Out of all the questions that people ask us, the most frequent is this:   “what is the best age to start music or voice lessons?”  If you’ve got a younger child who is eager to start their musical journey, and have this same question, we’re happy to help you!

As a general rule, most children are ready to start formal music lessons by the age of five; however, children can benefit from informal ‘general music education’ lessons which can begin as young as three. A more specific breakdown is below.

Be advised that the most important element is not the age of the student, but their excitement and enjoyment regarding music and their lessons; children that enjoy playing learn quickly and grow their musical skills.

• Piano – Piano is a great instrument to start a younger child on because many of the physical requirements dictated by guitar/ukulele and even voice are non existent (press a key, and a sound is made!). The keyboard is also laid out in a way that facilitates teaching basic music theory. We generally see positive results with students as young as 5 years old, as their hands are large enough to play chords, and their attention span is developed enough for formal half hour lessons.

• Ukulele – The ukulele is all rage now, and there’s good reason: it’s relatively easy to play, it’s inexpensive, and highly portable! For younger students, it’s also a great stepping stone to the guitar. We see great success with ukulele students as young as 5 or 6 years old; again, it’s somewhat dependent on the maturity level of the student (i.e. are they able to concentrate through a half hour lesson?). Young ukulele students learn the basics of chords and strumming, which later on migrate well to guitar. They also participate in our recitals, building their performing experience and gaining confidence in their playing ability at a young age.

• Guitar – We generally recommend starting guitar at age seven or eight. By that age, students have usually
  

  Formal piano lessons can start as young as 5 years old!

  developed the physical requirements that’s required of playing the guitar. We see more successes with younger students starting on ukulele, then moving to guitar when they are ready.

• Voice – Formal voice lessons usually begin at age 10 and older. At that age, the student’s voice has begun to change and take on it’s adult form. This doesn’t mean that younger students cannot sing in their music lessons; we encourage it!! But lessons that focus specifically on vocal training should wait until the student is physically ready for them. For younger students that want to take singing lessons, we generally recommend piano lessons, along with informal voice lessons.

• General Music Education – the above being said, 3 or 4 years old is not too early to start general music education ‘lessons’! These informal lessons can include: musical games, learning the basics of rhythm, sing-along’s, identifying different instruments, etc. The goal of these lessons is to simply expose and engage the child  to a musical environment.

If you are interested in signing up for a lesson, please click HERE.

Are you a musician who suffers from performance anxiety? Well, relax, you’re normal! Almost ALL musicians are nervous before their shows, especially ones performing their first few gigs. Here are a few tips based on my experiences to help you to face and overcome your anxieties, and learn to enjoy the show (and give your best performance)!

I leaned this in the classroom rather than on the stage. As a young adult I was so nervous to speak in front of people that when I returned to night school I purposely scheduled my Public Speaking class first, figuring if I could get through that I could easily complete the rest of the degree program.

The night of my first speech came, and I was a mess. After I was done with my rambling presentation, the class ‘critiqued’ my speech. Although I felt like a nervous wreck, people said that I didn’t look nervous at all.

Really? How does that work? The professor said that people are hyper sensitive to their ‘normal’ self, and feel more nervous inside than perceived by others. Lesson learned, and a game-changer for me: you can have performance anxiety , feel nervous and worked up inside, and most people won’t even notice!

I’ve performed almost 1000 shows since the early 80’s. I’ve made a LOT of mistakes in shows, and can say with utmost confidence that most people never notice them, even the bigger mistakes. Sure, you’ll hear them yourself, but the important thing is that you recover and continue with the show.

I often bring new performers to play in shows with me, and sure, there’s a bad chord here and there, but when it happens they get back on track and continue on, and nobody notices. That’s just how it works for performers; occasional mistakes are ‘normal’.

So remember that EVERYONE makes mistakes now and then; that’s a fact of life. Recover and continue on. After the fact, focus on the good parts of your performances, not the 1% mistakes… because everyone really hears the 99%.

