Michelle Tuesday Music School has proudly supported schools and local charities by donating our signature Gift Totes for fundraising events since the very beginning. Whether it’s a fun run, a silent auction, or a scholarship fundraiser, these gift bags are our way of giving back to the community that inspires us every day.

A sampler gifted in this way is redeemable for an entire year after the time of donation. We hope this allows families to get the most from this exciting opportunity.

In 2024, we donated 7 gift totes to fundraising events across the Gahanna and Columbus area. And we’re off to a strong start this year—with 5 already donated in 2025!

Events like these remind us just how powerful music education can be in bringing people together and opening doors.

If your school or nonprofit would like to request a Michelle Tuesday Music School Gift Tote donation, please reach out! We ask that organizations contact us at least 2–3 weeks prior to the event and include the appropriate donation paperwork for review by our finance manager.

Together, let’s keep the music going—for everyone.

When I was young, my grandmother had a white lacquer upright piano. I would play this despite not having lessons. I loved that old piano. We moved away when I was seven, and I started taking lessons with my cousins. They had a spinnet, which was just fine. When we moved again, my parents found an old upright from a Shaky’s pizza with many layers of paint. My mom refinished it down to the wood, and I loved that piano, too. It had a gold harp and sounded lovely.

If you get the feeling I moved a lot, I have. I had to let go of that piano when I was sixteen and we moved again. I bought a 1915 Baldwin upright for $2.50 in college – the piano tuner said I stole it – and the adventure to move it into my second floor apartment was on. That piano is still in storage with my dad, and I’ll have to look in on it soon.

I bought a house last week. In my lifetime, this is move seventeen. I’ve been traveling a lot for my day job and juggling the everyday stuff (like moving is everyday stuff) while I’m home.

Last Wednesday I signed the papers. Movers were scheduled for Thursday. I sent a message about a piano ‘free to a good home’. In the reply I got a phone number and was told to call a woman about her piano. The movers weren’t even gone by the time I had called her, so I asked them if they wanted to move a piano. They enthusiastically agreed.

Several years ago, I received a keyboard as a gift. It did not have 88 keys. When I tried to play a whole note, the sound didn’t last as long as I needed it to. There are some things a keyboard like that is good for, but it never satisfied the longing I had for a real piano.

The keyboard did get us through the practice my son needed when he took piano lessons. My daughter played a little but was never serious about it. At the time she preferred violin.

When the boxes all arrived from the movers, I had an empty space by the stairway. I realized a real piano would fit right there. I know there are keyboards that would fill the void. Some are sophisticated enough to record music digitally with computers. But my love of “real” pianos made me want to fill that space.

After several calls to the moving company and the woman with the piano, I had a moving crew meet me to pick it up. She had owned that piano for 40 years. The harp has 1926 scrawled on it. The outside isn’t in the best condition, but it has been recently tuned and sounds lovely.

Not long after the moving crew brought the piano in, my daughter wanted to play with it. My son held the cat so the cat could play it, though I’m not sure the cat appreciated it as much as the kids did. I smile watching the kids and the cats – they remind me so much of my childhood with pianos and cats.

Be careful on Marketplace, though. I may have also purchased a backpacker guitar (which I forgot on this business trip) and a djembe drum for my son. I may have placed myself in Facebook timeout for a while. I can’t wait to get home and play on my real piano.

Starting April 14th, MTMS will be closed for Spring Break! Enjoy your long week. Play music for fun. We will be open on the 21st, and we can’t wait to see you then.

The link below has a few traditional songs to listen to. While there are many types of traditional music, the cultures that brought these songs into existence had several things in common. These commonalities lead to a possibility of finding a universal concept system in music.

Sixty traditional cultures worldwide were studied for rhythm and melodic complexity which varies and did not give specific information. However, how religious a song is, how much energy it brings up, and how formal a song was accounted for much of the variability. Lullabies, love songs, dance songs, and healing songs all created different patterns by these three dimensions.

Ask your music student about the traditional music and what they are drawn to, whether it is the type of instruments, the vocals, or the rhythms. How do they feel about the categories and how songs fit into them? Love traditional music and see how it is influenced by the culture that creates it.

Daniel was born and raised in the San Francisco bay area. Growing up, he was very competitive with his older brother, and when he picked up the flute, he had to prove he could do it better. He began to play the flute at the age of 10 and quickly fell in love with all things music. While in high school, Daniel also picked up some of the piano, saxophone, and oboe. 

After high school, Daniel attended Oberlin Conservatory and was lucky to learn from renowned teachers like Alexa Still and Raphael Jimenez. While at Oberlin, he also developed a love for teaching. He taught flute for his fellow students and members of the community, and worked with the staff at the local Central Ohio Youth Orchestra. He was also appointed by the conservatory as a music theory tutor. After graduating from Oberlin, Daniel moved to Columbus and began his journey with Michelle Tuesday Music School!

Daniel plays the flute every day, and loves sharing his love of music with the students at MTMS. He loves seeing young people engage with music and find the joy in it like he has. He is also easily distracted by hearing about all the musical activities his students are up to. In his free time, Daniel enjoys hiking, cooking, and making old media references that his students don’t understand.