Piano, guitar, drums, violin or trombone? Learning an instrument from home has never been easier, since the COVID epidemic has made in-person lessons a memory from another era. It is also necessary to find the right teacher, the one who will fascinate the student and give him the motivation to invest in a learning which requires regularity and rigor. With Homemuse, nothing could be easier: this platform brings together several dozen music teachers, all handpicked. “One of them, Daniel, composes music for films in Los Angeles; you can also take guitar lessons with Paul Thomas, who is the bassist of the band Good Charlotte“, Enumerates Céline Burnichon, creator of Homemuse. “We have a lot of interesting profiles, covering about fifteen instruments, as well as music theory and composition. We received a lot of applications to join our platform, and we made a fairly tight selection to offer a quality product.”
Homemuse is a project Céline Burnichon has been working on for two years. This pianist graduated from the Chambéry and Metz conservatories, has been giving lessons since she was 16. She had also set up a music school in Metz, Le Petit Mozart. Arrived in Palo Alto in 2015, the taste for entrepreneurship quickly catches up with her. “Initially, the site was intended to connect teachers and students and offer online tools to improve the follow-up between private lessons given in person. For teachers, the goal was also to facilitate all administrative tasks, such as scheduling and canceling lessons, as well as paying bills.”For a year, Céline Burnichon took courses in marketing, law, finance, design, and IT to set up her project:“I am above all a pianist, and these are skills that you cannot learn at the conservatory“, She recalls with a smile. “Fortunately, two engineer friends offered to help me.”A French designer also joined the adventure this year to redesign the site.
Last March, the home course platform is ready to be launched: “The online courses were scheduled for later … With COVID, everything accelerated: we are a small structure, flexible enough to suddenly pivot all the online courses. The parents followed, and the teachers adapted.”Thanks to a partnership with Zoom, it only takes one click to start a lesson.
Access to Homemuse is free for teachers and students, and the platform is financed by keeping a percentage of the lesson: “4% is taken from the teacher’s side, and the price of the lesson is increased by 15% to the students.”
Céline Burnichon intends to extend Homemuse’s offer next year, by offering Master Classes on various themes: composition, blues, 80s rock, the violin in baroque music… ”Our teachers are above all musicians, thanks to whom we want to create a real community around this art.“
