Over the past two weeks I’ve been asking for help with my new Kickstarter campaign. And while our goal is to be able to develop this company into something extraordinary that will give teachers around the country (and beyond!) the tools that they need to effectively educate children in the basic concepts of music theory, our main goal has always been fun. This Fun Key Monkey Music project stems from the mindset that we use in my brick-and-mortar music school in Moorpark, CA called The Lewis Music Academy. Our family-owned business sees over 550 students that walk through the door each week, and the reason why our business is so successful is because of our emphasis on FUN.

Music is supposed to be fun! That’s why you got into it to begin with! You thought it was cool. You said, “Man, it would awesome to be able to play like that!” It was something that you wanted to do, and at one point, couldn’t WAIT to do. But in my experience of studying music at a higher level of education I noticed that we begin to lose that level of excitement: it becomes about competition, fear, diligence, and a bunch of other motives that were never there in the beginning. You shouldn’t really be scared to perform for your teacher, yet often we are. It should never be nerve-wrecking to perform in front of a crowd, but sometimes it is. You should never feel like you’re not good enough and you should quit while you’re ahead, but sometimes we do. Funny how this element of “fun” gets stripped out of the way as we progress, and it’s perhaps the most quintessential element to what we do as musicians and fans of music.

So that’s the idea behind our philosophy at the Lewis Music Academy, and hopefully it will transcend into our new company. I personally believe that positive reinforcement is the key to keeping music exciting, and this excitement is what will encourage you to continue forth in your love and appreciation of music. This is ESPECIALLY true for children, which is why we began this company in the first place. So, by playing musical games with kids and making it readily available to them (remember how popular Rock & Roll was about 3 years ago when the Guitar Hero video games were still kicking?) we are reinforcing this concept to them. We are also reminding children that music is something that they GET to do, not something that they have to. Of course this isn’t only true with music and musicians, but I can only offer help in the areas to which I am familiar 🙂

So if you haven’t yet, please consider backing our Kickstarter project, or pledging at least a dollar (the number of backers helps our ratings too) or even sharing the links or videos with your friends and families.

Remember that “fun” is the reason you got into this to begin with, so let’s make sure that we keep it alive! And if you’ve forgotten this (like many of us “grown-ups” do so often) maybe you need a quick reminder yourself 😉