The best age to start music lessons depends somewhat on the instrument the child wants to learn, and their ability to concentrate.  For piano students, kids can start as young as 4 years old if they have a good attention span.  The best age to start is about 5-6 years old.  For students interested in guitar, it’s best to start with ukulele as the guitar (even child sized ones) tends to be too big for a kids smaller hands.  There are violins that are very small that a young beginner could start with, although they would probably not use the bow until their hands had to dexterity for bow playing. 

Students can start learning music on a keyboard and it is not necessary to have an acoustic beginner.  When picking out a keyboard, make sure it is as close to 88 keys and that it has a weighted action which will mimic the feel of an acoustic piano.  Keyboards without a weighted action can cause problems with students building the proper finger strength needed to play efficiently and can make it difficult to understand how to play with musical expression.

Lessons are most effective on the same day and time, once a week.  Sometimes students really benefit from lessons twice per week, but it’s not necessary for musical growth.  It’s important that students have time in between lessons to practice regularly.

The length of the lesson will depend mostly on the age and level of the student.  For young beginners from ages 4-7, 30 minutes is ideal.  For students aged 8-12, we would recommend 45 minutes.  For older students and adults, we recommend at least 60 minute lessons.

Music is a complex language based on a visual display of aural perception of notes, rhythm and pitch.  For beginners, it takes some time to learn the symbols thoroughly and to be able to connect what is seen on the page to what is to be played by the fingers.  Generally speaking, all students can start to read music within a few weeks of lessons on the staff, depending on how much time a student devotes to practicing and their general understanding of the language.  Sometimes little kids are still learning their alphabet, and this actually can influence their ability to read music, but method books are set up in a thoughtful and methodical way to encourage students to learn how to read music as quickly as possible!

There is no one method of teaching that is right for a student as we are all individuals with different strengths and abilities.  We generally like to use different method books that have a systematic approach to learning note names, rhythms, notation rules, playing techniques and musical symbols.  We believe that a solid approach to note and rhythm reading helps students with the musical growth and is better than focusing on ear training methods only.

The short answer is every day, but at the very least 4-5 days per week is adequate enough to really learn the weekly lessons and work on developing good practice habits.  It’s more important to practice regularly, even if its only 15 minutes per day than to have one long practice session per week.

A student has 60 days to make up a missed lesson. We will do our best to schedule with your regular teacher, but because they are making house calls, a makeup lesson may be booked with a substitute instead. If you want to be guaranteed to have a makeup lesson with your teacher, you can do a remote lesson or video recorded lesson.

We have a 24-cancellation policy for any reason other than illness.  If a student happens to be sick we will do our best to try and reschedule the lesson for another time, as long as get notice by 8am the day of the lesson.  We are happy to offer a remote lesson in the same time slot so neither party will worry about getting the other sick!  If a teacher has to cancel, we do our best to try and find a substitute or will keep that lesson as a makeup.

Yes!  We offer trial lessons for $35 for 30 minutes.  If you’d like a longer trial lesson, we offer 45 and 60 minute options as well.

We ask for at least three weeks notice notice if you would like to discontinue lessons, and a three week notice if you plan on taking a break.  Please keep in mind that we can’t hold your spot with your teacher if you plan on taking a break as our teacher’s schedules fill up fast.  If you need to stop taking lessons, we ask that you fill out this form first, and then send us an email letting us know three weeks prior to the next billing date.

Tuition is a flat rate each month and charged on the first of the month (or we can pick a different date that’s convenient for you).  The tuition covers one lesson per week regardless of the length of the month so shorter months (holiday months) will be the same rate.  While we don’t officially “close” for the Winter holidays, you can opt to take those lessons as a makeup and schedule them as you see fit at a later date. 

Yes! We have two recitals, one in the Spring and one near the Winter holidays.