Join us for an inspiring episode as we explore the fascinating world of music education with our guest, Jason Hart of Hart Music Studios in Tenafly, New Jersey. Jason's journey into music began at nine, sparked by the influence of his grandfather, a talented pianist from the 1940s Texas swing bands. Listen to how his passion for piano evolved through a performing arts school education in Central Florida and later under the mentorship of the remarkable Robert MacDonald. We swap personal stories, reflecting on the universal joys and connections that music brings, while Jason's transition from solo piano performance to collaborative work in opera and Broadway required mastering languages like French, German, and Italian.
Witness the vibrant cultural landscape of New York City through Jason's eyes as he and his opera-singing spouse navigate the bustling arts scene. This episode also touches on the founding of Hart Music Studios as a heartfelt endeavor to share his passion with the community. Discover how music educators adapted during the pandemic, and Jason's unique approach to teaching adult learners, where the joy of learning takes precedence over the destination. As we discuss the nuances of adult education, Jason shares insights on the balance between learning music theory and pursuing specific songs, emphasizing a holistic approach to enrich the student's musical journey.
Hart Music Studios
Jason Hart
Tenafly, NJ 07670
(201) 701-0831
hms@hartmusicstudios.com
hartmusicstudios.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Doug Rohan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast comingto you.
Live from Bergen County, newJersey.
It's a nice January winter day,the way winters were made to be
.
It's January winter day, theway winters were made to be.
And today we are joined byJason Hart of Hart Music Studios
, based just down the road fromme in Tenafly, new Jersey.
(00:31):
Welcome to the show.
Hi, thanks, doug.
Thanks for having me.
So some, you know I know ourviewers can't see what's behind
me sitting here at my desk butthere is a poster of Dave
Brubeck that's autographed byDave Brubeck, his famous album
Take Five.
And then there's an autographedposter of Alex Lifeson and
(00:53):
Geddy Lee, which were one of myfavorite bands in high school
and college.
Rush from Canada.
I've got gold records and someother music memorabilia because
I used to work in the musicindustry for about 13 years.
So, um, wonderful, play guitarand uh.
So you know I'm happy to have amusician and music teacher on
(01:14):
the show.
So, uh, you know, let's getright into it.
So you are a musician yourself,I, I take it that's correct,
donk.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I've been playing piano for about 30 plus years
now.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Okay.
So was it something that yourparents said you got to take
piano lessons when you're likefive years old and you're like
kicking and screaming and sayingI don't want to do this, I want
to go out and play, or was itsomething that you took on
yourself later on?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You know it's funny.
It's actually something I tookon myself.
I started piano at about ninebut I had been asking my parents
for lessons for a couple ofyears and I think they were just
like oh, it's a fad or it's aphase, or you see other kids
doing it.
But I persisted and theyfinally relented, got me an
(02:00):
upright piano and away I went.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Nice, nice.
So you were the only one inyour house who was taking up the
piano, or did you have siblingsthat also took lessons?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
My younger brother did take lessons after me for a
couple of years.
Neither of my parents weremusicians but interestingly
enough, my father's father was apianist himself.
Oh, played, yeah, and heactually played in the uh 40s,
early 40s, with the westernswing bands out of texas wow,
(02:35):
wow yeah so let's see portarthur texas in the 40s um who
was famous back then.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Kind of thing of bob wills bob will from the wills.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That's it yep, a big inspiration to him and, I
believe, one of the players thatwas in his band went on to play
with bob wills later in historyyeah, nice, nice, that's great,
that's great.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
so, um, you know, just to interject my own story
in here, because you know I talkabout myself, I'm just kidding
but so I I took up guitar when Iwas like 17, but it was a
guitar laying in my housebecause my older sister, uh, I
had three, three older siblings.
So my older sister first tooklessons and she had a music book
that had American Pie in it andum and Levi.
(03:20):
I mean it was like all these,uh, you know old songs from the
70s.
And then my brother and thenshe didn.
I mean it was like all these,uh, you know old songs from the
seventies.
And then my brother and thenshe didn't stick with it.
And then my brother took it upbriefly, then my other sister
took it up and then, uh, when Iwas in high school, my good
friend was in a band, but Iremember sitting at a party and
people were like passing theguitar around and singing songs
(03:40):
and they were doing the who andand it was like so much fun with
everybody singing along andthese guys playing.
I thought, man, I want to learnguitar.
And then I told my parents Iwant to take guitar lessons and
I went to Monroe Music inNorthport or East Northport,
long Island, and that's where Igot my first guitar lessons with
my Aria Pro 2 guitar Excellentand that was my girlfriend for
(04:03):
many, many years.
I brought my guitar with me to.
England.
When I went to England for ayear, I brought my guitar with
me.
I was not going to leave homewithout it.
It's kind of like an AmericanExpress or something.
But so what was it like for youthen?
So you start taking pianolessons at age nine and it's
like Elton John and Rocket man.
All of a sudden you start,you've enrolled in music school,
(04:24):
or what was your journey like?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, so I ended up going, when I was about 14, to a
performing arts school, whichwas really great.
I grew up in Central Florida,lakeland, florida, which is
right between Tampa and Orlando,and got accepted to a
performing arts school, had fouryears of great tutelage there.
(04:47):
It really prepared me to go onand do music in college.
I was able to clap out of myfirst year of music theory
because of my background at theperforming arts school and so
after performing arts school,after high school, I stayed in
the same town where I grew upand went to college there and
(05:10):
there was a gentleman at thecollege, the local college there
, who was a real jewel for thistown.
His name was Robert MacDonaldand he had grown up in North
Carolina, was a soldier in WorldWar II.
He had grown up in NorthCarolina, was a soldier in World
War II and after World War IItook the GI Bill and was able,
got accepted to study at theHochschule von Musik in Vienna
(05:35):
and some of his colleagues wereamong some of the great German
pianists of the late 20th, ofthe second half of the 20th
century Jörg Deimus Albeder ofSkoda.
So he was a real of the late20th of the, you know, second
half of the 20th century.
Uh, your damos albedo, escoda,uh, so he was a real, uh, had a
real solid classically, you knowtrained background and I just
learned a ton from him wow, wow,I like, I like your
pronunciation, the hoax, soanyway, yeah, so that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So then, your journey goes from you studying in
college and did you have any?
Um dreams of being in a band,or were you more classically
trained and you wanted to playin august, or like what happened
, um, like what were your dreamsat that point?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
to continue, yeah, I you know, I think I do I wanted
to do something with music.
