Patterson Performing Arts

✨ Now and Then: A Musical R***e of Change, Growth & Becoming ✨

Step into the in-between.
Join us for a heartwarming show filled with musical theatre moments that capture the joy, heartbreak, wonder, and transformation of growing up.

🎭 Family-friendly
🎶 Featuring songs from musicals including Big Fish, Tuck Everlasting, Little Women, Hairspray, Jersey Boys, The Secret Garden, A Chorus Line, and more!
📍Salem United Methodist Church, Ladue
📅 Sunday, August 17, 5:00pm
🎟️ Tickets at link in bio

Come celebrate who we’ve been, who we’re becoming, and everything in between. 💫

🎤☕ Summer Brew-Ha-Ha 🎶🌞
Join us for a fun, feel-good afternoon of live music and summer vibes at the first-ever Summer Brew-Ha-Ha — a lively outdoor concert featuring local singers and sunshine-soaked sounds!
🎶 Expect a mix of pop hits and musical theatre favorites—perfect for kicking off the season with style (including .b.official singing this track!)
📅 Sunday, June 8 at 4 PM
📍 Outside stage behind Webster Groves Garden Café
🚗 Parking available in the adjacent lot
🪑 Bring a camp chair—seating fills up fast!
Grab a bite or a cold brew from the Garden Café (they’re hosting us, so show them some love!) and soak up the sounds of summer in one of Webster Groves’ most charming backyard stages.
Let’s kick off the season together — see you at the Brew-Ha-Ha! 🎶☀️

☀️🎶😎 Summer Music Camps are now open for registration! Camps available for music-lovers ages 6-18. 🗣️Spots are limited so campers can receive individual attention. ➡️Sign up today! Link in bio!

                                 

🌷🌱Spring is springing at our studio these days, but we have ☀️SUMMER😎 on our minds! Lookout for our Summer Camps rolling out this week, including a new 🎼🎤SONGWRITING camp, plus a month of music camps for the younger music-lovers in your life!

Your kid didn’t get cast in their school musical or at summer camp this year. Or maybe they got cast, but it was as Second Tree from the Left instead of the big, flashy role they’d hoped to nab. Here’s a *hot take* you may not want to hear:

They weren't cast because they weren’t prepared. They weren’t ready.

I regularly get calls from parents asking if I can give their teen a couple of lessons before an audition they have in two weeks. I can give them a few pointers if I hear them sing a song once or twice, but it’s nothing compared to the skills they could build with regular instruction.

Sure, they sang “Part of Your World” in their bedroom/car/dinner table ad nauseam for weeks leading up to the audition. And that’s something!

But have they developed fundamental singing techniques consistently over the months prior to that?

Have they worked with an expert to select audition songs that best suit how they sound right now and what will best showcase their unique strengths while minimizing any flaws?

Have they regularly practiced the art of auditioning in front of people in a supportive environment, so when the real audition happens, they can utilize muscle memory, and it’s no big deal?

Have they learned techniques to help build the stamina it takes to perform those big, flashy roles without losing their voice during tech week?

Have they squelched any performance anxiety by regularly singing around other singers to essentially desensitize them from any pressure, judgment, or criticism they may perceive at auditions?

Have they learned HOW to learn music so they’re not just imitating the professional they hear on the cast recording?

All of this is necessary in order to be prepared and ready for auditioning.

You wouldn’t send your kid into a baseball game without first receiving coaching, learning the rules of the game, and practicing with a team. You wouldn’t expect your kid to participate in a martial arts exhibition or a dance competition without thorough training and preparation. Singing is no different, especially when we’re talking about competing (aka auditioning).

Here’s the great news! Our Accelerated Voice Lab is perfectly tailored to train tween and teen singers for exactly this purpose. Our curriculum utilizes a holistic approach to build all of these skills in a weekly 90-minute lesson. In our program, singers will:

- gain healthy, fundamental singing techniques suitable for their age and goals.

- develop musicianship skills to more accurately and efficiently learn the music they want to be singing.

- choose music for auditions that best showcase their voice and personality.

- sing every week next to other singers to encourage vocal experimentation, discourage self- and other-focused criticism, and reduce performance anxiety naturally.

- practice audition techniques to encourage positive muscle memory for the real thing.

