A nonprofit Musicality could mean lessons for all

For those who think Musicality only offers music lessons, a quick chat with owner Kyle Sitter is in order. Not only has the enthusiastic and amiable businessman opened up a recording studio within its walls and started a record label, he is also currently seeking nonprofit status for his shop. If Sitter gets the status and receives grants or raises enough funds on his own, it would mean two things: potentially every aspiring musician would be able to take lessons on their instrument of choice and, for those who plan on taking their music-making hobby to the next level, affordable rates at its new recording studio.

“I started my own cookie business when I was in first or second grade … and that got pretty big,” Sitter explained when asked if starting his own business was a tough decision. “I did it every year around Christmastime. I’d make these order forms then I’d go around to the neighbors, and start giving them to my dad at work. They’d order whatever cookies they wanted, then me, my mom and my brother would spend one weekend going through all the orders and baking all these cookies. … We would deliver them all the next week and give all the profits to charities.

“I don’t know, the business mindset or whatever was [cemented] when I was in first grade. It was kind of nuts, dude.”

If the Chanhassen native’s penchant for giving back to the community started early, so did his love for his craft.

“I started playing [guitar] in eighth grade,” he said nonchalantly. “I really went with it and advanced really quickly. I taught myself everything. … A lot of people learn from ear; I learned by figuring out how to read guitar tabs.”

Those who saw him progress were so impressed with what he had learned from those tab books (“Hendrix was my teacher,” he noted sincerely) that he started teaching lessons within two years.

“It was like easy cash, you know?” Sitter said of his high school job. “It was like, I’m going to teach music and I’m going to get some money for it? Sweet!”

Sometime during this period Sitter fronted a jam band called Triple Distilled (a moniker he’s since co-opted for his record label). They even had plans to make it big in Los Angeles — “We basically moved out there to be rock stars,” Sitter recalled dryly — until a mammoth gig in Duluth nearly quashed his dreams for good.

“We played for about four hours … then decided to drive back to Chanhassen,” Sitter said of the unfortunate marathon performance, which took place just a month out from his big move. “When I got back, I slept on my hand and screwed it all up, pinched a couple nerves in there. I woke up the next day and my hand was just gone.

“… We still decided to move out [to L.A.], but my hand didn’t work for another year after that, so we were dead in the water when we got out there. We couldn’t do anything, so we just enjoyed the weather.”

While his jam band managed to put some “tracks” down to tape out there (in a studio on Hollywood Boulevard, no less), Sitter wasn’t satisfied with the results.

“Those were some real bad recordings,” he said. “There were some cool riffs — we were communicating with our instruments, for sure — but I had to re-teach myself how to play after I lost my hand. It was like starting all over from scratch.”

Always the optimist, however, Sitter later said the trip paid off because he was able to gain a lot of valuable business experience there working at the recording studio with the primo location.

Make your own music

Sitter got into business for himself after Great Northern Music Center, where he had been giving lessons, went out of business. Blessing from former boss Timothy Soden-Groves in hand, Sitter amassed a stable of teachers — including recent feature subject Jamie Ness.

“I try to get people ready to be in jam sessions,” Ness said of his “social music” approach to teaching at Musicality. “I’m creating rhythm guitar players, people who can play ‘Roadhouse Blues’ or Dylan or whatever.”

The Boomchucks frontman discovered the value of music lessons as a youngster. His instructor, Eric Filipovich, now works at the secondhand gear shop Music Go Round.

“He had a great curriculum,” Ness told us. “I really enjoyed that.”

Ness, who’s been in a number of groups — including Taconite, Wet Dog, the ATF and the aforementioned Boomchucks — said he starts off his students with blues progressions; “When the Saints Go Marching In” is a favorite tool of his.

“They get sick of it, but I don’t care,” he joked.

While Sitter’s more than a dozen instructors (who are qualified to teach just about everything save for oboe and bassoon) each have their fair share of students, the Musicality proprietor soon realized that not all Northlanders who wanted to take music lessons could afford them.

Enter Sitter’s ongoing campaign to make his shop a 501(c)-certified nonprofit.

With that certification, Musicality could offer income level-relevant pricing for music lessons.

“I would monitor them: ‘What are your goals? Where do you want to go with the music?’ I would check back every month to see if they’re on the right track and using [the funds] for the right cause,” Sitter explained. “When their money expires, they can reapply. It’s just basically this big block of money; people can use that as they need it to get music education.”

Sitter’s other aim is to get people into his music studio, no matter what. He would be able to offer studio time to musicians who, to put it bluntly, “are sweet but have no money.”

“That’s about 99 percent of the people who come into the studio,” he said. “They’re good, but they don’t have money, and I can only volunteer so much of my time before I work myself to the grave.”

In the meantime, Sitter is riding out the lengthy nonprofit process with his new group, a self-described “power trio” aptly named Sitter, which will be playing at this year’s Homegrown.

“It’s about taking your shoes off and making the hippies dance around,” Sitter joked when asked how the group, which also features Kyle Ollah and Dave Mennes, compares to his mostly laidback solo shows. “That’s the ultimate goal, man. I love that. There’s nothing like that feeling.”

NEWS TO USE
Kyle Sitter’s Musicality shop at 317 W. Superior St. is home to music lessons, a recording studio and a record label, Triple Distilled. For prices and a full list of services, call 491-7036 or find it online at the site www.musicalitybiz.com.

Tags: budge a and e, arts and entertainment, kyle sitter, jamie ness, triple distilled, recording studio, duluth, budgeteer, music, musicality, sitter, lessons, downtown, business, nonprofit