TAYLORVILLE, Ill. (WAND) — For Mike Semerau, the story of Taylorville Music Lessons began long before he ever had the keys to a building in Taylorville.
It began when he was four years old, listening to a neighborhood teenager play guitar in a basement.
Decades later, Semerau has turned that childhood fascination with music into a career spanning more than 30 years and a music school that is now celebrating its fifth anniversary.
“I've been teaching the drums for 31 years,” Semerau said. “At the 26-year mark, it gave me the resources to move my family to Taylorville and buy this building.”
Semerau spent years teaching at music stores and other locations in the Chicago area. Along the way, he kept thinking about what he would do differently if he ever had a school of his own.
“So, I came here and brought it to life,” he said.
A love for music that started at four years old, Semerau traces his love for music back to his childhood and an older neighborhood friend named Steve.
Steve lived just a few houses away and played guitar. When Semerau was being babysat, he could hear Steve's band practicing in the basement, playing music inspired by bands like Black Sabbath and artists like Ozzy Osbourne.
Semerau wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a guitar player. Instead, Steve suggested he learn the drums. So, Semerau did.
Years later, at 14, Steve heard Semerau playing for the first time and told him to keep going.
“Don't stop,” Semerau remembers Steve telling him. “Keep going. You sound amazing.”
The two planned to play music together when Steve returned home from school. That opportunity never came. Semerau told WAND News Steve died after a fire broke out at an off-campus home in Bloomington. Steve helped others escape before going back inside because he believed someone was still trapped. He died from smoke inhalation.
Semerau said he still carries Steve's memory with him every time he plays.
“All the time. All the time,” he said.
Steve's family later gave Semerau his last electric guitar, something he still cherishes.
That early experience helped shape a life centered around music and eventually teaching it to others. Before Taylorville Music Lessons, Semerau's teaching career often meant going wherever his students were.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he said he taught drums seven days a week at five different locations, with roughly 100 drum students each week. At one point, he regularly traveled 50 miles one way to teach students who otherwise could not make the trip to him.
“If you don't have the dedication and love what you do, then you're going to not be a very good teacher,” Semerau said.
Then came 2021. Semerau got the keys to the Taylorville building on April 5, 2021. At the time, he was still living in Bolingbrook and teaching students online. Four days a week, he would drive from the Chicago area to Taylorville, teach virtually from the building and then spend his remaining time painting and decorating classrooms.
He would return home for a couple of days, teach more students and work on preparing his family's house to sell.
Taylorville Music Lessons officially opened Aug. 28, 2021. Five years later, Semerau said the milestone is difficult to believe.
“It's gone by fast. Gone by really fast,” he said. “Without the teachers and without the community, we wouldn't be here for five years.”
Today, Semerau said the school has a regular roster of about 80 students each week and averages roughly 100 new students a year.
Semerau describes himself as more than the owner. He is also the school's music director, drum teacher and, jokingly, the guy responsible for the bad jokes.
But behind the jokes is a philosophy Semerau said has guided him throughout his teaching career: students should feel comfortable enough to be themselves while also being challenged to improve.
“I want them to have fun,” Semerau said.
He makes a point to talk with students about their lives and interests during lessons, believing the connection makes students more comfortable and willing to learn. At the same time, he expects students to practice and treats the music studio like a school.
One student has been there for much of the journey. Her name is Emma Vogel.
Emma has been taking drum lessons from Semerau for 12 years. Meaning their story together began long before Taylorville Music Lessons existed.
Her introduction to drums was unconventional.
“My dad found an old set on the side of the road,” Emma said. “And my poppa signed me up for lessons.”
Her grandfather eventually found Semerau, and Emma began traveling to his home in Bolingbrook for lessons. Semerau said he quickly recognized something in his young student.
“I knew she was special, and, you know, I know that I could create a very good drummer,” he said.
Over the next 12 years, their relationship grew into much more than a weekly music lesson.
“She's special to me,” Semerau said. “Twelve years of teaching her. I'm watching her grow up.”
When Semerau moved to Taylorville, Emma did not want their lessons to end. She continued learning online for years, while traveling from the Joliet area to Taylorville for the school's recitals every three months, and sometimes making the roughly three-hour trip just to perform one song.
Eventually, Emma and her family made an even bigger move.
Her mother said the family was traveling to Taylorville so often that, after she and Emma's father retired, they decided to relocate to the area. It allowed Emma to return to the in-person lessons she preferred.
“She loves it down here. We all do,” Mary Vogel said. “We were coming so often, and then we just ... I might just buy a house there and move there, and Emma could take her lessons in person.”
Her mother said the lessons have helped Emma become more outgoing, particularly when she takes the stage during recitals.
“She just goes up there like it's nothing and just plays her heart out,” she said.
For Emma, the appeal of drums is simple.
“The beat and the rhythm.”
But the music school has become more than a place to practice. Asked how she feels when she walks through the doors, Emma described it as a place where she feels “happy” and “comfortable.”
She also has plans to keep playing.
“I want to be in a band,” Emma said.
A building filled with family memories, Semerau's move to Taylorville was about more than opening a business.
His father had lived in Taylorville, and Semerau already had family connections to the community. Moving to the area allowed him to live about a minute away from his father during the final three years of his life.
His father also helped him prepare the music school, including painting the drum room.
Those memories remain part of the building. Semerau said that when some of his father's favorite 1950s rock-and-roll songs come through the school's speakers, he still feels his father's presence.
“I know he's with me,” Semerau said.
It is one of many ways Semerau has made the building personal. Each classroom is decorated around the history of the instrument taught there, with photographs and images honoring influential musicians spanning generations.
For Semerau, creating that environment is part of making Taylorville Music Lessons feel different from a traditional lesson room.
Taylorville Music Lessons will celebrate its fifth anniversary from 2-6 p.m. on Sunday. The event will include free food and drinks, cake, vendors, a bounce house and a 65-foot obstacle course for children. A DJ will play from 2-3 p.m., followed by a performance from the school's teacher band from 3-4 p.m. Between 15 and 20 students are expected to perform from 4-5 p.m.
Emma will be among those taking the stage.
In addition, one way the school has tried to bridge that gap is through discounted six-week group courses. Semerau said the program offers six 30-minute lessons for $60, giving beginners an opportunity to try an instrument without making a larger financial commitment. Taylorville Music Lessons has also expanded beyond traditional music instruction by offering a six-week Spanish course for $60.
Copyright 2026. WAND TV. All rights reserved.