I think I had a performingcareer in mind.
Uh, probably, like a lot ofpeople, um, definitely wanted to
, I think, stay in the classicalarena.
I love playing with bands.
I do some playing with bandsfrom time to time, uh, but I, I
feel like my, my heart and soulreally mostly grown, uh, drawn
(06:37):
to classical music.
Um, so I had dreams of, youknow, being a performing
classical pianist.
But though, you know, to beperfectly honest, those are the
0.001% of people that are doingthat.
You know, it's like going tothe NFL to have a real career
doing that.
So I've had a number ofwonderful, you know performance
experiences throughout my career.
(06:57):
What I did after my, myundergraduate is I went, I got a
, was working towards a master'sdegree and changed my focus a
little bit.
So, where my undergraduatedegree was in piano performance,
when I was working on amaster's degree, I I switched
and was doing what they callcollaborative piano what you
probably more commonly know as acompany and I was working
(07:19):
mostly with singers, which isreally interesting to like
access to a whole new world ofknowledge, of knowing about
singing, broadway singing, operasinging and as part of that I
had to kind of become basicallyproficient in Spanish.
I mean not Spanish, but inFrench, german and Italian,
because those are the three mainlanguages that opera is done in
(07:40):
.
So I really enjoyed doing that.
I've probably played, for youknow, thousand plus voice
lessons in my time, been able toplay in the studios of some
really wonderful, verywell-known voice teachers.
So my career kind of took alittle bit of a curve there, but
definitely still very rewarding.
(08:01):
And I think you know theperforming career is you're
stuck in that practice room byyourself for six, seven, eight
hours a day and I needed moreinteraction with people.
I'm not a person who can just,you know, sit in a practice room
for that many hours a day bymyself.
I like working with others,other musicians.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I just started to watch the Maria Callas movie
with Angelina Jolie interesting.
So, you know, I I started towatch a movie and I then I have
to pull up wikipedia and startreading about interesting life
she had.
I didn't realize, um, she livedin astoria, which is where my
first apartment was astoria,queensland.
I guess if you're greek, itmakes sense, if you're greek
(08:41):
descent, you live in astoria.
But um, yeah, yeah, I startedto watch.
Have you seen the movie?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I have not seen it yet.
No, my wife and I are going tosit down and watch it soon, nice
, nice.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So then, what brought you to the New York
metropolitan area?
So you're in Florida basicallyyour whole childhood and college
.
So what brought you up this way?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, so I was in florida for my undergrad, I I
did my um, my master's work inin tennessee.
I shot in nashville for a fewyears, so that was actually an
interesting place to be, uh.
But then, uh, my wife and Iboth just felt, uh, we wanted
something, we wanted somethingbigger.
And, uh, interestingly enough,we we packed our stuff up in a
(09:22):
truck and drove to New York withno jobs no apartment.
I found a job.
The second day I was inManhattan.
I sold the New York Post forabout a week, which was very,
very interesting, wow.
So my wife is also an artist aswell.
She's an opera singer.
(09:42):
She works in business now, butis a trained opera singer.
The first few years in New Yorkwe were doing the typical
musician thing.
We had temp jobs and we woulddo music things in the evenings
and started to make ourselves,get within, knowing people and
working our way at the scene ofNew York.
(10:03):
There's so many opportunitiesin New York to perform, which is
wonderful.
Right, right, so that was 2004.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Been here a little over 20 years now, yeah, so
you're living in Manhattan atthe time or in New York City?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yes, yeah, we lived in Manhattan for about just
under 10 years and then, in 2012, my daughter was born and, like
a lot of families, we realizedthat Manhattan real estate is
expensive and we wantedsomething else.
So we came out to Bergen Countyin 2013, lived in Fort Lee for
(10:38):
about 20 months, I think it was,and then in January of 2015, so
just about 10 years ago webought our house here in Tenafly
.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Nice, nice, yeah.
And the thing about NorthernValley, whether it's Englewood,
fort Lee, tenafly I'm inharrington park, you know up
that whole, like palisadesparkway corridor is a lot of
people, like the proximity tothe city, yeah, so you still get
a little bit of a cosmopolitanneighborhood.
You know, a lot of yourneighbors work in the city,
they're professionals, a lot ofpeople in media um or in the
(11:08):
arts, which is really cool, andI think that's why this part of
Bergen County is different thancenter or Western Bergen County.
Um, I publish a magazine ofWyckoff and I have three in
Northern Valley areas.
So I see the difference in thetypes of families that we
feature and certainly the typesof businesses and what people do
for a living.
Um, and I think there's agreater connection to the arts
(11:32):
in this part of um of BergenCounty because of our proximity
to the city, especially Tanaflyand Englewood, englewood Cliffs
in that area.
So I mean, so you know I workedas a waiter when I was going to
college in the city.
You know I play guitar but I wasnever a professional musician.
It's a hobby, I still play, Ilove it, but you know I was
(11:54):
never, never a musician, but Iworked with a lot of musicians,
a lot of people that went onauditions or that were in bands.
Uh, my wife's cousin, uh,studied at juilliard a little
bit and um, you know, so Iunderstand the life in some ways
.
But, um, you know where, atwhat point did you open the
heart music studios and and findI guess do you call it your
(12:14):
calling, or find that you loveto teach students, to kind of
pass on the passion that youhave?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Sure.
So when we moved out here toBergen County, before we moved
out, I was getting to do what Ido at a pretty high level.
There was a period within aboutsix weeks where I was in a
recording studio with TreyAnastasio from Phish, and then I
(12:43):
was again about six weeks later.
There was a singer I wasworking with and he got to
audition for Placido Domingo.
So I got to go backstage at theMetropolitan Opera, meet
Placido Domingo who's one of thethree tenors, very well known
and play for him.
But I realized if I was goingto keep yeah, it was a really,
really cool experience.
He came down and it wasintermission and he was playing
(13:06):
King Neptune I don't rememberwhich opera, but he came in the
full King Neptune garb.
It was pretty cool.
But I realized, if I was goingto keep doing that kind of work,
that I'd never seen my kids.
I'd have off hours.
The commute into and out of thecity would be, you know, not
fun, not ideal for being apresent dad, which is something
I was, you know, told myself Iwanted to be.
(13:27):
So I decided to take a turn.
You know something I had taughtbefore?
So I decided to take a turn.
You know, something I hadtaught before, I felt like I was
pretty good at it and when?
