Natalie's Strings Studio

This week I had my final “goodbye” lesson. My student picked these beautiful flowers for me and brought a card. It was so bittersweet!

A few months ago I made the decision to stop teaching lessons to focus on my own practice and performance. I’m calling it a sabbatical, I do hope to have time for both someday. I had 7 students, ages 7-17 and I absolutely adored teaching each and every single one of them! They were learning guitar, viola, and piano. Most were doing weekly private lessons, with the occasional group lesson. A few times we did group jams where students wrote their own songs and I came up with parts for the others to play based on their current skill set and goals. Derek Jr joined and played cajon for those sessions, A fun beat really kept everyone together! I’m incredibly thankful for all of my students. Watching them learn was so rewarding and I grew as a teacher in many ways.

At the last lesson this week, my student showed me what she’s learning, now from Ryan Groff , and we had an absolute blast playing along together and relating her new work to her musical journey thus far. She also wanted to hear about the shows I’ve been playing and songs I’ve been writing! It was so special and I’m so thankful that our Champaign Urbana music community offers so much inspiration I can point my students towards. Girls Rock! Champaign-Urbana might have a stellar participant at their door in the next year or two!

No Strings Attached is the revival of a project that Brooke Trammel and I started in college, now with the magnificent Derek Jr . Last weekend we played our debut show at the Hogchute Opry. It was an absolute blast!! Thanks Hogchute for having us and thanks to everyone who came out and watched us perform! And a big special shout-out to David Ryan Bishop for letting us practice in his basement and helping us get ready for the show!

_SET LIST:_
Wild Heart
First Date
Side Street Inn
(Instrument swap)
I need some sleep
Meaningless interactions
Wholesome
Blue

Forgot to post this pic from our show at from May 24th, 2026. We played with and , it was a blast!

Me, and will be playing as No Strings Attached this Saturday 6/6 at the Hogchute Music Festival at 4 pm! Come out to the Kalyx Center for Sustainability at Allerton for some music in the woods. So excited to be part of the music festival! Would love to see you there, no strings attached though, obvi.

First performance together with and first time performing at the hootenanny tonight at hosted by ! Had fun jamming with everyone too, I’m learning mandolin and it was great to try it out with a group (also a first). PC

Cloud Mountain Kombucha show this weekend, stopped for some pics along boneyard. , ,

Pics from our Maps of the Midwest show at Rose Bowl last weekend! Thanks to everyone who came out for us, we’re playing again on April 25th at Cloud Mountain Kombucha. , ,