Flashback #8 – Midwest Music Academy

Tom “Noteboat” Serb is celebrating the first year of his music school, the Midwest Music Academy. One year ago today we ran a short interview with Tom and this would certainly be a great time to post it once again:

Tom, as most of you already know, hails from the far southwestern suburbs of Chicago. To get things started, we begin with a few basic questions and then move onto the “real interview:”

GN: Occupation?

TS: I define myself as a musician. Since I’m not a “star”, that means I have to do a whole lot of things to pay the mortgage, but they’re all music related: I’m a guitarist, guitar teacher, composer, arranger, I do transcriptions, I buy and sell gear, I write lessons for magazines, I own a music school, etc. I guess I’m a musical entrepreneur by default.

GN: Playing music since?

TS: I honestly don’t remember. I’ve always been drawn to music, and remember playing instruments (or at least playing “at” playing instruments) since I was 4. Since I don’t remember anything before that, I guess I’ve always been doing it.

GN: Playing guitar since?

TS: Since the early 1970s. It’s hard to fix an exact date… partly because those were the 1970s! I’ve been performing as a guitarist since 1976, and teaching professionally since 1978.

GN: If possible, can you remember what first brought you to Guitar Noise and why you continue to hang around?

TS: I stumbled across Guitar Noise while surfing for guitar websites. I’ve stayed because it’s a friendly place to hang out!

GN: Can you give us a brief history of your musical life?

TS: Wow! No way I can be brief about that without missing a lot…

I’m the oldest child, and my parents weren’t very musical. But even though I didn’t have any musical role models, I was always drawn to music. My mother tells me as an infant I’d wiggle around to the music whenever she played a Louis Armstrong record.

I was always messing around with musical things. On Sundays we’d go to my grandparent’s house for dinner, and my grandmother had a piano. I remember a book she had called “Songs Children Love to Play”, which had a diagram of the keyboard on the inside cover, with dotted lines showing the notes on the staff. I’d flip back and forth between that and pieces in the book, and basically taught myself how to read music – I was probably 6 or 7 then.

My first real music lessons were on drums – I bought myself a drum set with money I’d saved from my paper route. I played percussion all the way through high school and college, performing in the HS marching and concert bands, and in the college jazz band. I don’t really keep it up today, but every once in a while I’ll play tympani with a local community orchestra.

I messed around with every instrument I could get my hands on. My first guitar was one my mother bought for my father… he never learned to play, and gave it to my sister… who never learned to play, so I swiped it and learned. I still have that guitar, too – a 1962 Harmony!

In college I had some awesome teachers. My favorite was Dr. Hans Gross, my theory teacher – he really got me into the structural beauty of music, and had a way of presenting music history that was just fascinating. Anyway, at that point I decided music was it for me, career-wise. While I was still in school I got a job teaching percussion at Morse Avenue Music in Chicago, and quickly became their only guitar teacher as well – because even though I considered the guitar my “second” instrument at that point, it turned out I was a lot better at it than the guy they had teaching. In less than a year I had a full load of guitar students, and I stopped teaching
percussion.

In the late 70s I did only performing and teaching. But the disco era killed off the venues; I went from performing six nights a week to just one or two – so I started doing other things: film scoring, record production, owning a music store, etc. From then to now, I’ve done whatever I’ve had to that kept me in music – the most recent stuff is in the “occupation” question above! I try to keep learning, too. I recently spent about five years studying classical piano with Joe Cech. I’m in awe of him – he taught me more about score reading and musical interpretation than I’d learned from anyone, ever.

GN: Of course, the big news is the opening of your music school, the Midwest Music Academy in Plainfield, Illinois. How did you come about making this decision and what have been the highs and lows about getting things together for opening this fall?

TS: I realized pretty early on that you can’t make it in the music business until you approach it as a business! Some years ago I took a hard look at the business strategy I was using as a guitar teacher, and I decided to diversify geographically. In my experience it’s pretty easy to go from 10 to 20 students, but really hard to go from 50 to 60 – so I decided I’d try teaching from three locations, and see what happened. Initially I chose Woodridge (where I live), Naperville about 15 miles to the NW, and Western
Springs about the same distance to the East. Western Springs didn’t pan out as well as I’d hoped, so about three years ago I tried going South to Plainfield.

