We had the good fortune of connecting with Morgan Brook and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Morgan, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
When COVID-19 hit, a lot of people in the music industry ended up losing significant amounts of income. Many of the colleagues that I had graduated with were no longer able to make a living solely from music. The one thing that set me and my husband apart from the others was that we were able to start teaching lessons virtually from anywhere in the world to whomever.

Spring of 2020 was the semester that I graduated with my Masters in Music. I was entering a market that was essentially halted in its tracks. All I could do was adapt. I converted our entirely in-person teaching studio to a virtual one as soon as COVID hit and was able to completely stay afloat and thrive. My husband, Kyle, and I even bought a house that same year with the income we made from our virtual lessons.

During my undergraduate and graduate programs, I studied under the YouTube Pianist, Josh Wright. He was very instrumental in helping me launch my music teaching career on a virtual level. Dr. Wright had taught virtually for years prior to the pandemic, but he gave me the nudge of encouragement to continue to teach in this capacity as soon as the world fell apart.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am the owner of Alm Family Music Studios. My husband, Kyle, and I both teach music lessons from our home. Now that the pandemic has settled down, we teach a combination of both virtual and in-person lessons to students all across the globe. In order to get to where we are today, we have had to market ourselves a lot across multiple social media platforms. This sort of outreach has led to connections to students across the globe. I have had quite a bit of success on TikTok and Instagram with piano tutorials. This has led me to start to create virtual piano courses that are designed to teach the student how to perform using visual cues of the keys from above along with the Rote pedagogical method. Students don’t even need to learn how to read music in order to learn songs like this, making these courses designed for anyone who is interested in piano. This also opens up another layer of income that we could be making as music teachers.

Some of the lessons I’ve learned along this journey is to try to lean into pop culture. I used to really only teach the traditional classical pieces and methods to students but found that they were often not that engaged. People tend to want to play what they are listening to rather than the classics. Those classical masters are excellent and wonderful, but I have found that marketing myself as more of a genre-fluid pianist has made me more of a versatile and relatable instructor. My niche on social media is very Swiftie based, so a lot of the students I have found on those platforms tend to want to learn how to play things from that discography. I know many teachers out there that would say no to those sorts of requests. Maybe this is how the next generation of music teachers will start to relate to the new pupils of music.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am from Salt Lake City but tend to frequent the mountains of Park City when I need to show someone a good time. First, we would get breakfast at Five5eeds. They have the best pancake in Utah, I promise. And it’s basically fairy food. We would then hit the slopes. If it were summer, we would hike down once we get to the summit. After hiking, we would go clean up in the spa at Stein Eriksen Lodge and get dinner on Main Street at Handel. It would be the best time!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to thank my husband, Kyle, for believing in all of my wild goals and for being the greatest teammate of all time. And I would like to thank my former teacher, Josh Wright, for helping me launch my career on a virtual level. I would also love to show my gratitude to all of the students that have took lessons from our studio.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganbrookmusic?igsh=MXU5OGVkMTcxYWYw&utm_source=qr

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@morganbrookmusic?si=ml_YoMQ6R0JkKgtT

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morgan.brookmusic?_t=8lEKcZrH78s&_r=1

Image Credits
Angie Petty, Tony Herrera, Amberlee McArthur

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutArizona is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.