♪ Spring studio recital! ♫
Thursday, May 24th at 6:30 pm in All Faiths Chapel on the K-State Campus.
♫ All are welcome to attend. ♪

A Word About Tuition

What you pay is tuition. It is not an hourly fee for services rendered (like baby-sitting) because teaching is much more than the time one spends with a student.

Here's a brief overview of what your tuition pays for:

The obvious: "contact hours" - that is, the piano lesson, private or group; preparation and evaluation of lesson plans, materials, etcetera. Bookkeeping and organizing: lesson scheduling, recital planning and scheduling, organizing and preparing students for performances and seasonal activities.

The no-so-obvious: review of new materials, software programs, audio CDs, videos, et cetera, which the students might use. In teaching, one size does not fit all; I am always looking for "the perfect piece" or whether a newly published book might be of value to a particular student. Long-term planning for my students: Where do we want to be in six months? In one year? How will we get there? What are the possible road blocks that need to be addressed? And so on.

Additionally, review and evaluation of my materials, such as books on teaching, professional journals (notably American Music Teacher, Clavier Companion, etcetera). I believe that my special interest in and search for materials with relevance to Special Education, Early Childhood Music and Movement, brain research and music therapy, benefits all my students.

I maintain memberships in

These memberships allow my students to participate in local, state-wide, and national auditions and competitions.


Tuition

Spring Semester Calendar and Tuition:

The 2012 Spring Semester starts January 7 and ends May 24, 2012.

Semester Tuition:

Semester Tuition: $510, payable in one (due January 1), or two (due January 1 and March 1), or five monthly (due on the first of each month) installments.


Summer Semester Calendar and Tuition:

Piano Summer 2012 starts June 4 and ends July 26, 2012.

The Summer schedule is flexible. You can have as many lessons per week as your schedule allows. Lessons can be scheduled 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Monday - Thursday, between June 4 and July 26.

Summer Tuition:

All private piano lessons are 45 minutes. Group lessons are offered at no additional charge.

Partner lessons are available: two students share twice-weekly 45-min lessons; tuition as above.

Individual lessons are available at $50/hour.

Pre-School Music Program

Group lessons for 4 and 5 year olds. Two options: Pre-piano for those students entering kindergarten this fall, and pre-school music for those 4 and pre-K 5 year olds not entering kindergarten this year.

The curriculum is unique, based on several Early Childhood Music and Movement programs and ideas: Musikgarten, Shinichi Suzuki, Maria Montessori, John Feierabend, Rudolf Steiner, to name just a few.

The goal is to expose young children to music and movement in a group setting, with parents or care-givers actively involved in music making and responding to music.

We will learn finger plays, rhymes, songs, circle dances and more. We will learn to sing in tune, to respond appropriately to different types of music, to move in time with music. Much emphasis is placed on listening: both to music and to instructions. Being able to follow instructions will benefit a child not only in the upcoming school years but also when they start to learn an instrument.

There will be written materials available for parents, either after class or via email, with songs, rhymes, finger plays, etc. covered in class, as well as further explanations of topics, etc.

These group lessons are available Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursday from June 4th through July 27th. Tuition is $50 for the entire summer. Please download the Summer Pre-School Music Program brochure for complete details or to sign up.


Lesson format:

Young students, beginners, and most transfer students* receive two 45-minute partner lessons per week, preferably Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday. As with martial arts, gymnastics and other extra-curricular activities, this more frequent student-teacher contact and interaction reinforces the fundamental skills and practice techniques necessary for a successful, and enjoyable, piano experience. Twice weekly lessons also reduce the potential for incorrect practicing in between lessons, thus allowing us to focus more time on learning and less time on correcting inadvertent mistakes or having to re-learn last week’s concept. I am always more than willing to re-teach something if the student doesn’t understand the concept, but it is a waste of time to have to re-teach simply because too much time has elapsed since the last time we explored the new concept.

The goal is not to progress faster - though it is a welcome side effect - but to provide more frequent feedback, the way it happens in school: no one would think of sending a child to school once a week for 30 minutes, cram a lot of new information in, and then leave the child alone for an entire week. It is usually not until 6th grade that school children ever have to deal with a project the deadline of which is more than a few days away.

*Until they are in 4th grade, I consider my students "young". A "beginner" is someone who has not yet finished the equivalent of Level 2B (the orange book) of the Piano Adventure series by Faber&Faber. "Finish the book" means having mastered all of the concepts and being able to play most of the pieces in the book along with the CD. Because of the different approach each teacher has, most transfer students benefit from the more frequent student-teacher interaction as well.

Once students are reliably independent in their practicing and play longer pieces which necessitate longer lessons, we switch to once-a-week 45-minute lessons.

I do not offer once-a-week 30-minute lessons.

Individual lessons are available upon request and will be billed at $50 per hour.

Time and scheduling permitting, there will be group and performance classes offered at no additional cost. I will try to schedule group events at everyone's convenience.


For All Students

Included in the tuition are private piano instruction and group events, as well as recital fees. Not included are materials, books, and audition fees.

There are opportunities to make up missed lessons. No refund will be given for missed lessons.

In case of catastrophic illness or a family tragedy, the Semester tuition will be prorated and refunded. A broken arm, wrist, or hand, though traumatic, is a splendid opportunity to focus on the other arm and still make beautiful progress. The criterion is: if the broken arm, wrist, or hand allows you to attend school or work, then you are well enough to attend piano lessons. Once in twenty years, I had a student who managed to break both arms. She did take a break from piano lessons, as well as many other things for a while...