STUDIO LOCATION
Youth Volume was founded in Detroit in 2010 and became a hybrid studio experiment in 2021, when Director Clara Hardie moved back to their Michigan Upper Peninsula hometown. Students in Detroit meet with Clara virtually for weekly lessons. Marquette students receive lessons at our space at SOMA Studios 1221 Division #201 Maquette, MI 49855. We gather virtually once-a-month for Saturday morning collaborations.
PARENT HANDBOOK 2024/2025
Teaching Approach & Studio Culture < Policies & Perks < Tuition < Enrollment Process
Let’s make the world a better place! Youth Volume is designed to grow creativity, resilience, collaboration & Higher Order Thinking Skills in musical changemakers ages 4-18 using the Suzuki method, improvising and social justice teaching practices. Violin and cello students enjoy private lessons, group classes, community performances, and workshops with local musicians. After a dozen years of teaching in Detroit, Clara Hardie has expanded the work of making musical education accessible, equitable, and relevant to her hometown of Marquette!
Teaching Approach & Studio Culture
Teaching Approach & Studio Culture
- Youth Volume’s purpose of teaching music is to nurture the changemaker skills needed for every child to transform the world!
- We build a positive learning environment by using the transformative Suzuki education practices of repetition, review, listening, early beginning, ear-before-eye note reading, parent participation and nurturing language.
- We use the classical Suzuki method alongside improvising & community collaborations to grow students' genre exploration. During the annual Workshop Series, local artists serve as guest instructors who implement place-based education and experiential learning.
- YV is inspired by the Rida Framework, the El Sistema network, and ideas from Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written by Brazilian educator and theorist, Paulo Freire.
- We intentionally nurture RICH changemaker skills in our students as we expand their musical experiences. We believe these four essential skills (from the Rida Framework) are specifically "necessary for ethical citizenship, collaboration, and creating social change": Resilience, Innovation, Collaboration, Higher Order Thinking Skills.
- We strive towards racial and economic justice, as an organization and as a community of people, through our practices inside and outside of the classroom. Youth Volume provides a queer-positive space and is queer-owned and operated.
- We work to make quality arts education accessible to families experiencing systematized oppression with grassroots student recruitment strategies and by maintaining a community-supported fund for financial aid.
- We are committed to expanding equitable music education; Director Clara Hardie currently offers a virtual Course of Action, Growing Equitable Music Studios, for studio music teachers who believe every child can change the world.
The Suzuki Method
- Private Lessons & Group Class - both are required. This allows for a rich music education in which students get individualized instruction and also learn to play with a group, developing empathy for others.
- Parent participation - one caretaker is required to attend every lesson, take notes and facilitate home practice until the child is able to practice independently. This job can be shared by more than one caretaker but they must communicate with each other consistently to best support the child.
- Early beginning - traditionally between 3 & 5 years old but children can begin anytime.
- Positive learning environment - teachers use nurturing language and strategies to encourage confidence and emotional resilience which leads to will for mastery. Parents are guided to use the same language and approach at home during daily practice.
- Ear before eye note-reading - students learn to read notes after they have a solid foundation of musicality, strong posture and are reading words at school
- Repetition - often skills are learned by practicing a section or exercise over and over
- Review - we play the songs we know every week during practice and performances. Songs are not “done” and forgotten after they are memorized. This allows students to keep all of their techniques sharp to support them in learning new songs. It also keeps confidence up for children to hear themselves play songs beautifully while they are learning more difficult songs simultaneously.
- Step-by-step & layered learning - students given small, achievable sections of the new song each week, instead of the entire piece. Before they have memorized this song, the teacher begins a “preview” of the next song. The child sees themselves constantly progressing with this approach and develops a will for mastery, always excited and happy to learn more because they are confident they can do it.
- Internationally-used repertoire - Songs from Suzuki books 1 through 10 are played by children all over the world!
- Listening - students are expected to listen to the Suzuki songs daily to support their learning.
Changemaker Skills
Policies & Perks
Expectations of the “Home Teacher”
Congrats, social justice Suzuki parents! By embracing YV’s culture of learning, you’re deepening your role as your kid’s home teacher. The home teacher is an important part of the Suzuki Triangle (parent/child/teacher)! You’ll be expected to commit to the following:
Private Lessons It’s a big commitment and well worth it! There will be 35 lessons between September and June. Every child receives a weekly private lesson: 30 minutes for Book 1 students & 45 minutes as they near the end of Book 1 and beyond. YV embraces all ten of the Suzuki tenets along with other transformative teaching methods that nurture the life skills of young changemakers: youthvolume.org/teaching-approach.html.
