PAYMENT
Payment should be made at the beginning of the month for the month. No-shows will be charged. If you must cancel, I must be notified, and a make-up will be attempted to be scheduled. There are three payment options: check, cash or PayPal.
CANCELLATIONS
Please text or email me and let me know if you must cancel for any reason. If you must cancel for illness or emergency, we will try for a makeup lesson. If that isn’t possible, the payment you have made will roll over into the next month. If you miss a lesson and do not notify me, no refund will be given. Please remember that too many cancellations will result in poor progress and possible loss of your reserved slot. Improvement greatly depends on consistent lesson attendance.
PRACTICE EXPECTATIONS
Students are required to practice at home in between sessions, which requires daily access to an appropriate piano or keyboard. Daily practice is vital to progress. Ideally the student should practice 5-6 days per week. The recommended amount of practice time will be discussed with the student and parent depending upon their age and skill level. In their lessons assignment logs there are weekly charts to record practice time. Students are expected to fill these out weekly.
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
Parents may stay to observe lessons, or leave if they need to. Siblings are welcome as long as they are not disruptive to the lesson. Parents may take siblings out to the yard to play if they wish. Siblings and friends should be accompanied by an adult during lessons. Exceptions may be made if discussed with me. Parents are expected to purchase the required lesson material and be willing to buy occasional supplemental music as well.
MUSIC LESSON TIME SLOT
I reserve a specific time slot for each student. Try to very best to honor that slot, as rescheduling can be overwhelming. I know sports and activity schedules can be changeable, and I want to work with you and will try my best to rearrange to honor your commitments as well. If too many lessons are missed, we may need to re-evaluate and discuss our options. If your child has had a week of little practice they are still expected to attend the lesson. These weeks do happen, and in this case, we have many things we can still go over and learn! It gives us an opportunity to sight-read, ear-train, improvise, compose and arrange, etc.
CANCELLATIONS
If you need to cancel a lesson, texting is best. Reasons to cancel a lesson would be an appointment, a sports team or school event, an important family function, illness of child or parent. Reason that are NOT reason to cancel would be going shopping, sleepovers, not practicing, etc. Please respect your lesson time.
If you are needing an extended break, I may need to fill your lesson time slot and cannot guarantee you the same slot when you return.
COMMUNICATION
I communicate weekly with a mass email. If you need to communicate with me, you can email or TEXT me. IF you must cancel or have a question during my lesson teaching times, please text me and I will answer you as I am able. If there are any particular issues that I need to know about, I welcome information. It helps me know how to handle issues that arise. You may email me privately and we can discuss. Please let me know also if you feel the child has too much or too little material, and we can adjust accordingly.
PROGRESS
Of course it is the goal to make progress, which requires practice. It is understood that there will be weeks with illness, commitments, extra homework and tests, projects, etc. However, if 3 consecutive weeks pass with no progress, I will contact the parent and we will discuss ideas to remedy this and get back on track.
There are 3 different options for time slots:
30 minutes......$27 for first child, $25 for the second
45 minutes .....$36
60 minutes......$46
Longer lessons provide more time for covering additional material, theory, improvisation and ear-training.
RECITALS
I hold two recitals yearly....one in November/December, and one in April/May. These are not mandatory, but highly encouraged. Performing is sharing and demonstrating what you have learned, and indeed an important aspect of learning and mastering the piano. They are fun! I am also trying to incorporate other performance venues as well. Look for opportunities to practice their performance skills....school, church, home, visits, media, etc.
