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, Keyboard 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 and state-wide auditions and competitions.


Tuition

Summer 2010 Piano and Music Program   ~   June 14 - July 31, 2010   ~   7 teaching weeks

Offered are three different lesson format options:

  1. Weekly 45-minute group event plus 45-minute private piano lesson (= two meetings a week). Group events and private piano lessons can be scheduled back to back for students with the appropriate attention span. Out-of-town students will have first priority when it comes to scheduling piano lessons around their group events. I hope to offer the same group event twice each week to allow for more flexibility.

  2. Weekly 45-minute group event plus 30-minute private piano lesson (= two meetings a week).

    3. Since everyone’s vacation plans are different, you can sign up for anywhere from 4 weeks to 7 weeks of summer lessons. Here is the tuition chart:

    Summer 2010 Tuition 4 wks 5 wks 6 wks 7 wks
    group + 45-min private $140 $160 $180 $195
    group + 30-min private $105 $120 $135 $145

  3. À la carte, individual 60-minute private piano lessons are available @ $40/lesson.


Fall & Spring Semester Lesson format:

Young students, beginners, and most transfer students* receive two 30-minutes 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 $40 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.


Fall Semester Tuition

Fall Semester 2010 starts August 18 and is 17 weeks long. No regular lessons Tue and Wed during Thanksgiving week, make-up lessons only. No regular lessons December 20-22, make-up lessons only.

Tuition:

34 twice-weekly 30-min piano lessons for beginning, young, and transfer students:

17 weekly 45-min piano lessons for advancing and older students:


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...