A new performer is like a passenger in a car… the trip just happens; a seasoned performer is the driver, taking control and steering his or her performance to where they want it to go.

When I was a new performer I was nervous like everyone else. It took lots of shows before I became comfortable in that role, and moved from the passenger to the driver. But the key is to perform as much as you can to make this happen. If you are taking lessons, and your studio offers recitals, go out of your comfort zone a bit and sign up for each one (our recitals are always a mix of younger and adult performers). Look for open mics and other performance opportunities. As the performances pile up, you’ll find that you become more comfortable and confident performing, and you’ll begin to perform at your best.

I have found over time that experienced musicians perform at their best because they are in tune with what their audience “sees and hears” when they perform, and that is learned through experience.

I hope these tips help to reduce your performance anxiety and become the performer that you’ve always wanted to be; now schedule your next performance and continue to build your performance experience!

If you have performance anxiety and would like coaching, NHTunes can help! Contact us HERE and we will send you more information on our coaching options.

• Anticipating pitch is critical for vocalists, as they need to ‘hear’ the note that they will be singing before they actually sing the note.
• Anticipating pitch is equally important for improvising, as it allows the soloist to improvise in a ‘musical’ manner, and not just ‘hit the correct notes’.
• Knowing pitch will help you greatly when you attempt to figure out other artist’s songs (this is how experienced musicians can hear a song for the first time, and ‘just play it’).
• Great pitch is an important asset when it comes to songwriting, and ‘finding the next chord’, or transcribing the ‘music you hear is in your head’.
  

  Ear training is not just for vocalists; ALL musicians will benefit greatly!

NHTunes Music Studio offers their music and voice students much more than just their weekly lessons. We pride ourselves in offering our students many opportunities, outside of their private lessons, in an effort to build their confidence and performance skills. Take a look at the opportunities we regularly present to our students – all at no additional charge!

If you’d like to keep informed of these and other events, please like our Facebook page.

 

Our students perform at local nursing homes and other similar venues throughout the year. These performances are absolutely loved by the residents, and they help our students to hone in their performance skills.

Each holiday season we have our annual Holiday Recital, held at the FaithBridge church in Manchester NH. This well-attended recital is a highlight for many of our students, as well as for our music studio, and definitely gets folks in the holiday spirit.

 Live Performance Opportunities with The Sonic Boomers

Many students have had the opportunity to perform at a local venue with the acoustic duo The Sonic Boomers. What a thrill (and a great experience & confidence builder) for a student of any age to perform at a ‘real’ gig! For many students this is a great introduction as to what it’s like to be a ‘working’ musician, and helps to shape their musical aspirations.

Students of NHTunes Music Studio have been fortunate enough to appear on local radio station 107.7 “The Pulse” many times! What an awesome experience – performing on live radio! The show is now streamed live on Facebook, giving more opportunities for friends and relatives to experience their student’s performance!

We have been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to have our students sing the national anthem at Junior Monarch games at the Tri-Town arena in Hooksett NH. This season we have had over a half dozen of our voice students participate! A great opportunity for our voice students, and a potential stepping stone to appearing at larger events!

NHTunes Music Studio is proud to offer these opportunities and more to our students, as they play a key role in their overall musicianship. Remember, these opportunities are at no additional charge to our music and voice students!

If you’d like to keep informed of these and other events, please like our Facebook page. You can see our instructors list HERE, as well as inquire on their availability.

If you’re interested in signing up for lessons, why not purchase a gift certificate? They are currently on sale… prices start at three private voice or music lessons for just $65!

When you arrive for your first voice lesson, you may first be shown around the studio, and then introduced to your voice instructor. Your instructor will likely ask you questions regarding your singing and general music background; for example, have you sung in a choir or solo before? Do you have any experience singing or performing in front of people? Do you play in instrument? What are your goals for your lessons? These questions will help the instructor to format the lessons based on your individual experience level and goals.

