Flynn Music Studio

08/31/2024

It's time to get those fall schedules nailed down! I just booked four time slots last week, but I have a few available still, just waiting for you! Most of my students opt for remote lessons offered through a platform built by music teachers for music lessons. The upsides to this system are many: no commute time to lessons, I can teach you no matter where you are, plus I record each lesson which you can access to play back whenever you might need to refresh your memory. There is no extra cost to you for this service. If you feel that you need in-person lessons, I teach on Tuesdays at Music and Arts in Salisbury. You can call them at 410-219-1092 and request to be added to my schedule. Either way, you will receive expert instruction, a well-rounded music education, and we will have fun in the process! All ages, all ability levels.

01/30/2024

I currently have room for 3 new students - all ages, all levels!

06/06/2023

Wondering what to do to break up the boredom this summer? Here's the perfect solution: Summer Group Lessons with Flynn Music Studio! We are excited to offer packages which consist of six 30-minute lessons for beginners in groups of five or fewer students in age-restricted groups. We offer groups in the following age brackets: 4-6; 7-9; 10-13; 14-Adult; and Golden Years. You will learn basics of rhythm, melody, harmony, as well as some improvisation and ear-training exercises. All materials are provided! These classes are held in a virtual platform designed for music lessons, so you will have your lesson in your own home on your own instrument (yes, you need a piano or keyboard because you will have stuff to practice!). These group lessons will be available on Wednesdays, and include the following dates: July 12, 19, 26; August 9, 16, 23. There is a flat charge of $120.00 per student for all 6 lessons, $60 due at registration and $60 due by July 10. Please reach out via Messenger for mor information or to reserve your spot!

03/07/2023

I currently have several time slots available for piano/keyboard students. Lessons are 30 minutes each, with availability on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm exclusively teaching one-on-one via on online platform created for music lessons. You have your private lesson at your own piano or keyboard, and no travel time! First two lessons are still complimentary. Let's get you started!

12/28/2021

Did Santa bring your family a piano or keyboard? Let's get you started on learning how to make music! Limited lesson times available starting January, 2022. Call me at 443-405-5799 or message me for more details!

12/06/2021

Just who is Parson Brown?

Let’s settle this question first, before we dive into the backstory of “Winter Wonderland.” A parson is another title for priest or minister. Many small-town churches could not, and some still cannot, afford a full-time pastor so there would be traveling ministers who would come to town to hold services. It seems that the young couple in this song is giving the identity of Parson Brown to the snowman they saw in the park and hoping that the real parson will marry them when he’s in town. Interestingly, there are two versions of the bridge and second verse of this song – the one featuring a young couple in love and dreaming of their future, and another more family-centric version where the snowman is not Parson Brown but a circus clown. The Parson Brown lyric came first, then the circus clown one was circulated, and then they were combined, which is how many artists and arrangers cover the song today.

This song has a background that we can relate to more in 2020/2021 than we may have before. In the early 1930s a young Pennsylvania man, Richard B. Smith, had contracted tuberculosis, causing him to go into quarantine in a sanitarium set aside for patients of this deadly disease. He remembered the beauty of his small hometown’s park under a blanket of new snow and wrote the lyrics to “Winter Wonderland” as he was being treated. He recovered enough to be released and traveled to New York City in 1934, where he met with a composer named Felix Bernard. The resulting song was released the same year and has been covered by over 200 artists in the years since. Sadly, Richard Smith died in September of 1935 on this thirty-fourth birthday due to tuberculosis. His song is loved the world over and is one of the most recorded holiday songs of all time.

I chose my favorite rendition of this classic holiday song to share here, although there are many out there and it is hard to choose just one! Here’s the incomparable Dolly Parton with her arrangement of “Winter Wonderland” and “Sleigh Ride.”

Merry Christmas

12/06/2021

One of our most loved Christmas songs was written in 1945 during a mid-summer California heatwave! Can you guess which one? According to one of the composers, his writing partner had left a few lines on a notepad on the piano – not as an idea for a song but as a way to trick his mind into thinking about cold weather, and maybe not being so bothered by the heat. Singer Mel Tormé read these words written there by his friend Bob Wells:

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”
“Jack Frost nipping at your nose”
“Yuletide carols being sung by a choir”
“And folks dressed up like Eskimos”

Tormé immediately saw the promise of a song in these lines and only 45 minutes later the song was complete. The writing partners knew they had something special, so they headed into Hollywood to share their new song with industry friends, including singer Nat King Cole, who recorded the song 4 times between 1946 and 1961, each time with a slightly different arrangement and going from a jazz trio in the earliest version to a full orchestra in the later one. His 1961 recording is the one we hear on the radio at the holidays, but this beloved song has been recorded by many artists in many genres. In 1974 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

So try to stay cool (or warm!) while you enjoy Nat King Cole’s 1961 version of “The Christmas Song.”

"The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" is a classic Christmas song written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells in 1944 and was first recorded by The King Cole ...

12/01/2021

Once in Royal David’s City
If you have ever attended a traditional Lessons and Carols service, you may remember this as the opening, processional hymn. The tradition of using this hymn to open this particular service goes all the way back to 1919, the first year of the annual (continuing to this day!) Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols service at Cambridge, England’s King’s College Chapel. The first verse is sung by a boy chorister who is chosen for the honor just before the service begins. Many churches around the world continue to do a Lessons and Carols service patterned after King's College Chapel.

Cecil Francis Alexander was the wife of an Anglican Archbishop in Ireland. She wrote poems for children to help them learn the tenets of the faith as detailed in the Apostles’ Creed. Several of these poems, including this one, written in 1848, were set to music and sung as hymns. The poem was later set to an original tune, “Irby,” written by London organist Henry John Gauntlett.

The video today is from King’s College Cambridge’s Christmas Eve service in 2015. Glorious!

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