Music Adventures

Information may not be reliable

Music Adventures is now in its 33rd year providing piano and guitar lessons to families in Middleburg Heights and surrounding Ohio communities.

It's new!! Check out our new PIANOPOD. It's the first of many MP3 files with the latest sounds from Music Adventures. GUITARPOD coming soon.

The purpose of this Web Site is to answer the questions we so often receive and answer many questions we are not regularly asked but for which we have many answers! Our teaching studio is a converted, renovated farmhouse which is one of the oldest buildings in Middleburg Heights (built in 1885). Many interesting changes to the building were made by, among others, the well known Doraty automobile dealer family during the time of their ownership which helped make it attractive as a music studio.

It is a historic building in many ways. It was built upon and remains on a foundation of famous Berea sandstone and the original 1885 farmhouse siding remains beneath the newer siding. We rebuilt the interior in 1979 into the studio you see in the following pictures.

The Main Parlor
Our piano teaching program is unique for many reasons. For all of our 33 years, all lessons have been given on our Steinway grand piano in the main parlor of the Studio. This is a kind of "living room" and provides comfortable home-like surroundings. With a sofa and high back wing chairs, families can join the lessons and this is usually helpful when young children are starting out. We leave the Christmas picture there al year.

Music Adventures' Director, Dave Osburn, has more than 40 years experience as a piano teacher and musician. His work with children has included pre-school, Montessori environments and summer camps. He was a professional broadcast announcer, writer and award-winning producer during his years with NBC. His youthful training included more than a dozen years of piano lessons with the renowned Marianne Mastics at the Cleveland Institute of Music and advanced work in organ and carillon at the Univerrsity of Michigan. In addition to teaching piano, he is also an established organist and composer. The picture shows Dave Osburn (left) at the organ and also performing on the first carillon ever built in the United States located in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is resident carillonneur at St. Paul's Church in Cleveland Heights. The picture at right shows the church's bell tower.

Piano lessons are given on our Steinway grand piano. Lessons last for a half hour, once each week. The cost is $15.00 per lesson payable monthly.
Highly advanced students can be given one hour lessons at rates determined individually. Missed lessons are customarily made up and we are generous in providing makup times.

The Organ Room
We also have a two manual pipe organ built by Cleveland's renowned Holtkamp Organ Company. It was first built in 1913 as a tubular pneumatic instrument and later converted to electro-pneumatic. One of its more colorful stops is a two rank Sesqui-Altera. It's air pressure is still supplied by the original 1913 all-wood blower and a repulsion-start motor built by Holtkamp-Votteler-Sparling Co. at the turn of the century. Dave Osburn rebuilt the organ and installed it. The organ is an attractive complement to the historic building and it is in perfect playing condition.

The organ bench is unusual, designed by the late Walter Blodgett when he was Curator of Musical Arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The high back rail on the bench was meant to prevent the organist from leaning back too far and tumbling out of the organ balcony when the organ was in the Museum's Garden Court. Dave Osburn took his early organ lessons from maestro Blodgett.

A Warm Fire in the WoodStove
The main parlor also boasts our well-loved woodstove which is used for heating and ambience throughout the winter season. We even have blocks and puzzles which young siblings or friends enjoy during the lessons. Distracting? No. More like home! And certainly not as distracting as an unoccupied young sibling!

An Overview...

The list of those who have taken lessons with us over 33 years is very long indeed. In piano alone, Dave Osburn has given more than 30,000 lessons. We are deliberately creative and imaginative in the way we have rebuilt and remodeled an 1885 home into our music studio, filled it with a superior grand piano, a locally historic pipe organ, a warm living room environment, welcoming woodstove, and even our large satellite dish used primarily for receiving music broadcasts from Canada, New York and Chicago. We apply the same creativity and imagination to our teaching and you can tell that we like it---we have been doing it for 33 years. And, as you can see, we enjoy being creative and fun with our signs, too:

Do not hesitate to call or email us. If you catch us when we can not answer the phone, make sure you leave a message telling us when to call you back.

People often ask about our satellite dish. The big dish has been used for receiving rare music broadcasts from many places since 1984. Smaller ones receive digital music broadcasts primarily from Canada. We have a certain "technical leaning." We have a large library of recorded music for students to enjoy and we can make CDs or audiocassettes of our students' playing when appropriate.

You must at least have a "keyboard" with a minimum of 61 keys which are the same size as standard piano keys. This is the most common type of electronic keyboard. We prefer that you have a piano because keyboard keys are too easy to press and do not provide proper muscle development but we have long realized that keyboards are common and provide a practice instrument to many people who cannot afford or have space for a piano.
Nonetheless, used pianos are reasonably priced and widely available. We ask that if you start lessons with a keyboard, you have in your mind that you will get a piano at some point.
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We give traditional piano lessons but some students practice on a keyboard in their homes. We can play and teach not only classical/traditional but jazz and rock. As students develop and acquire a certainty about their musical future and direction, a keyboard may be very important to them--but playing a keyboard is a natural outgrowth of playing the piano. We would discourage the continued use of a keyboard for lessons after the first year or so and as we said earlier, the sooner a piano is available for practice, the better.

