will really see the potential of what we can do with TWO music schools!

Has it been a smooth road?
I wouldn’t necessarily call it “smooth”…haha… but, we are lucky to have always been moving in the right direction despite any issues that came up. One particularly difficult time was when we were moving into our current retail space. It was a huge leap for us and scary enough as it was. I was also pregnant at the time, which didn’t help! In the middle of a huge, out of pocket rehab, the building owner lost the building to the bank and fled the country, leaving us without a lease, having sunk thousands of dollars into the rehab of a space that may no longer be ours. That was definitely a scary, scary moment. But all we could do at that point was keep working. So, without a lease, we kept painting, kept building. Luckily, the bank decided to honor our previous lease, and everything moved forward without too much additional trouble. Overall, the move ended up being the best thing we ever did. But man, it wasn’t without a lot of work, sweat, and tears!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Stage Notes School of Music story. Tell us more about the business.
Stage Notes offers music lessons to students ages 3 and up on a large variety of instruments including piano, voice, guitar, ukulele, drums, violin, cello, saxophone, trumpet, and more! We teach private lessons, but also have several group class options! One is a 3-4 year old Sing and Play class to introduce young students to music and prepare them for private lessons. Another group class is a 5-7 year old My First Music Class, which introduces students to piano, ukulele, percussion, and singing, allowing them to try out several instruments if they know they love music but aren’t sure where to start. In addition, we offer Rock Band classes and strings ensembles!

It’s the combination of high quality instruction in a relaxed environment that keeps our students coming back. The relaxed and fun atmosphere that we’ve developed at Stage Notes is something we’re very proud of. Our teachers are all amazing. They’re not only wonderful musicians, but wonderful people who have a love of sharing and teaching. We all LOVE to see our students succeed!

One thing that sets us apart from our competition is our performance opportunities. My husband is a professional musician, so this is really where his expertise comes into play. We believe that frequent performance opportunities are the single best way to motivate students to practice. And when they practice, they progress. And when they progress, they are excited and want to learn more! But we don’t offer the same old recitals you had growing up! Whether our events are held in our own recital space or at another venue, they will ALWAYS be relaxed and fun! One Halloween, we built an entire haunted house in the studio for students to go through on their way into the recital hall! Last fall, we had a Fall Festival complete with games, trunk-or-treating, creepy refreshments, costumes, and of course, a stage for performers! This summer, we are having an “I Love the 90’s” themed recital! (Summer themes are chosen by our Student of the Year.) Our Christmas recitals offer a more formal concert setting. We also love to participate in community events and perform in local performance venues. With an average of six performance opportunities each year, we like to mix it up 🙂

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Luckily, I believe we are in an industry that will continue to stay strong. Music is something that people will continue to enjoy, and want to learn, for generations to come. Our approach and class offerings will continue to develop to meet students’ changing needs/desires, but a quality education in an enjoyable setting will always be key.

Contact Info:

• Address: Stage Notes School of Music
  6516 Precinct Line Rd.
  Hurst, TX 76054

  Stomp Music Studios
  5751 Park Vista Cir.
  Keller, TX 76244

• Website: www.stagenotesmusic.com | www.stompmusicstudios.com
• Phone: 817-849-5544(Stage Notes) | 817-591-1700(Stomp)
• Email: info@stagenotesmusic.com | admin@stompmusicstudios.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/stagenotesmusic | facebook.com/stompmusicstudios

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