Exploring Life & Business with Josh Benson-Merron of Josh Benson-Merron Piano

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Benson-Merron.

Hi Josh, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Music has been in my blood from the very beginning. I grew up in the Bay Area in a family full of musicians — my great-grandfather was part of the Merry Macs, a popular vocal group best known for the hit “Mairzy Doats,” and my grandmother was a jazz singer who performed throughout South America. I started piano lessons at eight years old, performed in musical theatre, and sang in an a cappella group. From the start, my dream was to be a pianist.

Like many people, I drifted from that dream in college. After graduating, I moved to New York and took a corporate marketing job — but music kept calling me back. I auditioned for a piano class at Juilliard’s Evening Division, was accepted, and spent a year there that genuinely changed my life. My teacher, Peter Dugan — an incredible pianist and composer — helped me understand music at a depth I’d never experienced before. I fell back in love with it completely, and made a decision to devote as much of my life to piano as I possibly could.

I moved back to the Bay Area, enrolled in music classes at a local college, and began studying intensively with Laura Magnani, a fantastic classical pianist now based in Italy. That’s also when I started teaching. I was doing freelance marketing to pay the bills, but I threw myself into building a student roster — and grew quickly enough that I was soon able to leave marketing behind entirely and focus on teaching and performing full-time. I accompanied musical theatre productions and church services, and played at private events.

That was nine years ago. Two years ago, I moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of more musical opportunities, and began building a student base here. I’d long dreamed of teaching group classes — a way to reach more students and make a bigger impact — and last summer I discovered a program called Piano Express that felt like exactly what I’d been looking for. I completed their training, invested in six keyboards, and found a home for the classes at SoHo Studios, a dance studio in Westwood. I launched Piano Express last December, and my students have been making remarkable progress!

I’m excited to keep growing the Piano Express program while continuing to develop as a musician myself. Last year I played in a band — something I hope to continue — and I’m currently expanding my pop and jazz chops through classes at LA City College. And looking further down the road, I have a dream of opening my own music school — Merry Macs Music Academy, named in honor of my great-grandfather’s musical legacy. The journey is very much still unfolding.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not always smooth! One of the biggest ongoing challenges has been managing self-doubt. Because I didn’t take the traditional conservatory route, it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing myself to others — feeling like I’m behind, or questioning whether I made the right choice in following this path. It has required a lot of faith that if I follow my heart and put in the work, the results will come.

Being a business owner is also a constant hustle. There’s so much happening behind the scenes beyond the actual teaching — marketing, administrative work, finances, ongoing professional development — not to mention carving out time to practice and maintain my own musicianship. It’s a lot to juggle. And there’s an inherent instability to this kind of work: students come and go, schedules shift, and business can dip significantly in the summer. I’ve invested a lot in business coaching to help build something more sustainable for the long run — and I’m still learning every day.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I teach a program called Piano Express, with weekly classes held at SoHo Studios Westwood at 1618 Cotner Ave. Classes are 55 minutes long, in small groups of 2–5 students, and are open to ages 6 through adult — from complete beginners to early intermediate players. Thank you to SoHo Studios owner Raul Santiago and his team for providing such a wonderful space — and a special shout-out to Heike Macklin for helping connect people with the studio and its rental opportunities.

What makes Piano Express truly unique is how fast students progress. On average, students learn 2–3 times faster than with traditional piano instruction — and up to 6 times faster for highly motivated students. The program combines a self-paced learning structure with interactive software that connects directly to the keyboards. The software provides backing tracks and listens as students play, scoring their accuracy in both rhythm and pitch.

Students still read traditional sheet music from books, but after playing a song they can immediately see their score and identify exactly what needs improvement. This instant feedback makes practicing more engaging and rewarding. Students earn stars and stickers for high scores, which has had a huge impact on motivation. Many students come to class excited to show what they practiced at home, often learning several songs independently between classes. I’ve even had students complete an entire songbook of around 50 songs in just one week, something I never saw in years of teaching traditional lessons.

Beyond simply learning songs, students also explore music theory, technique, improvisation, composition, sight reading, and ear training in class, building a strong musical foundation. And every class includes opportunities for students to perform for each other, which helps build confidence and does wonders for overcoming stage fright.

One of the things I’m most proud of is how excited students are to practice. Parents often tell me they’ve never seen their kids this motivated to sit down at the piano. Piano Express turns learning piano into something students genuinely look forward to. I have never been more energized about teaching, and I would love for more West LA families — and adults! — to experience this program. If you’ve ever wanted to learn piano, or have a child who does, this is one of the most fun, motivating, and effective ways to get started.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I’ve absolutely taken some major risks in my life!

The first was leaving a stable corporate marketing job to start my own music education business. It felt like a huge leap, but I tried to mitigate the risk by continuing to do freelance marketing while I built up my student roster. At a certain point, I realized the time I was putting into marketing for other companies would be more valuable invested in my own business — and that’s when I left the freelance work behind entirely and devoted myself fully to music.

Moving to LA was another big risk. I was able to keep some of my Bay Area students online, but in many ways it felt like starting over. That first year was a rollercoaster — lots of uncertainty while I worked on building something new from the ground up.

And then there was launching Piano Express — investing in six keyboards plus all the additional equipment, completing the teacher training, spending months searching for a space and spreading the word. When the classes finally started, I can’t quite describe the feeling. It had been a dream for so long that when it actually came to fruition, I could barely believe it was real. It felt like a huge breakthrough.

My experience with risk is that I often have a voice in my head that nags me about something I want to do. I usually grapple with it for a while and let it marinate — but at some point the voice gets so loud that I have to take the leap and follow it. Because if I don’t, I’m always going to wonder “what if?” I don’t want to look back at the end of my life and wish I’d done that thing I always wanted to do.

I truly believe this is our one life to follow our dreams. The energy you put out into the universe comes back to you. Even if you try and fail, you always learn something — and you can try again with more wisdom and experience. It may sound very LA of me, but I believe everything happens for a reason, and that the universe rewards us for following our passion and staying in action.

Pricing:

• $185/month for weekly 55-minute group classes
• $25 per book set (6 levels total — students progress at their own pace)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joshbensonmerron.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbensonm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshbensonmerronpiano/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBECUzP9npsCZoRDl-0EDng
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/josh-benson-merron-piano-los-angeles