If you stick with voice lessons, you’ll see the following happen:

• Your vocal range will expand.
• Your pitch control will be more accurate.
• Your overall singing will improve.
• Your ear will develop and you will hear music differently than before. You will understand pitch better. You’ll be able to better distinguish individual elements in music. As our instructor Ethan Brown puts it, “ear training is just as important as the physical aspects of singing. You need to be sure of each note to be sung before it comes out of your mouth.”

Last but not least, an incredibly important element of general musicianship is performing skills. For this reason, we hold bi-monthly recitals, and we hope to see most of our students participate in these free recitals. Although many students find performing initially a challenge, after a couple of performances it becomes less stressful, and more fun! Students that have performed in several recitals often look forward to future events, whereas at first they dreaded them.

We hope that, after reading this, you have a better idea of what your first voice lesson will be like should you decide to start. If you’re interested in scheduling a lesson, you can do so below. You can see our instructors HERE.

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Why does my guitar or ukulele go out of tune so often? Do you have a guitar or ukulele that never seems to keep itself in tune? Usually the problem can be pretty simple to solve if you know what to look for. Most problems with tuning are due to one of these four factors:

New strings stretch, and take time before they can hold a tuning. You can expect steel strings to need playing for about an hour or so before they’ll finally settle in. Unfortunately nylon strings (common on almost all ukuleles and classical style guitars) can take several days or even a week or so before they can consistently hold tuning. You can expedite this by stretching your new strings; click here for a tool that may work well for you.

Over time, strings tend to loose their capability of holding tension. You should change your strings at least every few months. A telltale sign that you need to change your strings, outside of the fact that they go out of tune, is that the instrument starts to sound dull (this is especially true with steel stringed instruments, in which the strings will also look dirty over time). You can use a string cleaner to keep your strings clean and your instrument’s tone bright.

Guitar and ukulele strings should not overlap themselves at the tuning peg. This overlap can cause the instrument to loose tuning as it’s being played. The image below shows properly installed strings. Strings require only two or three winds around the tuning peg, and should never overlap. To accomplish this, follow these steps when changing strings:

• Put the new string through the hole in the peg and pull so that the string is taut
• 

  Sometimes a tuning peg will cause tuning problems if this screw loosens up.

  Back it off about an inch and a half, and bend it up at the hold

• Wind the string. It should then wind about 2 to three winds before reaching tune.

Occasionally a guitar or ukulele tuning peg will loosen, causing it to turn and de-tune on it’s own. When this happens, the string will quickly loose tuning. Often with this issue, all that’s needed is to tighten the peg (the screw is on the back of the neck). If this doesn’t work, then the internals of the tuning peg may be an issue, and a replacement is needed (fortunately, replacement tuning pegs are reasonably priced.

So, the next time that you ask yourself “Why does my guitar or ukulele go out of tune so often?”, check these relatively simple things, and more often than not you can fix the problem yourself!

NHTunes is proud to offer real-time online guitar and ukulele lessons for adults of all skill levels, whether a complete beginner, or a skilled musician who is looking to learn! We strive to make the online lesson experience as fun and productive as in-person lessons, minus the drive time! Our instructors have years of experience teaching students of all ages and skill levels how to play the guitar & the ukulele. Learn without leaving your home! And getting started is easy:

Get started TODAY with your guitar or ukulele lessons with the professionals at NHTunes Music Studio!

NHTunes offers recording studio gift certificates for time in our professional recording studio – the perfect gift for young and old musicians alike! You can purchase gift certificates in 2 and 4 hour increments. Each hour that you purchase includes an audio engineer whose job it is to insure a smooth running, great sounding recording session! It’s an affordable gift that will be remembered for years to come.

What can your recording studio gift certificate be used for?