So when I, when we moved to PortLee, I didn't open up a studio
or start teaching there, becausewe knew it was going to be a
temporary spot.
(13:47):
So actually for that, you know,20 months or so, I actually got
to be a stay at home dad withmy daughter, which was really
nice.
And then when we found thishouse in Tenafly, we weren't
even specifically looking atTenafly, but we liked old houses
.
This house was built in 1895,and it had an addition on the
side of it with a separateentrance, and was previously
used by a child psychologist.
But when we walked in, I'm likethis is perfect for teaching
(14:09):
piano.
It has a nice-sized room and ithas a separate entrance with
room for a little lobby, youknow, for people to sit and wait
and so um, we bought the houseand uh, then, after we moved in,
I started.
You know, uh, at first I wastraveling to people's houses.
Uh and um, just trying to getanything right, trying to get
(14:30):
get the ball rolling, getstarted.
But eventually eventually, aftera year, I was able to build up
a clientele of people who cometo me and feel, feel very
blessed, you know, I mean, Ithink I knew what.
I I think, within maybe twoyears, I had a full studio and I
had a waiting list.
So, wow, wow, like you say, Ithink there's a lot of families
(14:52):
in this community, in thisgeneral area, who appreciate the
arts, who want, uh, you know,someone, um, who knows what
they're doing, to work, to workwith their kids, you know, and
teach them music right, and thenobviously you're, you're uh
trained piano, but you also haveuh lessons for guitar and and
other instruments.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
so yeah, so uh I uh.
After a couple few years ofjust being on my own, I decided
to hire a couple of teachers, uhwho work for me and uh where I
stay here at my studio.
They travel to students homeswithin tenafly and teach so uh
just within tenafly just withintenafly.
Yeah, because they try to keepthings close.
(15:31):
If someone's driving 15 minutesit just doesn't work
economically.
It's better to keep theteachers not traveling far.
So we work within Tenafly.
I had two teachers up untilthis year.
One of my teachers.
After six years she got married, she moved over to the other
(15:52):
side of the county and isestablishing herself as a
teacher, uh, over there.
So I do have one teacher, john,who, uh, who's been with me.
He's in his seventh year withme now.
He's fantastic.
He teaches piano, he teachesguitar, uh, and he also teaches,
uh, ukulele.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So, wow, ukulele yeah , yeah, a lot of requests to
learn the ukulele he's got acouple, yeah, got a couple
Tiptoe through the tulips.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, right, a little tiny tip, yeah, yeah yeah,
that's funny.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So I guess you know there was a bit of a change
during COVID where you couldn'tgo to people's homes, right?
So how did you guys survive?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
What did you do to pivot during that time?
Uh, that was the time of pivot.
We were all just pivoting,right, uh.
So we very quickly pivoted toto doing online lessons.
Um, it was.
It was not easy, uh, for me itwas not fun, um, uh, but but we
made it through.
You know, we pushed through.
We didn't really lose that manystudents I think we maybe had a
10 drop off in students orsomething uh, but it was.
(17:02):
It was quite exhausting for forall of us.
I'm not, I'm not gonna lie foranybody, I think, in the
education space, I mean formultiple spaces, right, but
right, um, especially for youknow, for me it's like having to
look at the screen, for youknow, three hours straight.
Yeah, I'm a teacher, I don'tlike to sit down, I like to move
, I like to pace and get some ofmy steps going while I'm
(17:23):
teaching.
Um, but, but, we did, we didmake it through.
Um, and uh, I, I, you know, I,I did have a number of, I don't,
I haven't had a ton of studentsthat have carried on since.
So I kind of had an I, uh,almost a total reboot after
covet really, with a wholeanother set of students.
But, um, yeah, it was, it wastough, but we made it through so
(17:47):
what?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
uh, yeah, I mean, I'd imagine like, where do you have
the camera?
Do you want to look at theirfingers on the keyboard?
Are you looking at their face?
Or you know how do you do thatto adjust the camera.
So you're watching, obviouslyyou're listening, but, yeah, I
could see the complexities inmusical instruction because
you're looking and listening atthe same time and you have to
have your eyes in differentplaces.
Yeah, so that was 2020.
(18:09):
And now, you know, fast forwardfour years.
Uh, you have a number of, youknow, instructors working with
you.
You, you guys have branched out.
Now, one of the one of thethings I've seen uh, grow a
little bit in popularity is theschool of rock format, you know,
where you could join a band and, uh, kind of rock out, whether,
whether you're my age, becauseI actually have a woman that is
(18:32):
in Demarest who was on my show,she's a therapist and she's in a
band and, in fact, when sheheard about my story, about how
I play guitar, she invited me tocome in and watch them perform
and maybe join their band, whichI'm a little nervous doing.
But I see, the great thingabout musical instruments
nowadays is that it used to belike well, if I didn't learn as
a kid, I'm done, but I'm surewell, you could answer this Do
(18:55):
you have adults that are takingup instruments for the first
time and and uh, you know, I'dimagine majority of your
students are younger, but do youhave an older population?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I do, yeah, so I've got about seven adult students,
I think right now, uh, I teach,I think it's about it's about 22
youngins in the afternoons, youknow.
But with the adult studentsit's, it's a lot of fun.
I've got people from differentages, I've had people from very
different walks of life and Ireally actually love working
(19:27):
with adults.
It's different, it's, it's, youknow, I think typically with
with kids no-transcript thebody's working faster than the
mind, and with adults it's alittle different the mind is
usually working faster than thebody.
So it's a different approach, alittle bit Um, but I, uh, I
really enjoy it myself and Ialso, um, something that I'm
(19:50):
have been doing over the pasttwo years to kind of not not
just for this reason, but torelate to my adult students is,
uh, I've been studying Japanesewith a sensei for the past two
years.
So I have a sensei I meet withonce a week and, just like my
adults, I'm taking myself out ofmy comfort zone.
I'm doing something for thefirst time that I've never done
before, right?
(20:11):
So I relate a lot of that to myadult experience.
If they're struggling or, youknow, having confidence issues,
I talk about my own experiencebecause I know it's difficult,
but it's so rewarding for me.
It's one of my favorite timesof the week and I have adults
that tell me that piano is oneof their favorite times of the
week, something they lookforward to, and if they can't
(20:32):
come they miss it.
But yeah, I love working withadults and I actually have a
couple spaces available to workwith a couple more adults.
