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

Gwendolyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

This year I took the risk to rent a location instead of running my music studio out of the church I was working for. It was really nice to have the free space where I could also teach students from the community, but I was limited to a very small window of time. A friend helped me launch an idea for a week long morning only summer camp, but the church location couldn’t support. This prompted me to search for a space to call my own. Finding a location within my price range was a challenge, but I was able to find. a fantastic space. When I moved to the new studio, I had 15 weekly students. 3 months later, not including camps, I am up to 35 weekly students, while working the limited hours I had planned all along. It has been amazing to see the studio grow, to do what I love, and to not come home exhausted after doing what I love. There have been learning curves throughout the journey, but nothing detrimental. There are big plans for the next 1-5 years and I am excited to see how things continue to develop and change!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have always been a music lover, from the time I was a child through all of my education. I often joked that I didn’t choose to be a music educator, it was chosen for me. Even on a fairly rigid path however, I made it my own. I was in band, orchestra, and choir from middle school through college. Even in high school, the guidance teachers told me I’d have to pick just 2 of the 5 options, but we made it work. This variety of instruction prepared me for real music teaching where you never know what type of music background your students will have when they walk through your doors.

I am most proud of my studio for reaching people who were told, “You’ll never be good at music,” or those who are incredibly musical but are also neurodivergent. Western music has made the misstep of putting music on a pedestal where if it isn’t perfect it is worthless. The world would be a much happier, fun, and musical place if there were good quality musicians in every age band who love creating music together, mistakes included. I always tell my students at their first lesson, “I love when you make mistakes! That tells me what I need to do better as a teacher.” Empowering others to try new things, fine tune a craft, and above all have fun while doing it is what makes me love teaching music.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

So many music studios are incredibly rigid on their cancellation policies and make up lessons. At the end of the day, you can make ends meet as a small business owner while still realizing that people are people and life happens to us all. Finding ways to spoil families throughout the year has been incredibly fun. Giving a gift for the holidays to students is always fun. I partnered with other small businesses in the area to give vouchers to the parent’s for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Having a referral program for families who refer me to other students has been incredibly successful. At the end of the day, when you remember we are all people it makes a world of difference.

An additional strategy I use is a “Trial lesson” for students. This gives me an opportunity to meet the student and their parents if they are of school age and see if we are a good match before enrolling them. I always offer trial lessons in an open time slot; chances are if they are free for the trial lesson they are available in subsequent weeks. This also allows for all of the questions to be answered in person which saves email time and future instruction time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I was at a conference and texted one of my former female students that I met a composer from Ghana! Her response was, “What was his name?” assuming the composer was male. My heart SHATTERED! I was so exicted to show this student a composer like her, but I missed the opportunity to show her that composers can be female too! Unlearning the centralism of Classical Western music in my instruction is a continual journey. In music higher education we were taught the musical eras are the end all be all of music. While there is such rich history which does still have seat at the table, it is only one seat! I have had to do a deep dive in the 21st century music to catch up in popular music that I quite frankly don’t know that well. There is good music in every genre and that has been my mission, to find that music and teach from it. Elevating musicians and composers of minorities opens the door to so many opportunities.    

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rehmstudios.com
• Instagram: @rehm-studios
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rehmstudios
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwendolyn-rehm-75b2a6105/

Image Credits
Daisy Zimmer Photography Nathan Rehm