Music Lab
500 E. St. Elmo Road
Austin 78745
512 447 5910

Natural Ear Music, Inc.
PO Box 41796
Austin, Texas 78704

Mike moved to Austin, (changing her name to Michele) and by age 22 was recording with Bill Josey at Sonobeat Records here in Austin. Bill recorded Johnny Winters at the Vulcan Gas Company; recorded a very young Eric Johnson, as well as other seminal Austin artists. He arranged for her to perform at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1973, and they recorded an original song each week at the Sonobeat Studio at Lamar and 6th.

She went on to form several bands with the purpose of performing original music. She played gigs at the Armadillo Beer Garden, the Broken Spoke, Green Mesquite, Liberty Lunch, Continental Club, Raven's on 6th St., and all over Texas with Alvin Crow's Pleasant Valley Boys, playing guitar and covering country classics as well as her own originals.

Mike has taught music since the age of 13. She opened her first full time studio in Liberty Hill, TX in 1975, teaching piano, guitar, and tap dancing. Throughout the years that she raised her own two boys, Gabriel and Micah, she continued to teach at home and various studios in Liberty Hill, Bertram and finally, back in Austin.

Natural Ear Music Camp began during spring break 1991, when Mike, her son Micah Ater, and a very young Zac Colwell spent the week practicing together in a tiny apartment in Westlake Hills. The band played at the Saxon Pub a few weeks later. That summer, other children joined the group. They were hired to play at Aquafest at the end of the summer. Natural Ear Music Camp was named and registered in Travis County as 'doing business' that first summer.

By 1992 there were so many participants that the action moved to the Austin Rehearsal Complex, home to the ARC Angels and the rehearsal space for almost every touring act to hit town. Campers were able to solicit help from world class musicians: they had NIN guitar techs working the shows; they had cheerleaders including Doug Sahm, Joe Ely, Jerry Jeff Walker, Charlie and Will Sexton, Chris Layton and all the other musicians who roamed the halls at the ARC.

Over the last nineteen years, the Natural Ear bands have performed (no adults allowed onstage) at Jovita's, the Saxon Pub, the Broken Spoke, Aquafest, Green Mesquite, Continental Club, Antone's, Scholz' Garten, Budafest, the Hot Sauce Festival, Keep Austin Weird, ABIA, Margaret Moser's NEXTUP! Series for teens, and at many Austin area schools. Redheaded Stepchild recorded a CD in 1998 and appeared several times on local tv. Natural Ear Music School published it's first website in the spring of 1998, and the idea went viral. Today there are literally thousands of 'rock camps' worldwide.

Her camp has had the help and support of the best of Austin's musicians. Coaches have included Thierry LeCoz, Mike and Corey Keller, Eric Hokkanen, Paul Pearcy, Ted Roddy, Charlie Prichard, Brent Wilson, Speedy Sparks, De Lewellen, Tracey Crossett, Will Knaak, John Moyer, John X Reed, Will Sexton, Alvin and Jason Crow, Jimmie Pettit, Jake Andrews, Micah Ater, Rachel Bullion and many others.

We have a no-nonsense approach to teaching music. We use direct aural perception, not tab or sheet music. We use a number system similar to that used by Nashville session players to communicate the patterns of each song. Our coaches demand that every player stretch themselves to the limit, setting standards that draw comparisons to great artists. Nobody gets baby songs here.

Natural Ear Music School rehearsals and Camps are held at the Music Lab, 500 E. St. Elmo in Austin, Texas. It is the longest running rocknroll camp in the world, and is proud to have had a hand in changing the way music is taught. We are the mother of all rock camps.