If there's anybody out thereinterested, please contact
adults and I actually have acouple of spaces available to
work with a couple more adults.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
If there's anybody out there interested, please
contact me and that's with youpersonally.
It's piano, that's piano,that's piano, yeah, yeah.
Now.
Do you ever have any studentsthat say I just want to learn
these songs, I don't really careabout theory.
Do you ever do that?
Say, well, you know, let's justlearn the chords and we'll
learn the song you know, andit's not about learning theory.
Do you have students like that,or do you not?
(21:02):
Do you discourage that type oflearning?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
I do have had a couple students like that.
I do kind of discourage it.
I understand wanting a goalright, Wanting to play this
piece right, Wanting to playthis song, wanting a goal right,
Wanting to play this pieceright, Wanting to play this song
, Um, but I think part of it is,uh, I try to get people to
(21:28):
enjoy the journey, focus on thejourney, not necessarily on the
goal Right.
Um, if you're not enjoying thejourney of learning, uh, I don't
think you're ever really goingto.
It's going to be much harder toreach those, those goals.
So, uh, while I do have peoplethat try to, I will try to.
I don't want to say sway themaway, but I will try to kind of
work around it a little bit,massage it a little bit and try
(21:51):
to set expectations Right,because sometimes people want to
just do a goal and it's just,you know, there's no shortcut,
sometimes, I guess, do a goaland it's just.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
You know, there's no shortcut.
Sometimes I guess it's right,right, yeah, yeah, especially
with music.
Yeah, I mean with the advent ofyoutube, and I mean on the
guitar side, if I want to learna song, I just go on youtube and
I can watch a guy.
Now, guitar is a little biteasier.
Um, you know, it's just aboutthe chords and certainly the
rhythm and um, but it's, I loveit, you know I love.
Oh, man, I want to learn how tosong.
All right, I find a good videoof a good instructor and you
(22:20):
know I practice and all of asudden I've got that song down
which I never would have hadbefore.
It's not good for the publishingbusiness that used to publish,
you know, music books.
But yeah, you know we're alldealing with that now.
So you have students thatstarted at different ages and do
you find that a lot of themstick with you for years and
(22:42):
they go on to pursue I mean,obviously there's all different,
I guess, journeys, as you say.
But what, what's your typicalage of a starting student?
And like, well, you know howmany years do you usually find
that they work with you?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Sure.
So I think probably the typicalage is starting is, let's say,
around six, um five, six, seven,and I would say on average that
my students, I would say, staywith me probably four to five
years.
Um, I feel very oh, covid was alittle bit of um right outlier
(23:22):
with kind of that, but uh,really, uh, overall I feel like
I'm proud of my retention rate.
I feel like I'm I can uh, youknow that again, I think four or
five years is a pretty goodretention rate.
I do have a I do have a you knowa student right now who's been
with me probably for eight yearsnow.
He's a sophomore in high school.
(23:43):
I don't know if he wants to goon to music in college yet he
hasn't expressed that to me, buthe would be prepared to and I
think if I have a student thatstarts at six, I know how to
prepare them for if they wantedto go on an audition for
Juilliard or audition for, youknow, Manhattan school.
(24:06):
I'm not saying they wouldnecessarily get in, but that
they would be able to meet theentrance requirements.
You know that they.
I feel confident in myabilities to get you know
somebody from point A to pointto point Z, that's great, and
how many days a week doessomebody typically come for
instruction?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Is it one day a week or two days?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Typically one day a week.
So for children, little ones, Istart with 30, and then after
two or three years we'llevaluate and if they're ready to
move up to 45 uh minutes, we'lldo that.
Adults, I I highly recommendstarting with 45 minutes, yeah,
and that's typically what I.
I offer a a discount to kind ofincite, uh, insight and entice
(24:50):
people to take them right yeah,entice them to take a 45 minute
session, because I feel likeit's really that extra 15
minutes you wouldn't think makesthat much of a difference, but
I think it really does.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, so you mentioned about you know having
your students understand, likeloving the journey and not
worrying so much about theoutcome.
You know there's a line from afield of dreams.
Build it and they will come.
You know you just keep buildingit and building it and just
keep your head down.
So you know embracing thejourney.
There's something also withbeing a business owner about you
(25:22):
know understanding that maybeyour success isn't going to come
overnight, that there's goingto be some trials and
tribulations.
What has it been like for you?
I mean, you and your wife havea great kind of entrepreneurial
story because you just packed upand moved to Manhattan without,
you know, a dollar and a dream,so to speak.
What has the journey been likefor you?
(25:47):
And then, what kind of advicecan you give to other business
owners, whether they're in musicor they're in baking cookies,
if you want to talk about yourjourney and then what you've
learned from it?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah, I think what I've learned through my journey
is it's rust your gut.
I think I've learned that earlyon.
And again, I know my businessis not a type of business where
(26:19):
you're trying to like.
It's not mass product or massor mass service that you're
trying to move.
But for my you know my stylebusiness I've learned quickly to
identify people who I think aregoing to cause me problems, um,
and we'll find a way to notwork with them, right, um, so uh
(26:40):
, to me, I think on that, like,trust your gut if you think
someone's going to be a problem,my, my, experience has taught
me they're probably going to bea problem.
Um and uh, a short-term gain isnot worth a long-term headache.
Maybe that's another way to putthat.
Um uh, I think being able topivot on a moment's notice is
(27:01):
huge for any business, like wedid have to do during COVID.
I mean literally.
I think we pivoted within twoweeks I think we were doing to
from doing our business one wayand now we're doing it a
completely different way.
We did that within two weeks,but that took a lot of trial and
error.
It took a lot ofexperimentation.
At first we just had one cameraand then we each figured out
(27:25):
you know what, if we have twocameras, we can switch between
our face and the keyboard.
So if I need, to demonstratesomething on the keyboard.
I hit a button to switch cameras.
So embrace technology.
Maybe that's another.
I think technology can makeyour job easier.
I don't know if any of that'sgood or helpful.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, no, absolutely yeah, that's great.
So how would people get intouch with you?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
You can get in touch with me.
My website is currently down,but we'll hopefully be back up
by the time this broadcast.
My website is www.
hartmusicstudios.
com.
It's H-A-R-T.
You can also email me at HMS@heartmusicstudios.
com.
(28:10):
Those are probably the two bestways to reach me, and if you're
interested in lessons inTenafly for yourself or your
child, please reach out.
We'd be happy to meet you andjust trying to get more music
out in the world, yeah yeah.
