Chayala Neuhaus — the composer behind some of today’s most iconic songs, such as “A Yid” and “Miracles” — shares the story behind her songs

Sometimes I have to quiet the violins in my head,” says Chayala Neuhaus. “I can’t separate where I end and where music begins.” Her siblings have memories of her as a baby, crawling to the piano and humming along with the melodies they played.

“I was hungry for music,” she recalls. “I started formal training when I was five and when I got a tape recorder, that’s when it really took off for me.” The young musician spent hours tinkering at the piano as the small machine flashed "record." She kept going until she liked what she heard — and her very first songs began to emerge.

“My family took me seriously long before they had to,” Chayala shared. That support was paramount. It boosted her confidence so that she felt comfortable exploring.

Most creatives start as children who are creative and inquisitive — and hopefully, also confident and uninhibited, Chayala believes. “I wrote a lot of songs from when I was 11 until my twenties. Some were great. Most were horrible. But I’m so grateful I had time to let the music exist before my inner critic started chiming in with opinions. If I didn’t have that stage, I don’t think I could have developed skills the same way.”

When adults ask Chayala for advice in nurturing their own creativity, she tells them to recreate the innocent childhood dynamic. “You need to let yourself just go and go without shutting anything down.”

Black and White

To Chayala, the songs in her head were filled with color — while sheet music was black and white. She hated piano practice because of that. “I played by ear, so, focusing on classical technique wasn’t second nature,” she says. Instead, she liked to play around with the keys — making mistakes and making things up — until she stumbled upon that perfect combination of notes. “I wanted to just fly and create until I found something new and realized, ‘Hey, that melody is a keeper.’”

In retrospect, though, Chayala admits that, “My parents were smart. They had the piano teacher come every week even if I hadn’t practiced at all. Steadily, steadily, steadily, I learned to appreciate a process and structure.”

Chayala credits her parents with a lot of the foundational skills she now uses daily. “My father exposed us to such rich, diverse Jewish music. He and my mother gave us all kinds of opportunities as kids — things like music and gymnastics — and that’s something I pass on to parents who show up at my door, asking what to do with their children’s creativity.

“I always tell them to give their kids as many opportunities as possible. When you do, you give kids the chance to figure out, ‘Hey, I’m good at this,’ and ‘I’m probably not great at that.’ It builds confidence.”

Then, when they’re older, creatives can supplement the structure and processes. That’s why Chayala codified everything she learned over the years into digestible courses for frum women. It’s an easy way for everyone who has the creative instinct to learn the processes and structures that are vital to polished creations — composition, technicalities, client management, and more. More than 180 women around the world have graduated and are now engineering music of their own.