Piano students will begin their lessons at many different ages. The youngest we start students is in Kindergarten. We believe that language acquisition and note reading go hand in hand. Most methods that start students at a younger age teach piano by rote and add note reading at a later time.
We start many students using keyboards when they begin learning to play piano. We recommend a keyboard with at least 61 keys. This size keyboard will work well for the first 2-3 years of lessons.
We do recommend that students interested in playing advanced classical piano have a piano at home to practice on. Even the most expensive electric keyboard cannot imitate the feel, touch and sound of an acoustic piano. Electric keyboards can only play loud or soft.
With an acoustic piano you can manipulate the quality of sound by how you strike the key. Bach is played very percussive and articulated with the tips of the fingers, while Debussy is usually played on the pads of the fingers with a flatter hand giving a warm and embracing quality of sound.
Group lessons are hour-long classes; most private lessons are a half hour long.
Private lessons generally work on repertoire, technique and theory, one on one with a teacher.
In group lessons we are able to cover these skills and we also include beginning Blues improvisation, ensemble playing, student-student duets and composition. The group classes have multiple teachers assisting in the lessons. We keep our student-teacher ratio around two-to-one. That way we are able to hear students individually each week as well as doing group activities. Below is a breakdown of typical group lesson activities:
0-20 minutes: Each student is heard by a teacher on an acoustic piano on their weekly solo. While students are not being heard by a teacher, they are using an iPad connected to a keyboard doing note finding or ear training games. Students also have a short theory section to complete on their weekly assignment sheet when not playing for a teacher.
20-45 minutes: The class meets in the main room. Each student is at a keyboard and music is projected on to a screen. Assistant teachers are located behind students, ready to assist as needed. During this group time we do technique exercises, unison playing, blues improvisation (fall semester), composition (spring semester), ensemble playing and student-student duets (duets are for Level 2 students and above). 45-60 minutes: Students play games that work on ear training, note finding and rhythm clapping. We also record the previous week’s practice time.
Students in group lessons, we have two studio recitals one in December and one in March. These studio recitals are held during regular class time and are attended by family and friends.
Group students also have a recital at the Lawrence Arts Center in May.
Private students have two recitals one in December and one in May. Both these recitals are at the Lawrence Arts Center in the main theater on their beautiful Steinway piano.
We encourage students to participate in the recitals but they are not required. We want our students to learn how to play the piano for their own personal knowledge and enrichment. Performance is just an expression of that knowledge in a public forum.
My Music Staff is a studio management website we use to enroll, schedule and invoice our students. Students can log-in to send email messages, check the calendar, reschedule lessons and sign up for recital times. This site is also very mobile friendly, and many teachers and students access it through their cell phones.
To sign up, just go to the top of our home page and click the “register” button to enter your information. After you register, My Music Staff will send us an email that you have registered. We will then contact you to set up either group or private lessons.
We take payment in the form of cash, checks, credit cards and ACH bank transfers. Credit card payment has an additional $2.50 courtesy fee to help off-set the cost of credit card processing.
ACH bank transfers do not have any additional charge.
You can also set up auto-pay for credit cards and ACH bank transfers Auto-pay is only initiated when we email the monthly invoice. If you don’t take lessons during the summer months, there is no invoice or auto-pay for those months.
If you must miss a lesson, please let us know as soon as possible. For missed group lessons, we will try to find a different class at the same level to make up this lesson. For private lessons, we reschedule up to 2 lessons a semester. Please contact your teacher for a make-up time.
For additional information, please see our Policies page.
When students start out, we ask that they practice 10-15 minutes, at least 5 days a week. As students advance, we will ask them to increase that daily amount so they can address the complexity and challenges the music will provide.
Middle school and high school students are usually asked to practice about 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
With that being said, we always encourage students to practice more if they can. When I was enrolled in the university, we were asked to practice between 4 and 5 hours per day. So the sky is the limit, but the most important thing is students practice on a regular basis.
You could describe our method as Traditional Piano. We emphasize note reading and rhythm counting right from the very start. We use many traditional method book series as well as supplementary books to give our students exposure to a wide range of musical styles. These styles include classical, pop, jazz, rock and roll, to name a few.
