We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elodie Hatfield. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elodie below.

Elodie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

Chords Music School provides weekly music experiences where toddlers to teens form bands, learn how to play instruments and write & practice songs in preparation for our biannual concerts. Our concerts are held at Portland area concert venues where family, friends and other Chords Music School bands join to root the bands on! In many cases, this is the student’s first time performing as a musician in front of a live audience. Each week, our teachers guide band members on learning new chords on a variety of instruments, making lyrical decisions and preparing for their performances. Throughout the course of the class, their confidence grows, and the understandably daunting and intimidating task of performing on stage turns into a fun and exciting experience. In June of 2024 during our Chords Music School Summer Concert, a seven year old student performing in the band The Electric Lions hit his final notes on the piano, raised his hands in the air and yelled “I did it!” as the crowd erupted.

Elodie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have taught music to students of all ages for the past 8+ years, and I am also a professional musician who has worked on a variety of musical projects over the past 10+ years. Some of the highlights include sharing the stage with Sheryl Crow and Peter Frampton, opening for Sammy Hagar at SXSW, opening for Judah and the Lion at Sundance Film Festival, working with grammy-winning producer Joe Chiccarelli and touring with Louise Post of Veruca Salt. The majority of my experiences as a musical artist have been through bands that I have created. It’s been so rewarding to take that experience and apply it to my teaching.

Fun is a major priority at Chords Music School. Students get to create band names, write original song lyrics and choose the cover songs they want to perform. Being in a band at Chords Music School provides amazing opportunities for students to develop musical skills, collaboration skills, creative expression and confidence. Music is an exciting and inspiring part of life and we are thrilled to be able to share that with our students and the community.

How’d you meet your business partner?

The co-founder of Chords Music School is my husband, John. We met in 2016 when John’s best friend since kindergarten, who started playing drums in John’s basement as kids, became a drummer in a musical project I was leading at the time. One of the first things John & I ever talked about was our love of the song “Midnight in Harlem” by Tedeschi Trucks Band. Over the years, I gained a great deal of experience in the music industry/teaching music while John gained experience working for various small businesses. It became our dream to open our own music school. Six months after getting married, we opened the doors of Chords Music School in September of 2023.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Chords Music School offers all prospective students a free trial class. This provides the student and their guardian the opportunity to see the school, meet the teachers and feel the Chords community vibes. There is no push for the student to sign up, we just want them to feel comfortable and make the decision on their own. This has proven to be a very effective method to build rapport with toddlers to teens who have expressed interest in exploring music. We also participate in many local community events including performances with local Scouting America groups, preschools and reading groups. We attend community business alliance meetings and pass out candy at the Halloween Monster March. Through these efforts, we have made meaningful relationships with the Portland area community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Chordsmusicschool.com
• Instagram: chordsmusicschoolpdx

Image Credits

Ethan Hansen
ColorfulKait