• Voice recordings – Many folks come into the studio to r
  

  Our studio features some of the best equipment the industry has to offer

  ecord themselves singing to backing tracks (you can purchase high quality backing tracks for just a couple of dollars each HERE). The backing tracks are loaded into our system, and the vocalist sings to them in our specially treated sound booth. Most people complete two or three songs in a two hour session, and leave with their songs on a CD that day! The final product sounds great, and it’s an experience that both young and old will really enjoy. Do you know someone that likes to sing? This is a perfect gift!

A recording studio gift certificate is a great gift for the musician in your life! You can purchase your gift certificate below (scroll down to “Studio Time”) and will be e-mailed back a printable gift certificate within 24 hours that you can give to the lucky recipient. When they are ready to book their session, they can do so using our online scheduler! (details are on the gift certificate).

1. Our private guitar lessons are reasonably priced at $27/half hour. We offer a 10% discount for families, and/or hour long lessons. When you start your guitar lessons, there is no long term commitment – you pay per-lesson to make sure our instructor and facility is a good fit for you. We offer online payments, and accept all major credit cards.
2. We have the best instructors around! These BA+ music professionals love what they do, and it shows in their student’s progress. Check out a couple of videos below and see for yourself!
3. Whether a beginner or an advanced player we can teach you!  Children will get a solid music education learning to read notation, and apply music theory; adults can learn chords, strumming, and songs without having to learn to read. We are flexible enough to modify our lesson plans for the needs of each particular student.
4. Our professional studio! Our newly constructed facility in the Manchester mill yard is clean, comfortable, and conveniently located less than a mile off of 293.
   

   Our professional studio in Manchester NH

5. Performance opportunities! We offer bi-monthly recitals which are free for our students. These recitals are held at nursing homes and other similar venues. Students of all ages are encouraged to participate.

If you are interested in trying a lesson with one of our instructors, please purchase your lesson HERE.  You will be contacted by a studio representative who will schedule your lesson at a time that is convenient for you.

If you think that our music studio offers only private music and voice lessons, you’re in for a surprise! In addition to lessons, our Manchester NH studio offers a wide range of music related services, including group music classes, recording and voice over courses, birthday parties, and an on-site professional recording studio! Here are details on our services.

• Our on-site recording studio features great rooms, and some of the best gear around. We have top-of-the-line instruments available for our clients use. We have years of experience working with artists from the local to the national level. We record bands, singers, soloists, and voice-overs for radio and TV. Our affordable rates even include an engineer to run the session!
• Our ukulele group meets weekly in the NHTunes music studio for a fun-hour of strumming and learning songs! The group meets each Wednesday evening at 7pm, and walk-in’s are welcome! The cost for the hour session is just $10!
  

  NHTunes is home to the Manchester Ukulele Club!

• Our Audio Engineering course is designed to teach students to record and mix their own music. The non-credit course if offered through Manchester Community College, and generally runs on Saturday mornings 10am-noon, in our professional recording studio. Students work with real-world ses sions to learn the tools used to create a great mix: compression, EQ, and gating.
• Our Voice Over course is perfect for someone considering a career in the field of voice over! The course takes place in the NHTunes recording studio, and is taught by voice over artise JC Haze,  a 35 year broadcast and voice over professional. Courses generally run on Monday evenings.
• Birthday parties!! Let us host your party in our professional recording studio, and it will be a party that will always be remembered as the coolest birthday party ever! The lucky recipient and up to five friends will have a ball singing in our professional sound booths – they’re sure to feel like a rock star!!! The songs are mixed down at the party, and each person gets their very own CD!
• Music and Voice lessons – of course, we need to mention the wide range of instruction offered by our ten professional music instructors. We offer instruction in the following areas:
  • Voice
  • Piano
  • Guitar
  • Ukulele
  • Mandolin
  • Trumpet
  • Flute
  • Saxophone

We also offer gift certificates for music and voice lessons, and studio time!!
NHTunes… we’re more than private music & voice lessons!