Lesson slots are available Monday through Friday. There are no lessons or Group Classes in July or August. Summer music camps are encouraged and usually inspire a blossoming feeling of ownership for students! They want to practice more, and more strongly embrace being a musician as part of their identity.
Group Gatherings Collaboration with people of various backgrounds is one of YV’s fav Changemaker Skills! When we gather for orientation, group classes, and performances, we get to practice collaborating as a community and empathizing with each other. This is also a chance to work on musical skills that require extra time beyond weekly private lessons. There will be one orientation, fifteen group classes, and three performances this year.
Parent Participation As is traditional to the Suzuki method and essential to musical progress, the caretaker who facilitates daily home practice with the child will attend each private lesson to take notes and learn alongside the student. Parent lessons are optional. Parents are also expected to attend and engage in Group Classes, especially for younger children. A parent-teacher conference will happen once in the Winter, during your child’s private lesson slot.
Performances There will be three performances throughout the school year: November Funraiser, Solo Recital and a June year-end show. Students of Youth Volume have often been invited to play community performances at random throughout the year. You’ll receive an email or text to sign-up for these fun, voluntary shows.
Listening to Good Music Listening to the Suzuki recordings & quality music at home is highly recommended. Hearing the Suzuki songs helps the student learn much faster, which means they are happier, more confident and excited to move forward! PLUS, YV often receives free and discount tickets to local shows for our students. These will be distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Make-up Lessons Students will have the opportunity to receive 35 private lessons and 19 Group Gatherings between September and June. Canceled Group Classes will not be made up. Up to three missed lessons can be made up in the last three weeks of June or beforehand if schedules allow. Therefore, all lessons not made-up by June 28 with Clara due to student absence will be foregone without refund.
Attendance Tardiness of more than 10 minutes will be considered an absence. If a student misses more than three times per semester (September-November, December-February, March-June), Clara will reach out to see if any changes need to be made regarding the lesson slot time or more parent support. Attendance must improve in the following semester, or the student risks losing their spot to someone on the waiting list.
Dropping Out In the event of mid-year cancellation, you will be charged half a month's-worth of tuition following the date of the termination (date the family informs Clara of their decision by phone, email, text or in-person). Scholarship students will be expected to return the instrument you may have received from YV within two weeks.
Working with Clara Hardie (she/her or they/them) Clara is the Founding Director of Youth Volume! She’s been working with youth since age nineteen, during an Americorps Vista internship at the Marquette Children’s Museum. She moved to Detroit in 2006 after college. Clara began teaching violin in 2010 with the goal of nurturing beautiful humanity & beautiful talent in Detroit youth who could not afford lessons. All of Clara’s life experiences, education & trainings factor into how she teaches and runs Youth Volume, including:
Expectations of the “Home Teacher”
Congrats, social justice Suzuki parents! By embracing YV’s culture of learning, you’re deepening your role as your kid’s home teacher. The home teacher is an important part of the Suzuki Triangle (parent/child/teacher)! You’ll be expected to commit to the following:
- taking notes & engaging during weekly lessons
- daily 15-60 minutes of practice & music-listening with your child at home, depending on age etc.
- great attendance at weekly lessons & monthly group class.
Private Lessons It’s a big commitment and well worth it! There will be 35 lessons between September and June. Every child receives a weekly private lesson: 30 minutes for Book 1 students & 45 minutes as they near the end of Book 1 and beyond. YV embraces all ten of the Suzuki tenets along with other transformative teaching methods that nurture the life skills of young changemakers: youthvolume.org/teaching-approach.html.
Lesson slots are available Monday through Friday. There are no lessons or Group Classes in July or August. Summer music camps are encouraged and usually inspire a blossoming feeling of ownership for students! They want to practice more, and more strongly embrace being a musician as part of their identity.
Group Gatherings Collaboration with people of various backgrounds is one of YV’s fav Changemaker Skills! When we gather for orientation, group classes, and performances, we get to practice collaborating as a community and empathizing with each other. This is also a chance to work on musical skills that require extra time beyond weekly private lessons. There will be one orientation, fifteen group classes, and three performances this year.
Parent Participation As is traditional to the Suzuki method and essential to musical progress, the caretaker who facilitates daily home practice with the child will attend each private lesson to take notes and learn alongside the student. Parent lessons are optional. Parents are also expected to attend and engage in Group Classes, especially for younger children. A parent-teacher conference will happen once in the Winter, during your child’s private lesson slot.
Performances There will be three performances throughout the school year: November Funraiser, Solo Recital and a June year-end show. Students of Youth Volume have often been invited to play community performances at random throughout the year. You’ll receive an email or text to sign-up for these fun, voluntary shows.
