Teacher guarantee

We will always be fully prepared for lessons and will begin punctually at the agreed upon start time.

If we happen to be running late, we will contact you as soon as possible and the missed time will be made up, or refunded.

Payment

When lessons become regular, they are paid for in advance at the beginning of each month via Venmo, Zelle or bank transfer.

The Fall semester begins on Labor Day and lasts through until the end of January. The Spring semester runs from February through until the last week of June. Excluding holidays, each semester includes about 18 weeks of lessons. Your tuition will reflect the added cost of all the lessons in the semester. Tuition is split into monthly installments.

We never want payment to impinge upon our students’ musical journeys and if it is easier to pay on a weekly basis, we will accept this on a case by case basis.

Students are more than welcome to register for lessons in the middle of a semester and are billed for ensuing lessons accordingly.

Tuition reserves your child (ren) and / or yourself a private, or group lesson time in a designated slot every week.

Tuition does not include the recital fee. See here for more details.

Tuition does not include the cost of books and materials required for our lessons together. Please note, these costs are minimal and piano books are often around $9 per book. We also advocate passing these down amongst family members or donating to other students.

By request, we do offer lessons over the summer and this can be a chance for you or your child to really have some time to focus on perfecting those musical skills! There is also greater flexibility over the summer for scheduling your child’s lesson during the daytime hours.

Requirements

In order to successfully participate in music lessons, students who are taking piano lessons must have a keyboard or piano at their home they are able to practice on during the week.

For younger / beginner students, it is okay if this keyboard is an introductory level model. However, it does need to come equipped with a music stand! We are able to advise on keyboard choices.

For older / more advanced students, we recommend they have access to a keyboard / piano that has 88 keys, is semi weighted and has a pedal. This will enable us to properly explore all aspects of piano technique within our lessons together. We can answer questions about different models and offer guidance accordingly. We realize that purchasing a keyboard is an investment. But we believe this to be worthwhile and it can always be resold in the future.

For those students participating in voice lessons, a keyboard / piano at home is desirable, but not necessary. Students are still able to practice during the week using recordings from our lessons, free midi piano apps on a phone or computer or with backing tracks. Progress will not be limited due to the lack of a keyboard.

Students are required to come equipped to their lessons with all of their music books, as well as a blank notebook and pencil. All other materials, such as manuscript paper and sheet music for voice lessons, will be supplied by the teacher.

We will always treat you and your child with the upmost respect. It is imperative to us that we have a positive working relationship. In order for this to be as harmonious as possible, we appreciate students coming equipped ready to listen, to learn and to grow musically, creatively and artistically.

Cancelation and Missed Lesson policy

If we are unable to attend a lesson, we will let you know with as much notice as possible and this lesson will either be rescheduled or credited on your next invoice.

If you/your child is unable to attend a lesson, please give more than 24 hours’ notice so we can either reschedule or credit the lesson on the next invoice.

If you/your child cancels with less than 24 hours’ notice and the reason is forgetting or a change in plans, then this will still be chargeable at full rate.

If it is less than 24 hours’ notice and the reason is illness, studio policy is to charge these absences at 50% the rate of your lesson, unless we happen to be able to find someone to fill the lesson spot in the time frame you have given.

With 24 hours notice, a maximum of 3 make-up lessons is allowed per student each semester. Please note, last minute cancelations cannot be made up.

Historically during Fall and Winter, a percentage of lessons are missed due to illness, which is understandable. However it is not possible to run a business on no income and unless we can find a replacement student in a short period of time which is often not possible, we have to consider it as payment to hold your time slot for you/your child, otherwise we could have made a long term booking with a student on our waiting list.

If the reason is an emergency of some sort, we will of course give consideration to refunding or crediting your next invoice.

We will be relying on your honesty to let us know the reason for absences.

All lessons will be made up by the end of the current semester and are not transferable.

Illness

We take hygiene very seriously, always sanitizing our piano and studio space between students and wiping down all surface areas.

If we are feeling under the weather, we will reach out to you to see if you would like to continue with the lesson, with the option to mask, or if you would prefer to reschedule. We thank you in advance for the same curtesy.