How You Can Create a Musical Family in 2023

The story goes that shortly before my fourth birthday, a flier arrived in the mail, offering a discount for six violin lessons at the Brookline Music School. At the time, I seemed destined for piano, following in the footsteps of my older brother. But, my parents reasoned, it was only six lessons, a great bargain, and their tiny daughter holding a tiny violin would make for some adorable photos. And somehow, those six lessons turned into a lifetime!

Sounds like magic, right?

Perhaps I possessed a special God-given gift, perhaps it was fate that sent that flier in the mail.

It was NOT magic. Yes, I had musical “gifts,” but they were not not divinely bestowed. For one, I had kind teachers and involved parents who, though not musicians themselves, attended lessons and supervised practice in the earliest years. I can’t claim that as young children my brother and I willingly practiced daily with no argument, but children value ANY time with their parents even more than parents sometimes realize, and this was certainly true for us latchkey kids. I also had the “gift” of a musical household, where music played in the background while dinner was cooking or in the car on the way to Hebrew school, filling our ears and minds. It formed a bond between my brother and me that exists to this day, a phenomenon I have observed in the musical siblings I teach now.

These are the real reasons that I, against expectations, enjoyed the violin enough to keep going well past those six lessons. And now it is impossible to even imagine the person I would be if my parents had never taken advantage of that offer.

If a special “deal” with a local music teacher is the kind of thing that would get YOU to take a step you have been thinking about—or, like my parents, have NOT been thinking about!—for you or your child, I have great news for you: during the month of December this special offer is available for students who enroll for piano or violin lessons in January.

Enroll for 16 lessons, January-May and receive:
10% discount on lessons
An age-appropriate, music-related children’s book
Your first violin or piano book

Enroll for six lessons and receive:
10% discount on the first six lessons (additional lessons are not discounted)
Your first violin or piano book

For more information, email me at karr.abigail.violin@gmail.com or visit abigailkarr.com/inwood-music-lessons to set up a quick zoom meeting. I can't wait to start a new year of music-making!