Teach people music aside from making music himself.

This was what noted Filipino composer Ryan Cayabyab decided to do in 1986 when he established The Music Studio, a school where the musically inclined can develop their talent and performing skills. At the time, Cayabyab had already achieved national recognition for his musical compositions that ranged from award-winning film scores and theatrical performances to popular commercial jingles and liturgical symphonies. He therefore thought that the next logical step in his career was to use his knowledge and skills to teach people how to make good music.

“There was one music school in Metro Manila back then but it was focused on a different field,” Cayabyab recalls. ”I therefore thought that it would be a good idea to put up a music studio where people could take lessons in the performing arts. After all, my wife Emmy and I were both music graduates of the University of the Philippines and we were confident that we could run the music studio that we had in mind.”

STARTING ON A LOW NOTE

From teaching music at UP and from the fees he earned for his musical compositions, Cayabyab had by then already saved enough money to use as starting capital for the studio. However, following his father-in-law’s advice not to invest all of his savings into the business, Cayabyab put up only P120,000 and took an P80,000-bank loan to raise the initial capital he needed.

The Cayabyab couple leased a 120 square meter commercial area at the Makati Cinema Square in Makati (now a city) and finished construction of the studio in about a month. The studio had seven practice cubicles and one big room that could accommodate a total of 30 students. The initial studio equipment included seven pianos—four brand-new and the rest, used—and several cassette players.

Cayabyab hired a staff of three to handle administration. For the studio faculty, he recruited seven especially selected music teachers, most of whom he had met when he was teaching at UP. He says it wasn’t easy but he managed to put together a good teaching team. “Finding teachers who were both good and also knew how to teach was difficult,” he recalls.

The Cayabyabs then sat down to do their costings for operating the studio and for the fees to be collected from students. Based on their estimates of the monthly expenses (mainly for space rentals, salaries, and electricity), they decided to charge about P1,500 per course.

Recalls Cayabyab: “We started offering voice and piano lessons for children and for adults. Instead of a full year, the full course ran for 10 sessions held once or twice a week, depending on the availability of the student and the teacher. We designed the courses this way so students could easily shift to other courses if they wanted to. And we made the sessions only 30 minutes long. We decided that this was enough time for the students to show their teacher what they had learned. After all, they would be doing most of the their music practice at home.”
 
To the disappointment of the Cayabyab couple, however, The Music Studio didn’t get a single enrollee when it opened its doors in October 1986. “It was very difficult,” says Cayabyab. “We did the usual advertising—handing out fliers and telling all of our friends about the studio—but for almost a month, there was nothing.” Sustained by their faith in the school, however, the couple stuck it out even as only a few students enrolled in the weeks that followed.

A TURNING POINT

The turning point for The Music Studio was when two singing ensembles that it had trained, the 14K and Smokey Mountain, became hugely popular among the Filipino public. Composed of Cayabyab’s students 14 years old and below, the 14K launched the successful singing careers of several of today’s personalities, among them Jolina Magdangal, as well as Radha Cuadrado, who moved over to Kulay. Smokey Mountain, which was named after the infamous garbage dump in Manila, became well-known for songs that focused on social, environmental, and patriotic themes, and lead singer Geneva Cruz went on to make a name for herself.

“A lot of kids who saw those two groups perform wanted to be like them,” says Cayabyab. “So without really intending to, the studio got a lot of publicity from the 14K and Smokey Mountain. People saw what we could do to our students and they wanted us to do it for them as well.”

Business began to pick up at The Music Studio during the late 1980s and early ’90s, with enrollments peaking during the summer breaks. Recalls Cayabyab: “During the summers, we would have as many as 700 students enrolled at any one time. Looking back, I think it greatly helped that I was doing “Ryan, Ryan, Musikahan” [a TV musical show that he was hosting at that time] and a lot of other musical work. Also, the studio ran very well because my wife Emmy was very hands-on in the business. In my case, no matter how busy I was, I did my best to be visible in the studio to give it more credibility.”

 A NEW CHALLENGE

In less than two years, the Cayabyabs fully recovered their investment in the music studio. But in 2003, during its 17th year, the school began experiencing a slump in its enrollments. Cayabyab attributes this to the fact that the building on which the studio stood became rundown and the parking spaces around it became scarcer and scarcer, as newer and more modern structures began to rise in the area. Before long, the school was only making enough to pay for its operating expenses.

This was why Cayabyab decided to close the 20-year-old Makati studio early last year and relocated it to its present site at Robinsons Galleria along Ortigas Avenue in Quezon City. The relocation required a much larger investment: about P4 million for the new 229 sq m studio.

Says Cayabyab about the new studio, which had its soft opening last December: “Our expenses now are about ten times more than in our old studio. But because it is almost two times bigger than the old one, we will be able to offer more artistic and exciting programs and accommodate more students. In fact, we have already added violin, guitar, and drum lessons; music theory; Musikgarten for children from age three to seven; dance classes; and body-mind classes. We have so many other planned courses. As to our school fees, they now average about P5,000 per course.”

This time, Cayabyab intends to stay in the studio more often and be even more hands-on in the business. “I’ve learned a lot from running the studio and from my experience in the music industry,” he says. “For example, I now see how important publicity and marketing are to this business. I’m very fortunate that at the moment, I’m on Philippine Idol [the popular singing contest on TV] that, in a way, helps promote the school.”

Cayabyab is very clear about what he hopes to accomplish with The Music Studio: “My vision is to elevate it to the most sought-after music school in the country, and I aim to produce happy, confident musical performers. You see, one of the Philippines’ greatest natural resources is its talented performers. I believe we should work to develop that.”
 
Contact:

RYAN CAYABYAB THE MUSIC STUDIO
Park Avenue, Robinsons Galleria
Ortigas Avenue cor. Edsa, Quezon City
Hours open: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Mondays to Saturdays
Telephones: (02) 637-9840, (02) 914-5055,
Mobile: (0917) 9096484
Website: www.ryancayabyabthemusicstudio.com