Listening to Good Music Listening to the Suzuki recordings & quality music at home is highly recommended. Hearing the Suzuki songs helps the student learn much faster, which means they are happier, more confident and excited to move forward! PLUS, YV often receives free and discount tickets to local shows for our students. These will be distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Make-up Lessons Students will have the opportunity to receive 35 private lessons and 19 Group Gatherings between September and June. Canceled Group Classes will not be made up. Up to three missed lessons can be made up in the last three weeks of June or beforehand if schedules allow. Therefore, all lessons not made-up by June 28 with Clara due to student absence will be foregone without refund.
Attendance Tardiness of more than 10 minutes will be considered an absence. If a student misses more than three times per semester (September-November, December-February, March-June), Clara will reach out to see if any changes need to be made regarding the lesson slot time or more parent support. Attendance must improve in the following semester, or the student risks losing their spot to someone on the waiting list.
Dropping Out In the event of mid-year cancellation, you will be charged half a month's-worth of tuition following the date of the termination (date the family informs Clara of their decision by phone, email, text or in-person). Scholarship students will be expected to return the instrument you may have received from YV within two weeks.
Working with Clara Hardie (she/her or they/them) Clara is the Founding Director of Youth Volume! She’s been working with youth since age nineteen, during an Americorps Vista internship at the Marquette Children’s Museum. She moved to Detroit in 2006 after college. Clara began teaching violin in 2010 with the goal of nurturing beautiful humanity & beautiful talent in Detroit youth who could not afford lessons. All of Clara’s life experiences, education & trainings factor into how she teaches and runs Youth Volume, including:
- Being a “Suzuki kid” from ages 5-18 with Carla Slotterbach and Janis Peterson.
- Going to Europe with Blue Lake International Youth Orchestra at age sixteen.
- Studying Social Science Theory in undergrad at University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
- Working at Capuchin Soup Kitchen’s Rosa Parks Youth Program 2006-2010 .
- Training in Suzuki Units 1-6 with Mark Mutter (Suzuki Music Academy of Michigan).
- Founding Detroit Youth Volume with Mark’s help in 2010.
- Facilitating early childhood Music Together classes at Experiencia & Boggs School.
- Subbing at Detroit Waldorf School in Music & Early Childhood.
- Attending two Rida Framework trainings with PIE at Allied Media Projects.
- Engaging in “Creative Strings” adult intensive with jazz violinists Christian Howes.
- Completing the People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond “Undoing Racism” training
- Birthing twins in 2019.
- Founding Growing Equitable Music Studios (GEMS) music teachers’ Course of Action.
Enrollment process
* Returning students To Do list = PURPLE. New student To Do list = ORANGE AND PURPLE.
Make sure you agree with our policies. Questions? Email [email protected] or call Clara at 906 201 0915.
Optional: Schedule an observation of a private lesson or group class. Our concerts are always free and open to the public!
Complete YOUTH VOLUME Application Form.
Attend an orientation meeting. Those joining in the Fall will attend an orientation meeting on September 9th with all families before lessons begin the week of September 11th. If you are joining mid-year, please schedule a 1-hour orientation meeting.
Rent an instrument or take yours in for a check up. Scholarship students will receive an instrument free of charge. Everyone else should visit one of the following recommended shops. Renting from a guitar store or buying one on eBay is NOT recommended. When your child grows out of their instrument while renting, it will be exchanged for a larger size free of additional charge. The time to buy is when the student needs a full-size.
Purchase books
Bring to every lesson/group class
* Returning students To Do list = PURPLE. New student To Do list = ORANGE AND PURPLE.
Make sure you agree with our policies. Questions? Email [email protected] or call Clara at 906 201 0915.
Optional: Schedule an observation of a private lesson or group class. Our concerts are always free and open to the public!
Complete YOUTH VOLUME Application Form.
Attend an orientation meeting. Those joining in the Fall will attend an orientation meeting on September 9th with all families before lessons begin the week of September 11th. If you are joining mid-year, please schedule a 1-hour orientation meeting.
Rent an instrument or take yours in for a check up. Scholarship students will receive an instrument free of charge. Everyone else should visit one of the following recommended shops. Renting from a guitar store or buying one on eBay is NOT recommended. When your child grows out of their instrument while renting, it will be exchanged for a larger size free of additional charge. The time to buy is when the student needs a full-size.
- Jim’s Music & Teaching Center (Marquette)
- Yooptone (Marquette)
Purchase books
- Suzuki Violin School Volume 1 (Revised or International Edition)
- Ages 7+ need I Can Read Music Volume 1 (Joann Martin)
Bring to every lesson/group class
- instrument, music books, binder/phone/notebook for recording weekly practice plan.
- footchart for the entire first-year of lessons.