FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
Tuition is payable at the top of each month, and covers all lessons for that month. This streamlined pricing is helpful not only for me as a business, but also for my customers, since the price won't change from month to month. Some months you will receive 3 lessons, and some 5, but most months are 4-week months. It averages out to 4 lessons every month over the course of one year.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
We begin with an evaluation lesson. This is an opportunity to get to know you, and talk about your musical goals, and how to achieve them. I will lay out a basic rough curriculum plan to get you to that goal. This will include short-term and long-term goals for your proficiency. Most standard lessons, we spend about 20 minutes at the piano, and 10 minutes learning music theory or music history/appreciation. I feel it's very important to develop a broad understanding of music and how it functions. During the applied portion of the lesson at the piano, I will check your progress on any material assigned the previous week. At any one time, we usually have assigned a very short scale or etude (which will change weekly), a "technique" piece (which should change bimonthy), and a "repertoire" piece (which you should expect to change approximately once per month or once every other month depending on difficulty.) If the student needs help overcoming a difficult passage, we will take the time during that 20 minutes to do so. Students are encouraged to ask questions as they think of them during the lesson; it lets me know that they are thinking critically about their music. Practicing expectations are never about how long the student spends at the piano. Instead, I try to foster an attitude of "short, focused practices" that happen multiple times a day. Each short practice session should last no more than 10-15 minutes, but should have a specific goal – like, say, repeating a difficult 4-measure section 5 times in a row correctly at any speed. Once that goal is accomplished, the practice session is over. This keeps my students from becoming "clockwatchers", and puts the focus instead on achieving a particular goal with every rehearsal. If you have any other questions, just ask! I've spent my entire adult life developing new ideas and techniques to overcome some of the most pernicious hassles of learning to play an instrument. Whether you are a new student, or you've been taking lessons for a few years, or even if you're an expert at the instrument, I probably have something to offer you to just bump you up to that next level in your musical journey.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have an MME from University of Kansas, 6 years post-grad study with Sir Wladimir Kochanski, and I am entering my 25th year professionally teaching music to students.