We need it.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
It's a great thing.
Yeah, absolutely, Jason.
Thanks very much for joining us.
I should have had you lead usin with if you have a piano
nearby, a keyboard nearby, toplay a little bit for us, but
maybe we'll do that another time.
All right, sure?
Thanks so much for being on theshow and just bear with me for
a few seconds and we'll be rightback.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
All right.
Thanks, doug.
Thank you for listening to theGood Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show go to gnpbergen.
com.
That's gnpbergencom.
Go to gnpbergen.
com that's gnpbergencom.
No-transcript.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Doug Rohan.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast comingto you.
Live from Bergen County, newJersey.
It's a nice January winter day,the way winters were made to be
.
It's January winter day, theway winters were made to be.
And today we are joined byJason Hart of Hart Music Studios
, based just down the road fromme in Tenafly, new Jersey.
(00:31):
Welcome to the show.
Hi, thanks, doug.
Thanks for having me.
So some, you know I know ourviewers can't see what's behind
me sitting here at my desk butthere is a poster of Dave
Brubeck that's autographed byDave Brubeck, his famous album
Take Five.
And then there's an autographedposter of Alex Lifeson and
(00:53):
Geddy Lee, which were one of myfavorite bands in high school
and college.
Rush from Canada.
I've got gold records and someother music memorabilia because
I used to work in the musicindustry for about 13 years.
So, um, wonderful, play guitarand uh.
So you know I'm happy to have amusician and music teacher on
(01:14):
the show.
So, uh, you know, let's getright into it.
So you are a musician yourself,I, I take it that's correct,
donk.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I've been playing piano for about 30 plus years
now.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Okay.
So was it something that yourparents said you got to take
piano lessons when you're likefive years old and you're like
kicking and screaming and sayingI don't want to do this, I want
to go out and play, or was itsomething that you took on
yourself later on?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
You know it's funny.
It's actually something I tookon myself.
I started piano at about ninebut I had been asking my parents
for lessons for a couple ofyears and I think they were just
like oh, it's a fad or it's aphase, or you see other kids
doing it.
But I persisted and theyfinally relented, got me an
(02:00):
upright piano and away I went.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Nice, nice.
So you were the only one inyour house who was taking up the
piano, or did you have siblingsthat also took lessons?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
My younger brother did take lessons after me for a
couple of years.
Neither of my parents weremusicians but interestingly
enough, my father's father was apianist himself.
Oh, played, yeah, and heactually played in the uh 40s,
early 40s, with the westernswing bands out of texas wow,
(02:35):
wow yeah so let's see portarthur texas in the 40s um who
was famous back then.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Kind of thing of bob wills bob will from the wills.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That's it yep, a big inspiration to him and, I
believe, one of the players thatwas in his band went on to play
with bob wills later in historyyeah, nice, nice, that's great,
that's great.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
so, um, you know, just to interject my own story
in here, because you know I talkabout myself, I'm just kidding
but so I I took up guitar when Iwas like 17, but it was a
guitar laying in my housebecause my older sister, uh, I
had three, three older siblings.
So my older sister first tooklessons and she had a music book
that had American Pie in it andum and Levi.
(03:20):
I mean it was like all these,uh, you know old songs from the
70s.
And then my brother and thenshe didn.
I mean it was like all these,uh, you know old songs from the
seventies.
And then my brother and thenshe didn't stick with it.
And then my brother took it upbriefly, then my other sister
took it up and then, uh, when Iwas in high school, my good
friend was in a band, but Iremember sitting at a party and
people were like passing theguitar around and singing songs
(03:40):
and they were doing the who andand it was like so much fun with
everybody singing along andthese guys playing.
I thought, man, I want to learnguitar.
And then I told my parents Iwant to take guitar lessons and
I went to Monroe Music inNorthport or East Northport,
long Island, and that's where Igot my first guitar lessons with
my Aria Pro 2 guitar Excellentand that was my girlfriend for
(04:03):
many, many years.
I brought my guitar with me to.
England.
When I went to England for ayear, I brought my guitar with
me.
I was not going to leave homewithout it.
It's kind of like an AmericanExpress or something.
But so what was it like for youthen?
So you start taking pianolessons at age nine and it's
like Elton John and Rocket man.
All of a sudden you start,you've enrolled in music school,
(04:24):
or what was your journey like?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, so I ended up going, when I was about 14, to a
performing arts school, whichwas really great.
I grew up in Central Florida,lakeland, florida, which is
right between Tampa and Orlando,and got accepted to a
performing arts school, had fouryears of great tutelage there.
(04:47):
It really prepared me to go onand do music in college.
I was able to clap out of myfirst year of music theory
because of my background at theperforming arts school and so
after performing arts school,after high school, I stayed in
the same town where I grew upand went to college there and
(05:10):
there was a gentleman at thecollege, the local college there
, who was a real jewel for thistown.
His name was Robert MacDonaldand he had grown up in North
Carolina, was a soldier in WorldWar II.
He had grown up in NorthCarolina, was a soldier in World
War II and after World War IItook the GI Bill and was able,
got accepted to study at theHochschule von Musik in Vienna
(05:35):
and some of his colleagues wereamong some of the great German
pianists of the late 20th, ofthe second half of the 20th
century Jörg Deimus Albeder ofSkoda.
So he was a real of the late20th of the, you know, second
half of the 20th century.
Uh, your damos albedo, escoda,uh, so he was a real, uh, had a
real solid classically, you knowtrained background and I just
learned a ton from him wow, wow,I like, I like your
pronunciation, the hoax, soanyway, yeah, so that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So then, your journey goes from you studying in
college and did you have any?
Um dreams of being in a band,or were you more classically
trained and you wanted to playin august, or like what happened
, um, like what were your dreamsat that point?
Speaker 3 (06:17):
to continue, yeah, I you know, I think I do I wanted
to do something with music.
I think I had a performingcareer in mind.
Uh, probably, like a lot ofpeople, um, definitely wanted to
, I think, stay in the classicalarena.
I love playing with bands.
I do some playing with bandsfrom time to time, uh, but I, I
feel like my, my heart and soulreally mostly grown, uh, drawn
(06:37):
to classical music.
Um, so I had dreams of, youknow, being a performing
classical pianist.
But though, you know, to beperfectly honest, those are the
0.001% of people that are doingthat.
You know, it's like going tothe NFL to have a real career
doing that.
So I've had a number ofwonderful, you know performance
experiences throughout my career.