- learn how to take care of their voice and protect it during tech week and busy singing seasons.

- learn how to memorize music easily and effectively.

- practice independently while they’re in the studio without distractions at home.

Don’t wait until 2 weeks before the next audition to call a teacher! Get started NOW building the necessary skills to be truly READY for that next audition!

Fall Session begins Aug. 14th with labs on Mondays-Thursdays at 4pm and 5:30pm. Open spots are filling up (only 8 spots remain)!

Patterson Performing Arts is hosting an Open House this Saturday 8/5, where you can meet our instructors and take a free mini-lesson! If you’re ready to enroll at the Open House, you can lock in your lab slot before they fill up. We’re right in the heart of Webster Groves. If you’re ready to sign up for that free mini-lesson, click the link in the comments.

www.pattersonperformingarts.com
📸: at 54 Below, NYC

Hi, I’m Heather and I am THE worst piano mom. I am a professional musician with degrees in music and yet I never remind my 10-year-old to practice. I regularly forget to even have him pack his piano book to take to his lessons. And the lessons happen at MY studio!

But here’s the thing. This summer, I have discovered THE hack to getting kids to practice piano with zero nagging, zero pushback, AND zero oversight.

Ben takes lessons in my studio’s Accelerated Piano Lab. In our family of musicians, it’s just the natural thing to start some form of instrument lessons pretty early on. And Ben was open to piano (though he’d much rather spend time playing basketball or Minecraft).

I don’t care if he becomes the next concert pianist or studies piano long-term or chooses a musical profession (hence, the lack of nagging or general good parenting around his learning the instrument). But I DO hope that he finds joy in music-making in some form or another, can appreciate music as a future audience member, and learns enough to be able to pick it up later, if he so chooses.

Our Accelerated Piano Lab is unique in that the lessons themselves last longer than a typical beginner piano lesson, so he’s automatically getting more time on the instrument right away, even if he’s not practicing.

And because of the unique format, students learn how to work independently on the piano right from the start, giving them confidence and self-agency right away.

You can think of our instructor as more of a Montessori-style Guide rather than a traditional piano teacher. Instead of the teacher sitting next to the student on the piano bench, breathing down their neck, and correcting all the mistakes over and over that inevitably happen when learning something new, the student is free to try a new concept, experiment, fail, try again, improve, try more, polish, and eventually master each concept as it comes, with instruction and support from the instructor only as it is needed and at the student’s pace.

So here’s the hack! This summer, I instituted a Summer Checklist that my kids must complete to earn screen time. They balked at it at first, but now they start on the list as soon as they wake up, they knock it out with very few reminders, and then they happily grab their screens upon its completion.

The checklist is not intense or a drag. There are items like “play a game with your brother,” and “take vitamins” - easy check-offs. (My favorite is “Help mom with something!”) Well, one of Ben’s items is to practice piano for 10 minutes. TEN, that’s it.

It is literal music to my ears when he sits down at the piano and just starts playing. He opens his piano book and just starts right in. And he always tells Alexa to end the timer and goes right on playing. Because he’s enjoying it!

The hack is two-fold.

One - if you don’t already have a summer checklist for screen time, get one! My kids appreciate the structure and the pride in crossing things off the list.

And Two - consider enrolling your kid in our Accelerated Piano Lab! There’s no way Ben would be confident practicing on his own every day without the self-agency and built-in independent practice he’s learned in the Lab. He would expect me to sit next to him and teach him, if that’s what his lessons looked like. Instead, I get to play duets with my 10-year-old after he’s mastered a song, and he gets to be creative, express himself musically, and have a great time doing something that our whole family loves.

It’s a total win-win! Our studio, Patterson Performing Arts, is hosting an Open House next Saturday morning, where you can come check out our spaces, meet our instructors, find out about our unique Accelerated Lab programs, and even take a free mini-piano or voice lesson!

If you’re ready to enroll at the Open House, you can choose the day and time that works best for you, Mondays-Thursdays, 4:00-7:00pm. The best part is that we’re conveniently located right in the heart of Webster Groves at the intersection of Lockwood & Elm. You can check out our website for more about our offerings, and if you’re ready to sign up for that free mini-lesson, click the link in the comments.

www.pattersonperformingarts.com