Life & Work with Jenna Geueke

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Geueke.

Hi Jenna, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When I was five years old, my father told me I had to begin learning an instrument. It being the 90s, I knew exactly what I wanted to play: the SAXOPHONE! My older sister was in a band and had a friend show me a saxophone, and I immediately knew it wasn’t for me – it had far too many “buttons.” My dad had a co-worker whose wife taught violin lessons, and I quickly fell in love. As musicians are prone to do, I branched out with time learning guitar, songwriting, and a little piano.

Running parallel as I grew up was my lack of fear in seeking ways to make money. At three, I picked leaves off of nearby trees to sell to neighbors for spare change or gummy snacks. Being in Michigan, bottles and cans have a ten cents deposit, and I offered to take people’s returnables back for them if they let me keep the cash. I hustled Girl Scout cookies, babysat, shoveled driveways, and raked leaves.

When I was 14, I began putting these two parts of my life together. I was pretty good at the violin by then (two years later, I was being paid to perform for a local symphony). I began offering beginner violin lessons. I knew I wasn’t good enough yet to be responsible for complete beginners, so I worked with local orchestra teachers to find some middle school kids who knew the basics but needed help to progress and thrive.

I continued to teach on the side through college, while I studied Secondary Music Education. But, everything came crashing down around me over time. The process of reporting an assault from the end of high school left me drowning in PTSD symptoms with no clue how to manage them in a healthy manner. Living in an economically tight region, I worked five jobs while trying to study full-time. I was in my hometown and felt as though nothing was going the way I wanted. So, I lept and I left.

My sister and brother-in-law lived in Round Rock, a bandmate was moving to Austin to try and make it big, so I gave away furniture, packed some suitcases and instruments, and hopped in the car. After two years of building a general and group instrument program at a local preschool, I felt I had built enough of a private student base to quit my job and work for myself full-time.

Eleven years later, I teach violin, guitar, piano, ukulele, voice, music theory, and hire other teachers to teach as well. My goal isn’t to make the next round of stars, but to help whoever wants to learn and grow along their journey.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been smooth by any means, but the ride has been more than worthwhile.

A few years into running my business, I regularly had a growing waitlist. My bookkeeper at the time floated the idea of me hiring other teachers instead of referring out to other businesses. Learning how to interview and hire had to happen on the fly, I had no structure to do the work for me at the time. But, I love that I’ve come out feeling that much more secure in what sort of leadership style I try to employ.

The pandemic was heartbreaking. Business dwindled. Music lessons aren’t a basic necessity, and suddenly we were competing with every teacher on the planet offering virtual lessons all while students were increasingly burned out being asked to sit on camera for yet another activity. A PPP loan helped keep us afloat, but I also did everything I could to bring in supplemental money from cover song recordings for friends to running Instacart. I’m thrilled to be back to a happy, healthy number of students and look forward to growing again.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I offer in-home music lessons in the Austin area, mostly focused in north Austin and the northern suburbs. In-home means myself and all of our teachers come to your home and teach you there, which can be especially helpful for busy families with multiple children, one less thing to pack up and drive to and the kids get to learn in a comfortable, familiar environment.

An accidental focus of my career has been working with “difficult” students, which usually simply means students who may be neurodivergent or have some sort of struggle with a lecture-based instructional system. I refuse to subscribe to a single pedagogy, and the longer I teach, the more firmly I believe that meeting students where they are making all the difference in the world. That doesn’t mean students are running amuck in my lessons, but it has led to things like using different colored strings on a guitar so that a 70-year-old grandmother with poor eyesight has an easier time telling them apart, setting small, achievable goals for anyone who works with me, making silly videos to remind people to simply get their instrument out of the case, or pivoting in lessons to where natural focus and attention land.

I hear that I’m known for being a positive person, that no matter what happens in my life, I have an ability to laugh about it and keep going. I don’t *feel* that way as much as people seem to perceive it, but I do have a more-than-healthy ability to laugh at myself.

At this point, the real difference in what I do is that I’ve done it a LOT. At 35, I’ve been teaching music lessons for 20 years already. In Texas alone, I’ve taught over 10,000 hours. I’ve been there for the frustrations, the tears, the joys, the dances, silliness, exhaustion, and successes. And my favorite part is being that person that’s back the next week for whatever comes next.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Austin is such a neat city in that you never know who you may be talking to. A guitarist from a friend’s jam session might just be a genius with photoshop. A student parent may be a bookkeeper, florist, business professor, photographer, the list goes on and on. The biggest part of finding a mentor or the help that you need is asking your question. Put it out to those you know right now, and if no one you already know has the answers, someone might know who to ask.

Amid all of our collective imposter syndrome, there can be a festering fear of looking stupid. Pretending to know everything is lonely and exhausting. And on the other side, when you’ve asked questions and learned something, you may have the pleasure of being the one to help another when they ask.

Pricing:

• $160/month: weekly 30-minute lessons

Contact Info:

• Website: www.JennaGMusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jenna_gmusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/JennaGMusic
• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/Jenna_GMusic
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/JennaGLive