Student spotlight

Meet Lila, an 18-year-old singer-songwriter-in-the-making, fresh off graduation and headed to Miami this fall. She’s been a Music Royale student for five years, and in that time, guitar has become so much more than a hobby. It’s her therapy, her confidence builder, and the thing she says she’ll never stop doing. Watch her full interview video here!

How It All Started

Lila picked up guitar because, well, there was already one sitting at home, so why not? She tried teaching herself first, but staying consistent on her own was tough. That’s when she decided to give lessons a real shot, starting back in eighth grade with her teacher, Sara.

“Going into lessons just felt like the right thing to do,” Lila says. Five years later, she’s still going and still counts her weekly hour with Sara as one of the best parts of her week.

Finding Her Sound

Classic rock runs deep in Lila’s musical taste. She’s a huge Led Zeppelin fan and an even bigger David Bowie fan, so much so that the first song she ever performed was The Man Who Sold the World. It’s still her favorite, made even more special when Sara gifted her the vinyl as a graduation present, and the two performed it together.

These days, she’s got Johnny B. Goode on repeat while she learns it, and she’s also working on Soccer Practice by Lizzy McAlpine for a little acoustic fun.

Looking back at her earliest days, Lila remembers I See the Light from Tangled being the song that nearly broke her. “Disney songs are always very hard,” she laughs, but it was her first finger-picking song, and once she got through it, everything else clicked. That song, along with Blackbird, will always hold a special place for her.

Stepping Into the Spotlight

If you ask Lila what she’s most proud of, it’s not a song at all, it’s putting herself out there. Open mics used to terrify her, and she’d always tell Sara no. But once she worked up the nerve to play her first one, there was no turning back.

From there, she jumped into Rock School, where she got to perform Purple Rain with a full band, a moment made even cooler by the fact that Stranger Things’ newest season had just brought the song back into the spotlight. “I’m usually nervous before each time,” she admits, “but it’s so easy to shake off once you start playing, especially around people.”

That performance experience has rippled into the rest of her life in ways she didn’t expect. She recently did her first-ever runway walk at the NFL Fashion Show, something she was sure would terrify her. “But once I got on, I was not nervous at all. If I hadn’t done all these performances, it would have been completely different.”

More Than Lessons

Beyond her weekly sessions, Lila has become a true fixture at Music Royale, she even completed an internship there through her Young Professionals class, restringing guitars and helping run sound at open mic nights. She’s brought her brother, his friend, and her boyfriend’s sister all in as Sara’s students too. “It’s more about community,” she says. “Everybody is super nice. I’ve made so many friends.”

Her mom used to joke, that driving Lila to lessons was like taking her to therapy because no matter how she walked in, she always walked out happier. “It’s so corny,” Lila says, “but I do think music is therapy.”

Looking Ahead

Lila’s next big goal is learning to write her own music, something her brother, who’s into music production, has inspired her to explore. And while college in Miami is right around the corner, she’s not planning to leave guitar (or Music Royale) behind. She’s bringing it with her, texting Sara along the way, and already planning to come back for lessons every summer.

Her advice to anyone thinking about starting? Just do it. “You don’t have to be good at an instrument. You just have to try.” And to her younger self, walking into that very first lesson nervous and unsure? “There’s nothing to be nervous about. She made me feel so comfortable. We had so much fun.”

As for the future, Lila’s vision is simple: “I want to be an 80-year-old woman still ripping it on guitar.”

Ready to start your own musical journey? Explore lessons at Music Royale, check out our upcoming open mic nights, or learn more about Rock School today.

Follow Lila on Instagram @Lilaanderson!

Some students come to Music Royale because they want to learn an instrument.

Others stay because they discover something much bigger.

Over the last nine years, Music Royale has become more than a music school for Mayah. It’s where she discovered her confidence, found lifelong friendships, learned how to collaborate with other musicians, and began building the skills she’ll carry into a career in the music industry. As she prepares to study Music Production and the Recording Industry at Ohio University, it’s clear that the lessons she’s learned extend far beyond playing guitar.

Her story is exactly why Music Royale exists.

Yes, we teach students how to play music. But we also believe music has the power to connect people, create opportunities, and build communities where students feel comfortable being themselves. Those relationships often become just as important as the music itself.

