By Celeste McLaughlin
Since 2006, Excel Music in the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center off Cross Creek Blvd. has been teaching students of all ages to sing and play a wide variety of instruments with some of the area’s top teachers. Year after year, as kids go back to school, many make their way to Excel Music to enhance their educations through musical endeavors.
John and Sheri Thrasher are the husband-and-wife team who own the school. “We’ve helped thousands of students of all ages reach their musical goals while enjoying the journey,” says John. “We like to say Excel is both the place you start and the place you stay.”
Excel Music has 20 teachers on staff and all are either university trained (many with Master of Music degrees) or they have at least 10 years of study and performing experience. The faculty teaches voice and nearly every traditional musical instrument, including piano, guitar, drums, violin and many more.
“There’s a lot of excellent science out there that shows the benefit of a broad education that includes arts and music,” John says, adding that Excel provides a variety of opportunities for people of all ages to experience and connect with music.
Sing With Glee, New Tampa!
New this fall, Excel Music will offer the New Tampa Choir, a singing group for kids ages 5-17 — and no experience is necessary to participate. “It’s a learning experience, but it’s going to be fun,” John says. “We want to give students a venue to sing both songs they know, and some they don’t. In addition to traditional choir music, we expect to do Broadway songs, Disney songs and more. And, we currently are looking for opportunities for this group to perform.”
The New Tampa Choir will be led by Molly Michael, a University of South Florida student finishing up her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Music Education this year, who says Excel’s choir is for those who aren’t interested in solo performance, although the choir will offer opportunities for small group instruction.
Molly explains, “This will not be a huge choir where no one even knows each other’s name.” Molly adds that the choir will provide a way for New Tampa kids to, “meet new people and get involved in an amazing music school.”
The school also will start up its Excel Rock Band again this fall.
“We’ve done a rock band a couple of times over the years, and its success depends upon the right mix of students,” John explains. “We make sure to group students by age, skill level and instrumentation.” He adds that Excel has had success with a rock band at summer camp and its looking to build on that success this fall.
Also continuing this fall is a preschool music class for ages 18 months to four years, enjoyed by both kids and parents. The class lasts 45 minutes, once a week, for 10 – 12 weeks.
“It’s a great way to engage with both the parent and the child,” John explains. “The smiles on the faces of the parents are often as big as the ones on their children.”
John adds that the classes help parents learn ways to engage musically with their preschoolers at home. “This is a participatory class in which we teach parents how to bring music into their kids’ lives,” he says, “especially if they’re not musicians.”
A current student at Excel is 16-year-old Cross Creek resident Sarah Haller, who has been taking lessons at the school for three years. Sarah’s mom Donna says, “I really appreciate the convenience of the location, of course, and how accommodating the staff is. A lot of kids who take music classes are much younger than Sarah, but she has been taught in an age-appropriate way, moving along quickly, so she stays engaged.”
Donna adds that Sarah primarily is learning classical music, but also how to play songs she recognizes, which keeps her interested. “I also like that Excel has later hours,” Donna says. “Sarah has time to come home, do her homework and then can still take her piano lessons later in the evening.”
Sarah and all of the school’s students have the opportunity to take part in recitals twice a year, but they are always optional and are low-pressure.
“Recitals are part of what we do,” John says. “But, we aren’t a performance-driven studio.”
And while many of the school’s students are kids, the opportunity to learn to sing or play an instrument is certainly not limited.
“A lot of adults come in for lessons, too,” says John. “We get retired people who say they’ve wanted to play their whole lives, and now they’re finally going to do it.” He says one of his favorite stories was about teaching an 86-year-old man how to play the trumpet.
About The Owners
John explains that he and Sheri originally opened Excel Music with the dream of providing the opportunity for young people to be trained for the kinds of careers and lives they once experienced themselves.
“We both had long careers in music, and were professional musicians who were able to make a living performing,” John says, adding that he was the drummer for country singer Mickey Gilley for many years, giving him the opportunity to perform on TV, at the White House and for people all over the world.
In the 1990s, John and Sheri had success with a band of their own in Japan called Tz, where he says they sold tens of thousands of CDs. They also found themselves immersed in a culture that revered teachers, which led them to start thinking about passing on the knowledge and experience they had gained to the next generation.
“We met tremendous people, saw great places, and made a living,” John says. “We started thinking, ‘What if some of the kids who come through our school can experience what we’ve experienced?’”
They landed in New Tampa, where they had relatives, and have been building their school ever since. With nine years now under their belts, some of John and Sheri’s long-term students are now growing up and moving on.
“We’re seeing many students who have come through our school go on to college, and some are majoring in music,” John says. “This dream we had is starting to come true.”
John explains, however, that he and Sheri recognize that the vast majority of their students will not go on to have professional careers in music.
“Our teachers are good enough for that type of student, but most of our students will go on to have another career such as a doctor or lawyer or something else,” he explains. “We hope that when they go to a concert or experience music, they will appreciate it on a different level, because they truly understand the challenge of playing music, and the dedication and skill of the performers presenting the music to them.”
Excel Music is located at 10353 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite I., in the Cory Lake Isles Professional Center. It is open Mon.-Thurs., 2-9 p.m., 2-7 p.m. on Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sat., closed on Sun. Call 991-1177 for more info or to schedule lessons. Also, be sure to see the ad on page 19, which offers a “back-to-school” special for free registration for a limited time.
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