Piano, guitar, voice, drums, bass, ukulele, electronic music, songwriting and more.
Tens of thousands of lessons taught since our inception in 2005.
Core Principle
Every person, without exception, is naturally and profoundly musical.
Why are we all naturally musical? It starts with how we can walk evenly (rhythm) or recognize when our parents mean business (pitch)! Our teachers tap into this natural musicality with a “playing-based” approach to make lessons easy, fun, and accessible to anyone.
Lessons
The Playing-based Approach
Reading music notation has its place in music, but only accounts for a very small part of music overall. Millions of great and successful musicians don't read music, including all the Beatles, Phil Collins, and Stevie Wonder (of course!).
Instead of a “reading-based” approach to music education, WOW takes a “playing-based'' approach: Delay or only use minimal reading elements in the beginning for a much more productive, interesting, and inspiring way to learn to play music. Students get to play great-sounding songs much faster, getting more “wins” and always feeling like, “I can do this!”, so when formal music reading is started, they’re ready and the process is easier.
WOW uses a variety of simple, non-reading methods for different instruments, fostering an easier, more fun learning experience, which allows for a seamless transition to reading notes when the student has become familiar with the instrument. It’s win-win: learn fun, great-sounding songs to get going, then naturally incorporate the reading process when your brain and hands are ready to go to the next level.
Bands
Why Play in a Band?
Learning to play with other musicians in small ensembles is the best, most inspiring way for students to sharpen all of their musicianship tools in a wide variety of ways--and have a ton of fun while doing it!
The WOW band program focuses on developing skills that translate not only to the student’s band experience but also their life experience--listening, collaborating, connecting, self-advocating, sympathizing, etc. There are two programs available:
Band Incubator
Younger students with at least one to two year’s experience are placed in small ensembles and learn to play, rehearse, and perform songs as a band for curated WOW events, such as jam sessions, band festivals, and recitals. Our Band Incubator program is the earliest form of ensemble exploration.
WOW Band Academy
Intermediate and advanced-level middle school and high school students who are ready to take their skills to a higher level can join the WOW Band Academy program by invitation or audition. Students of similar age, skill level, and musical tastes are brought together to form longer-term bands to achieve the ultimate goal: gigging at local venues, such as the Sweetwater, HopMonk, and Marin Country Mart.
Recording
WOW’s Recording & Production Suite, comprised of our Control Room and Live Room, is fully digital and stocked with a wide variety of microphones to faithfully capture the sound and nuances of any project--music, voice-overs, podcasts etc. The Live Room has a minimum of 16 analog channel inputs, along with acoustic and electric drum sets, and a variety of amps available for use, if desired. Our in-house Studio Engineer will shepherd your project from start to finish to bring your project to life!
WOW offers several different packages to meet most artists’ need, as well as custom ones for special projects:
The Rad Package - 3.75 hours
Basic recording, engineering, and mixing of a shorter project such as a demo recording to submit for a gig or audition. Sometimes, students want a professional recording of the songs they have mastered to share with family and friends.
The Super-Rad and Mondo Packages - 7.5 hours/11 hours
Next-level recording, engineering, and mixing services for more serious and larger projects. In addition to more recording, engineering, and mixing time, our Studio Engineer can provide production services, such as playing additional instruments or incorporating tracks, as well as songwriting and arranging. Songs can also be mastered for streaming services, such as Spotify, AppleMusic, etc.