We wanted to share with you an awesome interview we did for Voyage L.A. a few weeks ago. Learn what Marcos Moscat our founder had to say about music, the school, our teachers, and method.
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August 21, 2017
Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcos Moscat.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born in San Francisco, CA and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. A beautiful country back in the day where happiness was all around and highly contagious.
When I got out of high school, my parents offered me a trip to Boston, MA to further study English and to look at some college options. On my first few days in town, while taking a trolley tour through the city, I stumbled upon a place that would forever change my life… Berklee College of Music.
Music was my passion, it was my life and my inspiration, and I think it is safe to say, it was my destiny as well. With a guitar in hand, I ended up applying to Berklee just days after I got to Boston, got accepted, and four years later I had a Bachelor’s degree in Film Scoring. Soon after I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a Film composer.
When I finally arrived in L.A., I realized that making a living as a film composer was no easy task. In fact, I had to take a part-time job teaching music at a local store to pay the bills. But as the months went by, I started to realize that teaching music was a gift, it became another passion as well as a mission, and that’s how 123 Rock School of Music got started.
With the help of my wife Isabel, we wanted to create something new, a system, a program, a place where we could share with as many people as possible what music was all about, how it brings joy, the effect it has on our development as human beings and how it can amplify our journey through life.
So it was after five years in L.A that ‘123 Rock’ was born. A music school for both kids and adults, where we teach all the main instruments through our fun and exciting method ‘Imagination is Creation’, which takes our students’ favorite things in life and turns them into a musical experience to which they can relate.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There have always been challenges along the way, but I believe those obstacles are experiences that we learn from and eventually makes us better.
Money was always a challenge, at least in the beginning. Dealing with the fear of the unknown was the other. I always overthought about the future and not the present moment I was living in. Eventually, the real challenge was managing all aspects of the school at the same time, whether it was teaching, scheduling, billing or any other daily task. Luckily, my wife Isabel runs the scheduling and billing department, which she does incredibly well, and we have a fantastic team of instructors that bring all their best day by day.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the 123 Rock School of Music story. Tell us more about the business.
123 Rock School of Music offers fun and enriching music lessons for kids and adults in all the main instruments. We follow a very inspiring program that combines both theory and practice, tailored to each student. Our lessons can be in-home or at our studio, and we have an instructor-student matching system as well as a points reward system, which is a practice incentive program that gives our younger students weekly accumulative points that they can exchange for fabulous prizes of their choice.
Our teaching approach is simple, yet incredibly rewarding and efficient, we developed a revolutionary teaching method called ‘Imagination is Creation,’ which takes our students favorite things in life and turns them into a musical experience to which they can relate. We take our students through different musical activities visiting both theory and practice. We connect our student’s favorite music genres and music artists, as well as their favorite things in life and all those things that inspire them. We then visit that student’s world of art, imagination, and creativity and combine them with all the fundamentals of music. The Result? Fun and enriching musical journey where students get to learn how to play their favorite instrument in a fun, interactive and inspiring way that will keep them happy and motivated.
And it is without saying, that as the owner of 123 Rock, I’m most proud of our amazing students, seeing their smiles, joy and musical development through their learning process, reminds us that we are on the right path as music educators.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in luck, I believe in destiny. To me, everything is connected, and as my mom used to say, everything happens for a reason.
If I had to say what role has luck played in my life and business, I would say I have been rather lucky for all the opportunities life has presented me along the way. I have always been surrounded by amazing people, I had two loving parents and a brother that always supported me in every aspect, and I got to marry the love of my life. Now, having two beautiful daughters and getting to work with music every day makes me think I’m the luckiest man in the world.
Pricing:
- 30 min lessons (Studio) – $35
- 45 min lessons (Studio) – $50
- 60 min lessons (Studio) – $65
- 30 min lessons (In-Home) – $40
- 45 min lessons (In-Home) – $55
- 60 min lessons (In-Home) – $70
