By Les Ong on January 1, 2026
Little Rock’s Hillcrest neighborhood is home to a music school that’s changing how families experience music education, one lesson at a time.
When Crystal Graves opened the doors to Hillcrest Family Music, she had a vision that went far beyond traditional music lessons. She wanted to create a space where entire families could discover the joy of making music together, from the youngest toddlers taking their first musical steps to grandparents finally learning that instrument they’d always dreamed of playing.
Today, that vision is becoming a reality in the heart of Little Rock’s Hillcrest district, where Crystal serves as both director and teacher at a music school that’s redefining what it means to learn music.
Crystal didn’t follow a straight path to opening her own music school. Growing up in Little Rock in a household filled with music, her parents were singers and she spent her formative years in her school’s orchestra program. After earning her bachelor’s degree in music, Crystal worked at the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra for a couple years before moving to Williamsburg, Virginia, where she met her husband and started a family.
“It wasn’t until I actually had children of my own that I started teaching,” Crystal recalls. “And then I realized that I really loved it, and I was pretty good at it.”
That realization sparked something profound. After moving back to Little Rock to be closer to family, Crystal began teaching Music Together® classes under Stacey Butler’s Music Together® Shake, Rattle, Sing program. When Butler decided to relocate to Florida, she offered Crystal the opportunity to purchase the business. Crystal seized the moment, rebranding it as Hillcrest Family Music and expanding the vision to include private lessons alongside early childhood music education.
What sets Hillcrest Family Music apart is its philosophy. This isn’t a school focused solely on technical perfection or preparing students for competitions. Instead, Crystal and her team of six teachers (soon to be eight) emphasize creativity, collaboration, and the pure joy of music-making.
“Our ideal customer wants music to be a centerpiece of their family life,” Crystal explains. “They also value creativity, so not just playing the notes on the page, but also learning how to make up your own song or how to play along with a chord chart so that you can play with others.”
This approach was inspired by a transformative experience years ago when Crystal helped arrange a residency of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra string quartets at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View. There, she witnessed the stark difference between classical training and the folk tradition of collaborative, improvisational music-making. One classically trained musician, despite having memorized a song perfectly, struggled to jam with local folk musicians who naturally passed melodies back and forth in a collaborative style.
“That really opened my mind,” Crystal says. “I thought, ‘Can you really call yourself a musician if you can’t jam?’ The jury’s still out on that question, but I did decide that I really want my students to be able to play in a group setting like that.”
Hillcrest Family Music operates on two complementary tracks. The Music Together® program serves babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, introducing the youngest learners to rhythm, melody, and musical play in a developmentally appropriate way. The private lessons side of the business welcomes students from elementary age through high school and beyond, with a growing number of adult students discovering or rediscovering their love of music.
“I really want to focus on helping families, all ages, from babies and toddlers and preschoolers all the way up to grandparents,” Crystal notes. “I want to be able to teach everyone in the family, and I also want to help the family learn how to make music together.”
The school serves families throughout the Little Rock area, including North Little Rock, Maumelle, and as far as Bryant and Benton. Most current students are families with young children, but that’s expanding as word spreads about the school’s inclusive, creative approach.
Crystal is quick to praise her team, particularly teachers like Alexander Seman, who brings his master’s degree in education and an infectious enthusiasm to every lesson. Seman uses stuffed animals, silly games, and creative play to teach proper hand position and piano patterns, embodying exactly what Crystal envisions for her school.
“He has this way of making it really playful that is one hundred percent what I really, truly want for my teachers and students,” she says.
This playful approach is captured in one of the school’s taglines: “Music lessons should be fun.” It’s a simple statement, but one that reflects a deeper commitment to making music education accessible, enjoyable, and sustainable for the long term.
For Crystal, running Hillcrest Family Music is about more than teaching individual students. It’s about building a musical community in Little Rock. She’s actively involved in the Hillcrest Merchants Association and was recently accepted into the Rock It! Lab’s cohort program for local entrepreneurs, where she’s learning about finance, marketing, and other aspects of small business management.
The school offers sibling discounts and special pricing for loyal families who have been with the program for years. “I like to just really take care of the families that I already have,” Crystal says. “That’s really important to me.” Trial lessons and classes are available for only $10. Some families have even experienced the Music Together® program across multiple generations, with grandparents who remember taking their own children through the program in other states.
Looking ahead five years, Crystal sees Hillcrest Family Music outgrowing its current space on North Van Buren Street. She envisions forming family bands, creating small musical groups among students, and contributing meaningfully to Little Rock’s local music scene.
“I see us producing bands, people writing their own songs, people joining ensembles that already exist, and making real contributions, creative contributions, because of the way that they’ve been taught at our school,” she says.
It’s an ambitious vision, but one that fits perfectly with Crystal’s philosophy. She’s not just teaching people to play instruments. She’s helping them become true musicians, people who can collaborate, improvise, and find joy in making music together.
When asked what keeps her in Little Rock, Crystal points to family and community. “There’s a real small community feel,” she says. “It’s a very caring community.” That sense of care and connection infuses everything she does at Hillcrest Family Music.
For a woman who once thought she lacked the confidence to teach, motherhood changed everything. “I had never had a baby before, but I seem to be doing an okay job of keeping this baby alive,” she laughs. “And like, why not try this? It really gave me a confidence that I didn’t have before of just like, just try it.”
That willingness to try, to embrace creativity, and to build something meaningful is what makes Hillcrest Family Music special. It’s a place where a three-year-old can shake a maraca alongside their grandmother learning piano, where technical skill matters less than the joy of making music, and where families discover that music truly can be a centerpiece of their lives together.
Whether you have a curious toddler ready for their first musical experience or you’re an adult who’s always wanted to learn an instrument, Hillcrest Family Music welcomes you. Discover how Crystal Graves and her team can help your family make music together.
Visit their website or call today to learn more about Music Together® classes for young children or private lessons for all ages. Let your family’s musical journey begin at Hillcrest Family Music, where music lessons should be fun and every generation can play together.
By Les Cseh Nov 28, 2021
Do you have an idea for your business for a logo? Something you want for your sign, your business cards, t-shirts for your employees to wear? Meet Malcolm Bellew. Malcolm is a freelance graphic designer. He specializes in silkscreen printing, laying out business cards, logo creation and printing on all kinds of apparel. Located in […]
By Jennifer Kent Apr 8, 2025
Turning Adversity into Innovation Janyelle Milton never planned to revolutionize the sneaker industry, but when life presented her with a challenge, she turned it into an opportunity. A lifelong lover of high heels, she thrived on the confidence and elegance they brought her. But in 2016, everything changed. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she found herself […]