Studio Policies
My Responsibility
My responbility is to give your child the best introduction to playing the piano that I can. I will expose your child to a wide variety of music styles while respecting each child's method of learning. I try to keep lessons fun and low stress, while showing the student how music can express feelings that are often difficult to express verbally.
Parental Responsibility
Parents are responsible for providing a tuned piano, metronome, and a nurturing environment for practice. Learning music is like learning a foreign language, and as such needs consistent practice and reinforcement. Students do best with shorter practice sessions every day rather than a long "cramming" session the day before the lesson. Those long sessions do very little good. Young students especially will need reminders to practice. Please be enthusiastic about your child's practice - a child who feels that their practice is disturbing the family will not practice!
Parents are also responsible for making sure their child arrives at lesson on time, with all their books, and with washed hands. If your child is sick, please let me know and do not bring them to lesson.
If something is happening at home that affects your child or your child has a medical diagnosis that affects their learning, please let me know. The more I know about your child the better I can tailor the lessons for them.
Student Responsibility
How much progress a student makes, and how fast they progress, is completely up to them. A student who practices consistently and with focus will progress many times faster than a student who only shows up for lessons unprepared. A student who practices will constantly be challenged with new music and will be able to explore many pieces that are of particular interest to them. Students who repeat the same material in lesson week after week will become bored and frustrated and will be tempted to quit.
Therefore it takes excitement and commitment from the teacher, the parents, and the student to have a succesful journey learning the language of music.
Website
I will use the website to post notices to the families, and to post videos or articles that I want the students to see/read. You should also cancel lessons by clicking on that day on the calendar. I never promise to remember if you tell me verbally!
Tuition
Tuition is $20 for a 30 minute lesson and $30 for 45 minute lesson. This is to paid at the beginning of the month for the number of lessons the student will take that month. If your child is sick or you have a family vacation planned and you let me know in advance, I will give you a credit for that lesson on the next month's invoice. Make-up lessons will not be given. If you simply do not show up I expect to be paid for that lesson, as I am spending time sitting there waiting for you.
If you are late for a lesson, your lesson will still end at the usual time. I cannot extend your time into the next student's lesson.
Benefits
It has been shown that studying music literally changes the student's brain. They learn to process many different kinds of information quickly, which sets them up to be more succesful in school and in life. These changes last for a lifetime, so welcome to the journey!
Spring Recital
Friday, May 12