My Plainfield roster grew rapidly. I ended up dropping Woodridge to spend more time there, and had a solid waiting list – so I started to look at the demographic projections, and they looked really strong for growth. I did a lot of soul searching, and spent a lot of time talking things over with my family and friends, and decided this is probably the place for me to be.

First I tried buying a place… and I came really close to making a deal on one. But when the seller backed out, I decided I’d better just start my own. The highs and lows have been pretty incredible. The lowest spots have been realizing just how much money it’s taking to do it right – and the red tape! For example, Plainfield is in the process of re-numbering their streets… and every government agency I’ve talked to seems to have a different idea of what my address should be! (I’ve actually gotten FIVE different opinions!)

The high spot is definitely the reaction of the students and parents. I think everybody who’s walked through the door has told me how nice the place looks, how nice the gear is, how much they like the way I’m doing things, even how nice the place smells!

GN: After all the years you’ve spent as a teacher, what are some of the biggest challenges of your new position? And what have you looked for in choosing teachers to work at your school?

TS: I think the biggest challenge for me is moving from teaching directly to teaching through others. Because I’ve spent so much time in the teacher’s chair, I know what’s important to the teachers, and I’m trying to provide everything they need to excel. But I’ve also got more years teaching than almost any of my staff – and I know what works.

But right there is the crux of it – I know what works for me in communicating with students, but I’m not the other teachers. They have things that work for them. So the real puzzle is figuring out what I should coach, and what I shouldn’t. I want things to be consistently excellent for our students, but it’s not “best practice” just because I do it. Ideally I’ll be learning as much from them as they learn from me, and we’ll be the best in the business because of it.

So that’s driving how I’m choosing teachers. When I grew up, the corner barbershop had two barbers. My father told me to always pick the barber with the worst haircut. Why? “Because they probably cut each other’s hair.” And that’s been in the back of my mind since I started recruiting: I don’t care how well they play; I don’t care how well they communicate with me; I want to hear their students play – that’ll tell me what kind of “haircut” they can give!

Just yesterday a teacher came up to me and told me he wasn’t sure about the vocal teacher I’ve got starting next week – he doesn’t think he’s a very good singer. I sort of agree – and I think the teacher making the comment (who’s a guitar teacher) is a better singer than the vocal teacher. But I’ve heard some of the vocal teacher’s long-time students sing, and I know he’s top-notch.

GN: Many Guitar Noise readers regard you as the “guru of music theory.” And your first book, Music Theory for Guitarists, certainly bears that out. Any plans for more writing in the near future?

TS: I’ve got a few writing projects in the works right now, but for the last several months my writing has been on hold – starting the school has taken too much time! But I hope to get back to it sometime next year. There’s a sequel on harmony in the works, a second edition of the theory book, and a couple of projects to be revealed later!

GN: You’ve certainly worn a lot of musical hats. And you’ve certainly gotten this question hundreds of times, but I have to ask anyway! What advice do you have for someone wanting to make a life’s career in music? Not necessarily as an “A List” performer, but simply to have a life doing something one loves?

TS: A month ago I had breakfast with a pretty successful songwriter. He told me that his musical success really started once he realized everybody was a commodity – you can replace a guitar player (or songwriter, or anybody else) with one or two phone calls if you need to.

Once you face up to that fact, you realize that the music business – or any business, really – is about building and maintaining relationships. So if you want to succeed, you don’t have to be the “best” – sure you have to be “good enough”, and you have to get your foot in the door for your first opportunity, but after that… you have to be the one they’re not looking to replace.

That means paying attention to the little details, the non-musical stuff. It’s important: show up on time. Do what you say you’ll do. Be friendly. Smile. Remember people’s names. Don’t argue. Be confident – but don’t be a prima donna. Follow up – but don’t be a pest. Treat everybody with respect. It really boils down to the golden rule.

None of it is hard to do, but for some reason many musicians don’t do them, or don’t do them enough of the time. But I’ve found that if you do them as much as you possibly can, and meet as many people as you possibly can, success will find you.