Four-Part Harmony: Music Teacher Found Keys to Success with Quadruplets

Having a child of your own can make you grow up in a hurry. Having four at once can give you the shock of your life.

When Larry Wagner suddenly became the father of quadruplets, the musician and teacher knew life suddenly had become serious.

The educator became the student.

“I was nowhere near mature enough to be a dad when we first had those kids,” says Wagner, 57, whose four sons are now 29. “So I became mature and responsible for all the stuff I had to do. It was an education in sociology, psychology and in my core belief system—that was challenged and applied … some things worked and some things didn’t.”

He experimented, adapted and grew.

The same could probably be said for Wagner’s School of Music, the La Mesa business he and his wife, Janna, have owned since 1977.

In more than 30 years of business, Larry Wagner has developed a curriculum through discovery and adaptation, while helping thousands of kids learn to play instruments and develop a love affair with music.

Just as Wagner enjoyed guiding his four boys through life, he’s delighted in making connections with students. As a teacher, he’s savored the fleeting moments when he’s caught students “totally lit up” in discovery.

“It’s not one big thing I can put my finger on,” he says. “It’s always the kids. I’m a sucker for kids.

“When my kids were little, I used to play with them. We used to wrestle and run and compete and I just loved talking to them and their little funny ways. … And when [students] respond to me, like I say something or relate something or make a joke and they respond with enthusiasm, it’s like ‘OK, this is the best job in the world right here.’ ”

School in La Mesa Springs Center

Wagner’s School of Music occupies several second-floor rooms in the La Mesa Springs Shopping Center.

Seven teachers, including Wagner, work with about 350 students–from toddlers in Kindermusik classes to accomplished high school seniors. The school has been in the same location for about 20 years.

Larry and Janna–who live in Jamul—met each other as music students at San Diego State, married and bought the business, running it together. But about five years after their little Fab Four arrived in July 1981—Ben, Brett, Chad and Kyle—Janna stepped away from the operation to dedicate her time to the boys. She now teaches math at Monte Vista High School.

Larry says Janna, while not involved day-to-day, is a terrific businesswoman and remains his “sounding board” for big decisions.

At one point, the school opened additional branches in Poway and Clairemont Mesa, but those satellites closed eventually and the school consolidated in one location in La Mesa, which Wagner says has been great for them. Consolidation also allowed for more quality control, he says. Three locations were just too much to handle.

Wagner has developed the school’s curriculum through experience, education and study, combining a number of methods and philosophies with his own. Some of the key aspects of the school:

• All students are taught in groups. No private lessons.
• Parents are involved and attend lessons, too.
• Children don’t begin piano lessons until age 6. Before that, they can take a pre-keyboard prep class at age 5, just to get used to the keyboard.
• Students up to age 6 are in the Kindermusik classes, a program created by a group of educators and psychologists that focuses on activities, rhythm, games to help children develop their ears and love of music.

Denise Young, who has two children at the school, says fun is a big part of the program.

“I think the kids enjoy it,” says Young, who’s had one student at Wagner’s for six years, and another for three. “[Larry] plays well and is inspiring, and he has a good sense of humor.”

Mike French, who has two daughters at the school, says he's very happy with Wagner's program.

“The kids are very motivated because of the group lessons,” he says. “They get a real sense of togetherness. They make friends and have a good time.”

Suzuki Method and Other Experience

While studying and teaching piano during his college years, Wagner was exposed to traditional methods of music education and the newer methods coming out of Japan—such as the Suzuki method, which stressed parental involvement and music education at a young age.

He’s molded all he’s learned into his own curriculum. Eventually, he hopes to publish it since he believes it works so well.

The group environment, he says, is a big part of his learning platform.

“We start them in piano at 6,” Wagner says. “And being in a group, that social factor allows the kids to see that there’s other kids at their level, and not just an adult who’s always better than them, who you can’t relate to. [They think] ‘There’s one teacher and there’s six others of us.’

“That makes a difference in the child’s psyche in terms of a little mild competition, just like in sports. ‘Hey, I can play this better than that person. Or dang, I better practice because that person’s better than me.’ ”

In three decades of teaching, he’s seen other music schools come and go. He attributes his school’s longevity to great word-of-mouth from parents, and the fact he has to deliver.

His business, he knows, is an elective. That keeps him on his toes.

“They’ve got to see results. As a teacher, I know that I’m here because I’m doing the job,” he says. “It’s like an evaluation.”

At least two of his students, he says, are in professional symphonies. Other former longtime students are in community orchestras, play in bands, are studying music in college or just have music in their lives.

Larry and Janna gave their boys a musical education, too. The kids were exposed to music early and took lessons at the school.

Today, Brett helps out with teaching and has a local band (Emersen). Ben, a lawyer, plays the piano and writes songs. Chad, a  software engineer, still plays guitar. And Kyle, a teacher, recently played piano in a coffee house.

From Disco to Diapers

Just a few years before his sons were born, Larry Wagner was dreaming of becoming the next disco star. The next John Travolta.

He’d written a couple of songs, had an agent and an offer to go to Las Vegas to perform. But as he discussed the possibilities with his new wife, Janna threw up a stop sign.

As Wagner remembers it, “She said, ‘You know, honey, if you go that way, that lifestyle, I probably won’t be here when you get back because you’re going to be a different person. It’s going to change you.’ So I thought, ‘Wow, that’s heavy. I’ve got to choose.’ ”

So he decided against the disco lifestyle, stayed in San Diego and—soon after—his four boys arrived.

Now he believes everything happened for a reason.

Even if he’d gone off to become a hit in Vegas, he’s glad his life is where it is now.

One look at a guy like Charlie Sheen tells him fame and money don’t equal happiness.

“I don’t see that as having anywhere close to the value that my life’s had to this point,” he says. “My life is full and wonderful and I owe that a lot to my wife and my boys. And this school has been a mainstay for over 30 years.”

Still, he laughs about how the boys’ arrival suddenly changed their lives. The odds of quadruplets: about 1 in 571,787.

So it was a jolt.

“Well, you go from basically just one-on-one, you and your wife, and you’ve got your rhythm of the day, and you’re trying to make money, you’re trying to make a living, and all of a sudden you find out you’re going to have multiples so you try to prepare for that as best you can,” Wagner says. “But there’s really no preparation that you can do.”

Wagner counts himself as blessed—proud of his family and happy in his job. His life is full. He plays multiple instruments—piano, guitar, drums, trumpet—hikes, surfs, plays tennis and loves to travel.

And every day, he says he’s gratified by what he does. He knows he’s made an impact.

 “Even if [former students] don’t play anymore, they’ve had the opportunity to play an instrument,” he says. “That’s enriching for the rest of their lives in so many ways. It has real value. In that way, this feels like a mission.”