A new business opened on a high note on Saturday, as parents, students and music teachers crowded into LaGrange Piano for a ribbon cutting.

LaGrange Piano has been open on Vernon Street since January, but this weekend the business finally got the chance to celebrate its progress and success so far.

“This is just a celebration of where we have been, and how we have gotten here,”  said Allie Crawford, who teaches voice lessons. “We opened up in January, and we had 45 students. Now we have over 80.”

LaGrange Piano offers teachers for piano, voice and guitar for students of all ages, and brings together the talents of a variety of music teachers within the community under one roof.

“I taught out of my house for a long time, and it just got bigger and bigger, and then I met Ally (Crawford) when she was starting to teach,” Studio Director Noelle Reed said.  “We thought, what if we do this together.”

When Crawford first decided to open the studio, there were three teachers. Now there are six teachers and the studio is already in the process of expanding to cover a wider range of interests like guitar and drama. The studio also places an emphasis on keeping the lessons fun so that students will want to keep coming back to learn.

“We try to pair up students with the teacher who fits them, so I think that is why we are together because we just put together all the right pieces,” Crawford said. “All of our teachers are very invested, and they care a lot about their students, so if you look in everybody’s (music) rooms it is kind of like a classroom and toy store. There are lots of ways to engage students to get them to love music.”

Interactive games to help students learn notes and chords are one of the favorite parts of the lessons for both students and teachers.

“One of my favorite things about teaching here is all the interactive things,” Reed said. “It’s not like I learned where you go to the piano and sit for 30 minutes and play. We have lots of games and lots of interactive, hands on stuff.”

Just because there is fun to be had, doesn’t mean the experience is just for children though. Several adults are also enrolled at the studio.

“For my students, I enjoy the passion that they have,” said Christina Vaughn-Chesterman, who teaches piano to adults. “Especially my older students come with at desire and drive to learn, and I feel like they are getting that chance that they wanted when they were younger to learn something that they didn’t get the chance or get that opportunity (when they were younger). Now they are older and retired, and they are like ‘you know what, I’m going to do it.’”

The studio plans to begin hosting group music lessons and a drama group that will perform “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at LaGrange College this winter. The group music lessons will make lessons more affordable for students by splitting the cost of personalized instruction between several students.

LaGrange Piano is located at 1691 Vernon Road. For more information visit Lagrangepianolessons.com or call (909) 573-2048.