“I went to college and nobody could give me the information for what I want to do. They would teach me how to play the normal system of music, but no one could ever tell me how to play how I wanted to play,”
In January 2017, Key Impact Studios celebrated its 25th year, and its founder Steven Scott says his inspiration came from his love of playing Gospel Music in Kansas City, KS churches. At age 10, he started playing for the youth and mass choir at Bethel Baptist Church, 2415 N. Sherman. The Wyandotte High School graduate attended UMKC for three years and transferred to Wichita State where he graduated with dual degrees in Electrical Engineering and Music in 1991.
After college, Scott went to work as an engineer with a top company but was unhappy. One day he left his job, took the music program that he had been developing and started Key Impact Studios.
“The first month I had 40 students. The next month I had 75, the next month I had over 100 students,” he said.
Scott says that his while Key Impact provides instruction in all genres of music, his method is geared towards developing church musicians. Scott says that most piano teachers will teach you chords, but not how to use them.
In addition, there’s more than one kind of Gospel Music to teach. While Traditional Gospel Music is based on the Blues, Contemporary Gospel Music, is a form of Jazz.
“Gospel applies to words, not the music,” says Scott.
Key Impact’s gospel music instruction involves focuses in on those differing chord structures.
In 25 years, Mr. Scott estimates that he’s taught over 1,000 students. Some, like Jason Betts, have become professional musicians. Betts has played for Ginuwine, Tyrese, and Charlie Wilson. Others, like Caleb McComb, 31, have taken Scott’s method of instruction and begun to teach students of their own.