How FreshStart Started – Music Teachers – Music School

Learn Music the FreshStart Way!

Welcome to FreshStart Music Studio! We offer the best music lessons in Irvine for adults and children by solving two major problems common with music lessons and music schools.

Lonely practice sessions and lack of ongoing teacher training on teaching.

A lot of times kids quit music lessons because they don't like to practice. FreshStart helps students practice with Piano Dojo and group classes so they make progress together. This helps parents avoid practice battles at home and make sure their investment in lessons isn't wasted.

We focus on pedagogically sound teaching (study of teaching) that guarantees quality lessons and a solid, comprehensive music foundation for our students that's sometimes missing from music schools touting teachers' performance pedigrees (Although we have that in spades also).

On the surface, we teach kids (and adults!) music lessons. But on a deeper level, we enable people to appreciate music on the deepest level and allow them to truly love and enjoy music for the rest of their lives whether enjoying privately or impressing friends and families!

FreshStart Founders Kevin and Clare (and three kids they found at the beach)

Meet Our Teachers and staff!

The beginning...

Summer of 2012, fresh out of grad school (debt-free, thank God for scholarships). While I had a handful of advanced students from my mom and adult students from church—I needed more! This adulthood realization was hitting me hard.

This is when I got introduced to the world of commercial music schools in Irvine.

And here’s the story that drove me from fresh out of graduate school applying at music studios to having a full studio with a waitlist in less than two years.

And it's something I've never shared publicly before.

I remember the exact moment when I realized I needed to do things differently if I wanted my life to turn out the way I imagined...

It started with a call from the school director at a music school in Irvine I started teaching at for a couple of months. It just rained and it was a nippy night before Thanksgiving; I sat in my brother’s black 2000 Honda Accord Coupe (leather seats) on our way to a cyber security lecture at UCI (random? YES).

The director told me I didn’t have to come in for December because all my students changed their schedules and didn’t fit into my availabilities anymore.

It was weird but I didn’t think much of it, however, we had scheduled a “meet and greet” with a new family after my regular schedule and he didn’t mention anything about it so I assumed that was still on and went in at the scheduled time.

When I walked up the stony stairs into the music school I saw the family that “couldn’t fit into my schedule”; I was surprised and confused--as were they.

The director had lied to them—along with all the other families I had taught and built a relationship with.

The school director told them I was "on a leave" until JUNE OF NEXT YEAR--this was November. They weren’t given any prior notice or options. Their son loved lessons with me and they were NOT happy about the change and being lied to.

My friend in the front desk didn't know what's going on and called the director for me. He wanted me to walk across the parking lot and meet him in the coffee shop.

I had always played it cool--the director had a reputation for manipulating and lying to teachers and families. He told me to lie about my teaching experience if any parents asked, “it’s just easier that way”, he said; I refused.

As I walked across the plaza, a million thoughts going through my head, something clicked and I realized all the work and effort I put into preparing, planning, and caring for all these students...

Somebody could take them away from me just like that if they wanted to.

This time. I decided. No.

I decided I wasn’t going to be manipulated anymore. If he has something to say to me he can say it in the office.

Long story short, he didn’t like my private studio website and tried to intimidate me by telling me I'd violated the non-compete clause in the contract when I clearly did not. I later found out these clauses aren't even legal in California - he used them to scare and intimidate teachers and also lock them into lengthy "commitments" that again wasn't legal.

the aftermath...

After I left that music school in Irvine I realized I wanted to start a studio built on character, charity, and community.

Not being able to say good-bye to all the students and families I'd built a relationship with already was the worst part of this whole ordeal. And who knows what other lies they were told.

There had to be a better way to run a studio and treat teachers without resorting to lies, manipulation, and illegal contracts that nobody warned you about when you were studying music.

AND THIS IS HOW FRESHSTART MUSIC STUDIO BEGIN

OUR LOVELY TEACHERS AND STAFF

Our Teachers are Awesome Because:

MUSIC DEGREE FIRST AND FOREMOST - not just teaching music on the side because they took lessons growing up
BACKGROUND CHECKED - you'd assume this was done at all schools right?
SELECTED AFTER LENGTHY INTERVIEWS - personality, teaching skill and potential, expertise on instrument, and professionalism
PASSES THE "NOT A JERK" TEST WITH FLYING COLORS
PASSES THE "WOULD I WANT MY OWN KIDS TO SPEND WEEKLY ONE-ON-ONE TIME WITH THEM" TEST i.e. Are they "role model" material?