(06:57):
What I did after my, myundergraduate is I went, I got a
, was working towards a master'sdegree and changed my focus a
little bit.
So, where my undergraduatedegree was in piano performance,
when I was working on amaster's degree, I I switched
and was doing what they callcollaborative piano what you
probably more commonly know as acompany and I was working
(07:19):
mostly with singers, which isreally interesting to like
access to a whole new world ofknowledge, of knowing about
singing, broadway singing, operasinging and as part of that I
had to kind of become basicallyproficient in Spanish.
I mean not Spanish, but inFrench, german and Italian,
because those are the three mainlanguages that opera is done in
(07:40):
.
So I really enjoyed doing that.
I've probably played, for youknow, thousand plus voice
lessons in my time, been able toplay in the studios of some
really wonderful, verywell-known voice teachers.
So my career kind of took alittle bit of a curve there, but
definitely still very rewarding.
(08:01):
And I think you know theperforming career is you're
stuck in that practice room byyourself for six, seven, eight
hours a day and I needed moreinteraction with people.
I'm not a person who can just,you know, sit in a practice room
for that many hours a day bymyself.
I like working with others,other musicians.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
So I just started to watch the Maria Callas movie
with Angelina Jolie interesting.
So, you know, I I started towatch a movie and I then I have
to pull up wikipedia and startreading about interesting life
she had.
I didn't realize, um, she livedin astoria, which is where my
first apartment was astoria,queensland.
I guess if you're greek, itmakes sense, if you're greek
(08:41):
descent, you live in astoria.
But um, yeah, yeah, I startedto watch.
Have you seen the movie?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
I have not seen it yet.
No, my wife and I are going tosit down and watch it soon, nice
, nice.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So then, what brought you to the New York
metropolitan area?
So you're in Florida basicallyyour whole childhood and college
.
So what brought you up this way?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, so I was in florida for my undergrad, I I
did my um, my master's work inin tennessee.
I shot in nashville for a fewyears, so that was actually an
interesting place to be, uh.
But then, uh, my wife and Iboth just felt, uh, we wanted
something, we wanted somethingbigger.
And, uh, interestingly enough,we we packed our stuff up in a
(09:22):
truck and drove to New York withno jobs no apartment.
I found a job.
The second day I was inManhattan.
I sold the New York Post forabout a week, which was very,
very interesting, wow.
So my wife is also an artist aswell.
She's an opera singer.
(09:42):
She works in business now, butis a trained opera singer.
The first few years in New Yorkwe were doing the typical
musician thing.
We had temp jobs and we woulddo music things in the evenings
and started to make ourselves,get within, knowing people and
working our way at the scene ofNew York.
(10:03):
There's so many opportunitiesin New York to perform, which is
wonderful.
Right, right, so that was 2004.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Been here a little over 20 years now, yeah, so
you're living in Manhattan atthe time or in New York City?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Yes, yeah, we lived in Manhattan for about just
under 10 years and then, in 2012, my daughter was born and, like
a lot of families, we realizedthat Manhattan real estate is
expensive and we wantedsomething else.
So we came out to Bergen Countyin 2013, lived in Fort Lee for
(10:38):
about 20 months, I think it was,and then in January of 2015, so
just about 10 years ago webought our house here in Tenafly
.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Nice, nice, yeah.
And the thing about NorthernValley, whether it's Englewood,
fort Lee, tenafly I'm inharrington park, you know up
that whole, like palisadesparkway corridor is a lot of
people, like the proximity tothe city, yeah, so you still get
a little bit of a cosmopolitanneighborhood.
You know, a lot of yourneighbors work in the city,
they're professionals, a lot ofpeople in media um or in the
(11:08):
arts, which is really cool, andI think that's why this part of
Bergen County is different thancenter or Western Bergen County.
Um, I publish a magazine ofWyckoff and I have three in
Northern Valley areas.
So I see the difference in thetypes of families that we
feature and certainly the typesof businesses and what people do
for a living.
Um, and I think there's agreater connection to the arts
(11:32):
in this part of um of BergenCounty because of our proximity
to the city, especially Tanaflyand Englewood, englewood Cliffs
in that area.
So I mean, so you know I workedas a waiter when I was going to
college in the city.
You know I play guitar but I wasnever a professional musician.
It's a hobby, I still play, Ilove it, but you know I was
(11:54):
never, never a musician, but Iworked with a lot of musicians,
a lot of people that went onauditions or that were in bands.
Uh, my wife's cousin, uh,studied at juilliard a little
bit and um, you know, so Iunderstand the life in some ways
.
But, um, you know where, atwhat point did you open the
heart music studios and and findI guess do you call it your
(12:14):
calling, or find that you loveto teach students, to kind of
pass on the passion that youhave?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Sure.
So when we moved out here toBergen County, before we moved
out, I was getting to do what Ido at a pretty high level.
There was a period within aboutsix weeks where I was in a
recording studio with TreyAnastasio from Phish, and then I
(12:43):
was again about six weeks later.
There was a singer I wasworking with and he got to
audition for Placido Domingo.
So I got to go backstage at theMetropolitan Opera, meet
Placido Domingo who's one of thethree tenors, very well known
and play for him.
But I realized if I was goingto keep yeah, it was a really,
really cool experience.
He came down and it wasintermission and he was playing
(13:06):
King Neptune I don't rememberwhich opera, but he came in the
full King Neptune garb.
It was pretty cool.
But I realized, if I was goingto keep doing that kind of work,
that I'd never seen my kids.
I'd have off hours.
The commute into and out of thecity would be, you know, not
fun, not ideal for being apresent dad, which is something
I was, you know, told myself Iwanted to be.
(13:27):
So I decided to take a turn.
You know something I had taughtbefore?
So I decided to take a turn.
You know, something I hadtaught before, I felt like I was
pretty good at it and when?
So when I, when we moved to PortLee, I didn't open up a studio
or start teaching there, becausewe knew it was going to be a
temporary spot.
(13:47):
So actually for that, you know,20 months or so, I actually got
to be a stay at home dad withmy daughter, which was really
nice.
And then when we found thishouse in Tenafly, we weren't
even specifically looking atTenafly, but we liked old houses
.
This house was built in 1895,and it had an addition on the
side of it with a separateentrance, and was previously
used by a child psychologist.
But when we walked in, I'm likethis is perfect for teaching
(14:09):
piano.