Watch her interview video here

If you’re just discovering Music Royale, visit our website to learn more about the community we’re building every day.

One Spark Started a Lifetime of Music

Like many young musicians, Mayah’s journey started with inspiration.

After taking music classes in fourth grade, something clicked. Music suddenly became more than another subject in school. It became something she couldn’t stop thinking about. She remembers going home and immediately telling her mom that she had to learn guitar.

Part of that excitement came from watching artists she admired. Taylor Swift was one of her biggest inspirations at the time, and nearly every musician she looked up to seemed to have a guitar in their hands. To her, playing guitar represented creativity, storytelling, and a chance to express herself.

That excitement eventually turned into action.

What started as one weekly guitar lesson has grown into nearly a decade of musical exploration. Today, Mayah studies guitar, has added vocal lessons, recently began learning drums, and is constantly looking for new ways to challenge herself as a musician. She no longer defines herself by a single instrument because she’s discovered that every new skill opens another creative door.

That’s one of the reasons our Private Music Lessons are built around each individual student. As interests change, lessons evolve alongside them.

Learning Happens Outside Your Comfort Zone

When Mayah first started guitar, she admits she had a very specific vision of what she wanted to play.

She loved pop music. She wanted to learn fingerstyle songs. Beyond that, she wasn’t interested.

Scales felt boring.

Using a pick felt awkward.

Strumming seemed uncomfortable.

Like many beginning musicians, she wanted to skip the foundational skills and jump straight into the music she loved.

Looking back now, she laughs at that version of herself.

Over the years she realized that becoming a musician isn’t about avoiding difficult things, it’s about embracing them. Learning to strum, using a pick, practicing techniques she once resisted, and stepping into styles she never expected to enjoy all became milestones that helped shape her into the musician she is today.

That willingness to grow has completely changed the way she approaches music.

Instead of only playing pop songs, she’s performing rock, reggae, fingerstyle, acoustic music, singing in front of audiences, and even learning an entirely new instrument.

Growth didn’t happen because everything came naturally.

It happened because she kept showing up.

Teachers Who Invest Beyond the Lesson

Ask Mayah about her teachers and you’ll quickly realize they mean much more to her than instructors.

She currently studies guitar with Jesse, vocals with Eryn, and drums with Ryan. Each teacher has helped her grow musically, but what stands out most isn’t just what they’ve taught her, t’s the relationships they’ve built together over the years.

One memory in particular has stayed with her.

She arrived for a lesson one day after having a difficult experience at school. She was overwhelmed, anxious, and having a panic attack. Instead of immediately opening a lesson book or asking her to play scales, her teacher simply sat with her and asked a question.

“What’s your favorite color?”

Later that lesson, he surprised her with a capo in that color and spent the rest of the lesson teaching her a song she absolutely loved.

It’s a small gesture.

But for Mayah, it became one of the moments she’ll never forget.

At Music Royale, our teachers understand they’re not simply teaching music. They’re mentoring young people during some of the most important years of their lives. Great teachers know when it’s time to push a student and when it’s time to simply listen.

Meet the incredible educators who make moments like these possible on our Teacher Bios page.

More Than Music Lessons. It’s a Community

Perhaps the biggest difference Music Royale has made in Mayah’s life has nothing to do with learning guitar.

It’s the people.

When asked what makes lessons here different, she doesn’t talk about practice rooms or equipment. She talks about friendships.

Over the years she’s gotten to know teachers, staff members, younger students, older students, parents, and fellow musicians. Walking into Music Royale doesn’t feel like arriving for another lesson, it feels like walking into a place where people genuinely know her.

What makes that even more meaningful is that Mayah describes herself as an introvert.

She isn’t someone who naturally seeks out conversations with strangers.

Yet music gave her something to talk about.

It created common ground.

Instead of awkward introductions, there were conversations about favorite songs, new artists, upcoming performances, and guitars hanging on the wall.

Those shared interests turned classmates into friends and teachers into mentors.

That’s something we intentionally work to create at Music Royale. We believe students thrive when they’re surrounded by other musicians who encourage them, challenge them, and celebrate each other’s successes. Music becomes the reason they walk through the door, but community becomes the reason they keep coming back.