Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah McCaffrey Ritchie.
Hi Sarah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Minnesota and moved to New York to attend Eastman School of Music as a flute performance major, after which, I moved down to New York City to try to scrounge together a career as a performer. I spent a lot of time doing a lot of terrible jobs while I tried to make it as a musician there and I finally was fed up with the office gigs and went back to school to get my K-12 teaching certificate in music. I taught elementary general music and chorus in the NYC Public Schools and early childhood music on the side. I fell in with a small crowd of teachers that was using something called Music Learning Theory, which is a research-based approach to learning music, as opposed to the traditional way of learning. I am always intrigued by anything backed by science that tears down traditional boundaries, especially when it comes to something I love so much. I was also pulled in immediately because Music Learning Theory (MLT) teachers believe in “sound” before “sight,” meaning students should engage in more music-making and creating before learning to read music… and that should ideally happen from birth. As someone who struggled with reading notation and didn’t have very many opportunities to improvise and create, I was immediately turned on by this approach.
I started immersing myself in this non-traditional way of teaching music and fell head over heels for the results: students that were auditing (thinking musically) and therefore were able to create and improvise at a different level than I could have expected.
I started my own babies/toddler classes back in 2015, creating an entire curriculum of songs and chants using songs from scratch. My parent-child classes grew from two classes a week, to 7 classes in just a year. As my students got bigger, parents started asking me about what their child could do next, so I researched MLT piano classes and found Marilyn Lowe, the creator of Music Moves for Piano, an audiation-based approach to learning piano through singing and movement. So, I jumped in on that and was self-taught for many years before finally meeting and learning from Marilyn Low herself. My students grew with my program musically and I couldn’t keep up with the demand of new clients, so I hired and trained another teacher and we jumped into what we hoped would be a very exciting year, being able to manage more students together. But, that was September 2019 and by the end of the next spring, we were fully online and the rug was pulled out from under us. It was possibly the worst time for me as a teacher. Numbers dropped, clients couldn’t stay with us and my business took such a huge beating. I started to think that I couldn’t keep up with it, especially as a parent of two, three young children myself. However, then an opportunity fell into my lap to take over the old Patina warehouse on 4th Ave and 48th Street and I something lit up inside of me.
Looking back, I might have been really crazy to sign a lease during the height of the pandemic, but I think it’s what kept me going. The challenge of keeping a business off the ground and keeping my family safe and stable was enough to keep my mind occupied and my creative juices flowing. If it wasn’t for all of those challenges, I’m not sure I could have stayed sane during Covid.
Now, Songs with Sarah Music School has 9 teachers and is almost entirely taught through ear training from birth to age 9, when our older students start the process of decoding musical notation using all of the musical contexts we’ve given them in previous years. Some of our students have been with us since they were babies and are now playing in Book 4 of Music Moves for Piano. We have over 300 students and we run 14 sold-out Music play classes for babies and toddlers each week.
Sometimes, I still have to pinch myself.
SWS Music School is my baby and I am so proud of what I’ve built and the community that keeps coming back. I couldn’t do it without my amazing teachers and my supportive family at home. I love showing up to work ready to play with young children every day and coming home to my trio every night.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I mentioned this in my “story” but Covid was a huge challenge. I had to rebuild my program for months after it fell apart in online learning. I am so grateful for the community of other music teachers in the area that I could lean on and how amazing their parents were throughout the entire ordeal.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in early childhood music and am probably known mostly for my Music Play classes, which are designed for children ages 0-4 and their caregiver. I absolutely adore teaching those classes and have the most wonderful families that have stayed loyal to me and my program.
I think what sets me aside from other music schools is my approach. I use Music Learning Theory, which centers around the student and how they, as an individual, learn music…not what I think they should learn. I take a lot of time to assess and understand how much musical context a child has before I even begin to teach them- and then I use a sequential approach to teaching them from that point on. You see, learning music is just like learning a language. When a child is born, they are completely immersed in a world of language and spend every waking moment just listening to people talk to them and with each other. Then, they grow a bit and start making their own sounds. Then, they start putting those sounds together to form words and later put the words together to form sentences. Next up, they are having full on conversations with us… and all of this happens before they learn to read or write their language. A child’s musical journey is the same. They need a LOT of musical contexts (hearing music, experiencing music, being playful with music) before they are ready to even start making musical sounds. Then, they start putting those musical sounds together (through tonal and rhythm patterns) and soon more (phrases and melodies). Then, they start having musical conversations with each other (improvisation.) Students aren’t ready for true understanding of musical notation until long after they’ve had many opportunities to experience and create with music. This resonates with a lot of parents in my community- the idea of their children being able to sit down and play a melody by ear and then changing it to a minor key, adding a rhythmic or melodic variation and then changing the entire meter from duple to triple just to give things a different feel. All without reading a lick of music. That’s something more adults wish they could do, so they’re excited to give that to their kids.
What I’m most proud of is my three-part composition that has spanned the last 8 years. Their names are Cleo (8) and Francis and Stephen (6). They are by far my favorite trio of musicians and my pride and joy. Plus, being a twin mom is something to be proud of, so I’ll throw that in there, too.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Reach out to a lot of people and don’t be afraid to ask for help. When I opened by doors to SWS Music School in September 2020, I contacted every music school nearby to let them I was moving into the neighborhood and I wanted to work together and not be a competition. Josie at Music Lab and Sarah at Sarah Jane’s Music School were fantastic resources and so kind of to me when I started my venture. Rebecca at Blue Tree has been an angel- offering help and advice throughout the entire pandemic and letting me lean on her for advice. I also don’t lose touch with the people that I am in awe of, because they just might come in handy. Look at Jessica Varela, my former colleague just happened to be in need of a job change and I scooped her up and now she is my right-hand gal and one of my dearest friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.songswithsarah.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/songswithsarahmpls/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/songswithsarah
Image Credits
Ellie Kaufman Wannemacher