It has a nice-sized room and ithas a separate entrance with
room for a little lobby, youknow, for people to sit and wait
and so um, we bought the houseand uh, then, after we moved in,
I started.
You know, uh, at first I wastraveling to people's houses.
Uh and um, just trying to getanything right, trying to get
(14:30):
get the ball rolling, getstarted.
But eventually eventually, aftera year, I was able to build up
a clientele of people who cometo me and feel, feel very
blessed, you know, I mean, Ithink I knew what.
I I think, within maybe twoyears, I had a full studio and I
had a waiting list.
So, wow, wow, like you say, Ithink there's a lot of families
(14:52):
in this community, in thisgeneral area, who appreciate the
arts, who want, uh, you know,someone, um, who knows what
they're doing, to work, to workwith their kids, you know, and
teach them music right, and thenobviously you're, you're uh
trained piano, but you also haveuh lessons for guitar and and
other instruments.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
so yeah, so uh I uh.
After a couple few years ofjust being on my own, I decided
to hire a couple of teachers, uhwho work for me and uh where I
stay here at my studio.
They travel to students homeswithin tenafly and teach so uh
just within tenafly just withintenafly.
Yeah, because they try to keepthings close.
(15:31):
If someone's driving 15 minutesit just doesn't work
economically.
It's better to keep theteachers not traveling far.
So we work within Tenafly.
I had two teachers up untilthis year.
One of my teachers.
After six years she got married, she moved over to the other
(15:52):
side of the county and isestablishing herself as a
teacher, uh, over there.
So I do have one teacher, john,who, uh, who's been with me.
He's in his seventh year withme now.
He's fantastic.
He teaches piano, he teachesguitar, uh, and he also teaches,
uh, ukulele.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
So, wow, ukulele yeah , yeah, a lot of requests to
learn the ukulele he's got acouple, yeah, got a couple
Tiptoe through the tulips.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yeah, right, a little tiny tip, yeah, yeah yeah,
that's funny.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So I guess you know there was a bit of a change
during COVID where you couldn'tgo to people's homes, right?
So how did you guys survive?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
What did you do to pivot during that time?
Uh, that was the time of pivot.
We were all just pivoting,right, uh.
So we very quickly pivoted toto doing online lessons.
Um, it was.
It was not easy, uh, for me itwas not fun, um, uh, but but we
made it through.
You know, we pushed through.
We didn't really lose that manystudents I think we maybe had a
10 drop off in students orsomething uh, but it was.
(17:02):
It was quite exhausting for forall of us.
I'm not, I'm not gonna lie foranybody, I think, in the
education space, I mean formultiple spaces, right, but
right, um, especially for youknow, for me it's like having to
look at the screen, for youknow, three hours straight.
Yeah, I'm a teacher, I don'tlike to sit down, I like to move
, I like to pace and get some ofmy steps going while I'm
(17:23):
teaching.
Um, but, but, we did, we didmake it through.
Um, and uh, I, I, you know, I,I did have a number of, I don't,
I haven't had a ton of studentsthat have carried on since.
So I kind of had an I, uh,almost a total reboot after
covet really, with a wholeanother set of students.
But, um, yeah, it was, it wastough, but we made it through so
(17:47):
what?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
uh, yeah, I mean, I'd imagine like, where do you have
the camera?
Do you want to look at theirfingers on the keyboard?
Are you looking at their face?
Or you know how do you do thatto adjust the camera.
So you're watching, obviouslyyou're listening, but, yeah, I
could see the complexities inmusical instruction because
you're looking and listening atthe same time and you have to
have your eyes in differentplaces.
Yeah, so that was 2020.
(18:09):
And now, you know, fast forwardfour years.
Uh, you have a number of, youknow, instructors working with
you.
You, you guys have branched out.
Now, one of the one of thethings I've seen uh, grow a
little bit in popularity is theschool of rock format, you know,
where you could join a band and, uh, kind of rock out, whether,
whether you're my age, becauseI actually have a woman that is
(18:32):
in Demarest who was on my show,she's a therapist and she's in a
band and, in fact, when sheheard about my story, about how
I play guitar, she invited me tocome in and watch them perform
and maybe join their band, whichI'm a little nervous doing.
But I see, the great thingabout musical instruments
nowadays is that it used to belike well, if I didn't learn as
a kid, I'm done, but I'm surewell, you could answer this Do
(18:55):
you have adults that are takingup instruments for the first
time and and uh, you know, I'dimagine majority of your
students are younger, but do youhave an older population?
Speaker 3 (19:06):
I do, yeah, so I've got about seven adult students,
I think right now, uh, I teach,I think it's about it's about 22
youngins in the afternoons, youknow.
But with the adult studentsit's, it's a lot of fun.
I've got people from differentages, I've had people from very
different walks of life and Ireally actually love working
(19:27):
with adults.
It's different, it's, it's, youknow, I think typically with
with kids no-transcript thebody's working faster than the
mind, and with adults it's alittle different the mind is
usually working faster than thebody.
So it's a different approach, alittle bit Um, but I, uh, I
really enjoy it myself and Ialso, um, something that I'm
(19:50):
have been doing over the pasttwo years to kind of not not
just for this reason, but torelate to my adult students is,
uh, I've been studying Japanesewith a sensei for the past two
years.
So I have a sensei I meet withonce a week and, just like my
adults, I'm taking myself out ofmy comfort zone.
I'm doing something for thefirst time that I've never done
before, right?
(20:11):
So I relate a lot of that to myadult experience.
If they're struggling or, youknow, having confidence issues,
I talk about my own experiencebecause I know it's difficult,
but it's so rewarding for me.
It's one of my favorite timesof the week and I have adults
that tell me that piano is oneof their favorite times of the
week, something they lookforward to, and if they can't
(20:32):
come they miss it.
But yeah, I love working withadults and I actually have a
couple spaces available to workwith a couple more adults.
If there's anybody out thereinterested, please contact
adults and I actually have acouple of spaces available to
work with a couple more adults.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
If there's anybody out there interested, please
contact me and that's with youpersonally.
It's piano, that's piano,that's piano, yeah, yeah.
Now.
Do you ever have any studentsthat say I just want to learn
these songs, I don't really careabout theory.
Do you ever do that?
Say, well, you know, let's justlearn the chords and we'll
learn the song you know, andit's not about learning theory.
Do you have students like that,or do you not?
(21:02):
Do you discourage that type oflearning?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
I do have had a couple students like that.
I do kind of discourage it.
