Where Every Student Finds Their Sound

Some places, you walk in and immediately know you're somewhere special. The moment you step into All Ages Music School on 8th Street in West Des Moines, it's clear this is not your average lesson studio. The walls — nearly every one of them painted by owner Shanda Fordyce herself in a crazy but joyful month last summer — hum with intention. Somewhere down the hall, a clarinet runs through a scale. In another room, a class of piano students find their groove. A drum kit gets a tentative introduction. Siblings are reading books, building with Magnatiles and Lincoln Logs, or playing with Legos and tic tac toe on the wall. And in the middle of it all, Shanda is probably giving a tour, one family at a time, answering every question and sharing the vision of this beautiful school.

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From the Podium to the One-on-One

Shanda Fordyce has been in love with music since fifth grade, when she picked up the saxophone and hasn't put it down! By the time she reached college, the path seemed obvious: she would become a band director, just like Brad Lampe, her high school director at Clarke in Osceola — a man she credits as a huge inspiration, now leading the band at Central College in Pella.

But two years into her college experience, something shifted during a teacher aiding placement. Standing on a podium in front of a band of young students, she looked down and saw the kids who were struggling to keep up. In that moment, everything changed.

"Conducting a band is a superpower," she says. "I have so much respect for my band director friends, but it was in that moment that I realized it's not my thing. It's hard directing a band, seeing those who are struggling in the group, and continuing on. I want to be down there helping those kids that are struggling."

It was in that moment that she realized the career she had been dreaming of for so long wasn't quite the right fit after all. She stepped off the podium, finished the music department portion of her degree, and added a Music Business major. It was a choice with an unclear path and, in hindsight, she says it has turned out exactly as it should. Since then, Shanda has spent more than two decades teaching in many different settings: in the back of a music store, her own home, students' homes, music classes at a Montessori school and Self-Directed Learning Center, a rock school. She currently teaches at Urbandale Middle School (now in her 11th year) and at Grandview University in Des Moines. In 2017, she started Central Iowa Homeschool Band and Instrumental Music Classes in the basement of her home — a program close to her heart as a homeschool parent herself, which she has now rolled into All Ages' offerings.

Shanda also spent several years working for another music studio in the area, handling teaching alongside nearly all administrative duties — communicating with teachers and parents, scheduling lessons, rehearsals, and recitals, and helping open a second location. When budget cuts eliminated her position, she and her husband Chris faced a choice. They decided that if they could find a way to make it happen, the time was now to open the school she had always dreamed of.

Shanda understands that students are busy and believes there is almost always a way to make multiple activities work. On the question of sports versus music, she's firm: students shouldn't be made to choose. She speaks from experience — Shanda was a pitcher on her college softball team while carrying a full music major course load, and when her first university couldn't accommodate the schedule conflict between marching band and softball practice, she transferred to a smaller school to make both happen. If she could do it, she believes her students can too — and she's willing to help them find the path.

What It Actually Feels Like to Be Here

All Ages Music School occupies 3,000 square feet in a West Des Moines building just off the I-235's 73rd St/8th Street exit — Suite 5, tucked in next to a daycare that looks like a castle. Shanda got the keys in July and opened in August. In between, she painted nearly every wall herself, built the school's website from scratch, and spent the equivalent of a full month configuring the enrollment, scheduling, and payments system from 30 hours of tutorial videos. She had spent four months prior working on the business plan while negotiating the lease. "A quick month but super fun watching your dream become a reality," she says — which tells you something about who she is.

Walking through the space, you encounter fun, colorful rooms designed for different worlds — a high-end digital piano classroom, lesson rooms for woodwinds, brass, strings, voice, and guitar, plus two larger spaces: one serving as a drum lesson room and band practice space, and the other as a classroom, acoustic ensemble room, and small recital space. The school currently serves students from age 3 to 76, drawing families from all around the metro — Ankeny, Norwalk, Waukee, Dallas Center-Grimes, and beyond. Many take private lessons; others are here for group classes. Beginning this summer, the school will add group band, choir, and orchestra classes, with chamber ensembles for more advanced players at the top of Shanda's list.

Most students begin with 30-minute private lessons, the sweet spot for building fundamentals without overwhelming a new learner. As students advance, sessions can grow to 45 or 60 minutes. Younger children often start on piano — a foundation that translates across virtually every other instrument — though plenty of students arrive already knowing exactly what they want to play. Shanda and her teachers meet each student where they are, crafting a progression that is always age-appropriate, always individualized, and never rushed.

"We are a true community music school," Shanda says. "We may have a lot of teachers, but it's because we all have specialties and we offer nearly everything."

The Team Behind the Music

What makes that claim credible is the staff. All Ages currently has 18 instructors, collectively holding over a dozen music degrees and decades of teaching and performance experience. Many have 20-plus years in the classroom. A significant number are also active performing musicians or recording artists working in the Des Moines area today.

Shanda primarily teaches saxophone and clarinet. Her husband Chris teaches upright and electric bass — "we are in opposite worlds," she laughs. Every instructor is interviewed personally, with deep conversation about teaching philosophy and cultural fit. The goal is not just technical competence but a shared belief in what the school should feel like: welcoming, patient, deeply invested in each individual student. When Shanda talks about her teachers collaborating to create special opportunities for students, it doesn't sound like a policy. It sounds like something that just happens here naturally.

"Everybody has a very strong specialty," Shanda says. "That is why we have 18 teachers."

A Community Still Taking Shape

All Ages is only in its first year, but Shanda is already thinking well beyond the lesson room. She envisions ensemble groups performing at nursing homes, playing park concerts in summer, caroling at the holidays, showing up at bookstores and community events. She wants the school's growing roster of student musicians woven into the fabric of the Des Moines area — visible, contributing, genuinely connected to the community around them.

The school has also quietly become a welcoming place for students with special needs. Several families have found what Shanda describes as "a pretty strong home here." One sweet pre-K aged student has already discovered her superpower — perfect pitch — and is now composing original melodies on the piano and singing. Shanda speaks about this with particular warmth. All three of her own children have ADHD, and both her husband and one of her children are autistic. She understands, from the inside, what it means to find your instrument, and what music can do on the days when words fall short.

"Music is just a really great thing for the soul," she says.

What's Coming Next

This summer, All Ages is launching its most ambitious programming yet. Week-long themed camps — K-Pop Demon Hunters, Wicked, Broadway Show Choir, World Music, Songwriting, and Rock Camps in both beginner and experienced tracks — are designed to give students a fun, focused week of music learning and enjoyment. But the centerpiece is a 10-week Summer Sectional Program beginning the first week of June: dedicated groups for woodwinds, brass, strings, jazz combo and improv, and three age-tiered vocal groups under the Summer Songbirds banner. Students currently enrolled in lessons receive 50 percent off.

The sectionals are partly practical — keeping instruments out of closets over summer, maintaining skills, building confidence — but they're also the beginning of something larger. Shanda sees them as the foundation for the kind of community ensemble presence she has been working toward since before the school opened.

One former student, now finishing her fourth year as a music performance and education major at the University of Iowa and serving as principal clarinet in the university's symphonic band, plans to student teach locally this fall — and hopes to teach part-time at All Ages. Another former student, back from his first year marching in Michigan's band, which performed at this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, plans to teach here this summer. Full circle moments, Shanda calls them. She knows how they were taught, the depth of their understanding, and the kind of humans they are — and she knows they will be excellent teachers.

"We welcome anyone to come in and take a tour," she says. "Reach out to me — call, text, email, or schedule through the website. I do every tour personally, one family at a time. I want everybody to feel that when they walk in the door."