Lowenberg Music Lessons

Hi James, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to publicly respond to your concerns. To your first point: Pricing for music lessons is based off of the teachers educational credentials, and years of experience with their craft. Look up the national average price for lessons and you will find my hourly rate to be right in the middle. I have my Bachelor's degree in music, I have been teaching private lessons for 12 years, and I have been playing and investing in learning my instrument for the past 22 years of my life. Part of the nature of taking lessons is that a teacher will personally sit with you and break down the best ways to practice musical techniques. Once you've been shown how and what to practice (for that particular week), you now have the tools needed to grow in competency with personal time spent. "Drilling on your own" after being taught a lesson is the way any person becomes better at particular discipline. Consider school where you have homework, studying, and projects. These forms of practice are the same across any discipline, or field of study. For you and I, we were not able to get the opportunity to go deeper because you chose not continue to pursue lessons after the first few. There are many free resources online that are wonderful. I would encourage you to seek them out. You reached out for lessons because, like all students, you wanted one on one feedback in person from a real person who has worked for decades learning which practice habits will get you to where you want to be correctly and efficiently. To your second point: We are a small business. In our business, our policies are not arbitrary. They are put in place for very specific reasons that I would have been happy to explain had I been asked. Our policy is provided to all prospective students before any lessons are ever taken. If the terms are not agreeable to the student, then lessons do not need to be taken. If a student moves forward with lessons, they are agreeable to the terms and are fully aware of the conditions in which the lessons are provided. We do this so that there are no surprises at any point for either the student or the teachers. Our exceptions for missed lessons are offered on an emergency basis only, however if you are aware of any travel before the monthly invoice goes out you may request a reschedule for that week so that all scheduling is properly aligned for the month ahead. This is a basic practice that many studios implement, and ours allows for some flexibility on rare occasions. I do know of many that never allow for a make up, or rescheduled lesson for any reason whatsoever. It is important to remember that when you book lessons, you are reserving a weekly appointment with a professional that might otherwise have gone to another student. Your time is always guaranteed because you have paid to reserve it. As I mentioned earlier we are a small business, and unfortunately do not have the luxury of holding time slots indefinitely if "life gets in the way" for some students. Meeting for lessons regularly is widely regarded as a key to growing on your instrument, both for accountability purposes and increasing your abilities. If your schedule became too busy to commit to meeting one time a week for 30 minutes then I might suggest that it just may not be the most opportune time for one to learn an instrument (no easy task). Please remember that those "aggressive approaches" are the ones that you were agreeable to when you decided to take lessons! You may always pause lessons, but your day and time cannot be held in the interim. Please keep in mind that while I do love teaching music, it is in fact my livelihood. Thank you, Dan