I understand wanting a goalright, Wanting to play this
piece right, Wanting to playthis song, wanting a goal right,
Wanting to play this pieceright, Wanting to play this song
, Um, but I think part of it is,uh, I try to get people to
(21:28):
enjoy the journey, focus on thejourney, not necessarily on the
goal Right.
Um, if you're not enjoying thejourney of learning, uh, I don't
think you're ever really goingto.
It's going to be much harder toreach those, those goals.
So, uh, while I do have peoplethat try to, I will try to.
I don't want to say sway themaway, but I will try to kind of
work around it a little bit,massage it a little bit and try
(21:51):
to set expectations Right,because sometimes people want to
just do a goal and it's just,you know, there's no shortcut,
sometimes, I guess, do a goaland it's just.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
You know, there's no shortcut.
Sometimes I guess it's right,right, yeah, yeah, especially
with music.
Yeah, I mean with the advent ofyoutube, and I mean on the
guitar side, if I want to learna song, I just go on youtube and
I can watch a guy.
Now, guitar is a little biteasier.
Um, you know, it's just aboutthe chords and certainly the
rhythm and um, but it's, I loveit, you know I love.
Oh, man, I want to learn how tosong.
All right, I find a good videoof a good instructor and you
(22:20):
know I practice and all of asudden I've got that song down
which I never would have hadbefore.
It's not good for the publishingbusiness that used to publish,
you know, music books.
But yeah, you know we're alldealing with that now.
So you have students thatstarted at different ages and do
you find that a lot of themstick with you for years and
(22:42):
they go on to pursue I mean,obviously there's all different,
I guess, journeys, as you say.
But what, what's your typicalage of a starting student?
And like, well, you know howmany years do you usually find
that they work with you?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Sure.
So I think probably the typicalage is starting is, let's say,
around six, um five, six, seven,and I would say on average that
my students, I would say, staywith me probably four to five
years.
Um, I feel very oh, covid was alittle bit of um right outlier
(23:22):
with kind of that, but uh,really, uh, overall I feel like
I'm proud of my retention rate.
I feel like I'm I can uh, youknow that again, I think four or
five years is a pretty goodretention rate.
I do have a I do have a you knowa student right now who's been
with me probably for eight yearsnow.
He's a sophomore in high school.
(23:43):
I don't know if he wants to goon to music in college yet he
hasn't expressed that to me, buthe would be prepared to and I
think if I have a student thatstarts at six, I know how to
prepare them for if they wantedto go on an audition for
Juilliard or audition for, youknow, Manhattan school.
(24:06):
I'm not saying they wouldnecessarily get in, but that
they would be able to meet theentrance requirements.
You know that they.
I feel confident in myabilities to get you know
somebody from point A to pointto point Z, that's great, and
how many days a week doessomebody typically come for
instruction?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Is it one day a week or two days?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Typically one day a week.
So for children, little ones, Istart with 30, and then after
two or three years we'llevaluate and if they're ready to
move up to 45 uh minutes, we'lldo that.
Adults, I I highly recommendstarting with 45 minutes, yeah,
and that's typically what I.
I offer a a discount to kind ofincite, uh, insight and entice
(24:50):
people to take them right yeah,entice them to take a 45 minute
session, because I feel likeit's really that extra 15
minutes you wouldn't think makesthat much of a difference, but
I think it really does.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, so you mentioned about you know having
your students understand, likeloving the journey and not
worrying so much about theoutcome.
You know there's a line from afield of dreams.
Build it and they will come.
You know you just keep buildingit and building it and just
keep your head down.
So you know embracing thejourney.
There's something also withbeing a business owner about you
(25:22):
know understanding that maybeyour success isn't going to come
overnight, that there's goingto be some trials and
tribulations.
What has it been like for you?
I mean, you and your wife havea great kind of entrepreneurial
story because you just packed upand moved to Manhattan without,
you know, a dollar and a dream,so to speak.
What has the journey been likefor you?
(25:47):
And then, what kind of advicecan you give to other business
owners, whether they're in musicor they're in baking cookies,
if you want to talk about yourjourney and then what you've
learned from it?
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah, I think what I've learned through my journey
is it's rust your gut.
I think I've learned that earlyon.
And again, I know my businessis not a type of business where
(26:19):
you're trying to like.
It's not mass product or massor mass service that you're
trying to move.
But for my you know my stylebusiness I've learned quickly to
identify people who I think aregoing to cause me problems, um,
and we'll find a way to notwork with them, right, um, so uh
(26:40):
, to me, I think on that, like,trust your gut if you think
someone's going to be a problem,my, my, experience has taught
me they're probably going to bea problem.
Um and uh, a short-term gain isnot worth a long-term headache.
Maybe that's another way to putthat.
Um uh, I think being able topivot on a moment's notice is
(27:01):
huge for any business, like wedid have to do during COVID.
I mean literally.
I think we pivoted within twoweeks I think we were doing to
from doing our business one wayand now we're doing it a
completely different way.
We did that within two weeks,but that took a lot of trial and
error.
It took a lot ofexperimentation.
At first we just had one cameraand then we each figured out
(27:25):
you know what, if we have twocameras, we can switch between
our face and the keyboard.
So if I need, to demonstratesomething on the keyboard.
I hit a button to switch cameras.
So embrace technology.
Maybe that's another.
I think technology can makeyour job easier.
I don't know if any of that'sgood or helpful.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, no, absolutely yeah, that's great.
So how would people get intouch with you?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
You can get in touch with me.
My website is currently down,but we'll hopefully be back up
by the time this broadcast.
My website is www.
hartmusicstudios.
com.
It's H-A-R-T.
You can also email me at HMS@heartmusicstudios.
com.
(28:10):
Those are probably the two bestways to reach me, and if you're
interested in lessons inTenafly for yourself or your
child, please reach out.
We'd be happy to meet you andjust trying to get more music
out in the world, yeah yeah.
We need it.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
It's a great thing.
Yeah, absolutely, Jason.
Thanks very much for joining us.
I should have had you lead usin with if you have a piano
nearby, a keyboard nearby, toplay a little bit for us, but
maybe we'll do that another time.
All right, sure?
Thanks so much for being on theshow and just bear with me for
a few seconds and we'll be rightback.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
All right.
Thanks, doug.
Thank you for listening to theGood Neighbor Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show go to gnpbergen.
com.
That's gnpbergencom.
Go to gnpbergen.
com that's gnpbergencom.
No-transcript.
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