Since each lesson is private and students come in all ages, we use several different "method books" depending on the student and the age. We begin with the basics. As the student advances, we build basic piano skills using a traditional, graduated lesson program including exercizes. To give you a rough idea, we are fond of Diller-Quaile, Alfred D'Auberge, sometimes Leila Fletcher, and then Hanon and Czerny for exercizes and the standard range of Sonatinas. For Bach, Chopin and Debussy we use a series called "An Introduction to his Piano Music." After that, the major Sonatas and the full range of advanced piano music.
As we go along, we include in the lesson an emphasis on music theory and harmony (chord structure) and we promote individual improvisation with a series of materials using the music which is particularly liked by the student and the family. Very often, with younger children, this can be music from Disney films, as an example. For older children, current popular songs or movie themes are typical preferences. This approach allows student choices toward more popular music, development of improvisational skill, and a separate but important way to enjoy the piano more casually. It does not diminish our emphasis on traditional development. (Needless to say, with adults, our approach is styled to the individual person and what each wants to achieve. We have many adult students.)
Finally, we observe that there was an important period of excellent popular music commonly referred to as "American Popular Songs" written between about 1900 and 1960, especially in the 30s and 40s. We think piano and guitar students should know about this music and we make a point of encouraging them to play it as part of the lesson progress when they are able to do so. It is especially suited to improvisation when we are working on those skills.

Our view is that for young people, the best lessons come from someone with whom they are comfortable and who can help maintain their interest even when it wanes, as it inevitably will. At the same time, this teacher must make certain that the student's development is thorough and balanced with proper emphasis on playing, exercizing and sight reading. The teacher needs to maintain the interest and involvement of the family as well and to be able to respond creatively to changes and situations which may unexpectedly occur.
We believe that especially with young people, the teacher's overall experience is critically important because it is in the beginning stages of a child's lessons where some of the most important habits are learned and children respond very differently to the materials they are presented with. They need a teacher who can adapt to each child's particular needs with a creative and imaginative approach grounded in several years of experience. It is not just music experience which is important. Handling children and making them feel comfortable and entertained in a learning environment is also the result of considerable teaching experience. And, regardless of the reputation of the organization to which an individual teacher is attached, the best approach is always to evaluate the individual teacher.

We do not sell instruments or music. Our surroundings are intentionally very different from those of a typical music teaching room. Our reputation in the community has grown for more than a third of a century. We encourage you to make an appointment and come visit to ask questions.

We are usually working with children and like the classes they take in school, they are learning things they did not know before. Classical and "traditional" music growing out of Western European history is overflowing with important melodies and solo and orchestral works which children are not routinely exposed to in schools or through the ordinary media. We view it as an obligation to present certain music to them as part of normal growth in piano development. Also, our extensive library of recorded music is available to interested students. Importantly, we also work to introduce students to more popular music when they are ready for it and encourage them to practice materials they like but which may not be found in typical "lesson books." In this way, the student gains three critical things:

(b) an understanding and appreciation of traditional classical themes and styles unavailable elsewhere;
(c) and also the exposure to their favorite non-classical music and improvisation which gives competence and growth in that area as well.

Significantly, the traditional historic folk music of Europe and America and the easier classical piano pieces are perfect for proper development. Popular music and jazz, while vital, are generally not good in the preparatory stages of learning the piano. They come later. As the student gets older and begins to make personal choices, the level of "classical" emphasis may change and we can change with it.

Guitar Lessons are also a half hour in length and are given in the studio in a spacious room on the second story. Our approach is to develop basic abilities and, by all means, the ability to read music. Reading music is properly assumed for piano lessons, but not always is it guaranteed with guitar lessons. Many young people approach the guitar because it is so prevalent in popular music and they want to imitate--not necessarily become musicians. We understand the need to imitate but we always work to make sure reading music is part of the process. Of course, with adults and some older teens, we will accomodate special requests to go in a certain direction which may not include all of the backup preparation we would like. Our guitar program is stable. One of our guitar teachers was with us for 13 years. Students are generally long term students and so are our teachers. At one time, we had about 70 students in our "come one come all" guitar program but these days, the program is much smaller and more focused on individual private lessons.
To those who show interest and real growth beyond the basics, our program takes students into advanced theory, improvisation, and composition. The cost is approx. $14 per lesson payable monthly.
Missed lessons are made up and like piano, we are generous in providing makeup times.
Note: While many students start out on a nylon string guitar, this is customarily a "classical" guitar. It is fine for getting started, but a steel string guitar is essential eventually. We do not give instruction in the style of guitar playing normally referred to as "classical" guitar.

We have small acoustic guitars which we rent for a three month period for $30. These are old reliable instruments but they are not the fancy instruments of a young person's dreams. Nonetheless, they give an opportunity to start, learn about the guitar, and you can then buy a good guitar at your own pace and while we are happy to give some advice, we do not sell instruments or music.

Rather than recitals, we encourage and prepare students for competitions whenever they are capable. We believe recitals should allow students to be heard by several of their same-age peers, especially peers who are also taking music lessons. Typically, their "real" peers are not taking similar lessons at our studio but are in their schools, neighborhood, and church and it is in these venues where children should perform. Also, we have a wide range of ages and it is difficult to gather similar ages in a single recital.
Therefore, we greatly encourage participation in school and church talent shows, and, at the junior and senior high school level, we strongly promote participation the Solo and Ensemble competitions which are held in the schools each spring. Naturally, we prepare the student for these events.

For children, piano and guitar lessons customarily last through high school regardless of when they are begun. It is fair to say that the family of the average student should plan on continuing lessons through senior year in high school as a regular part of the child's pre-college education and stay in regular contact with the teacher about progress and potential.

For adults, it depends more on whether there were any lessons when they were younger, finger dexterity, and how much time they can practice.
Therefore, the best general answer is "quite a few years."