The studio is open year-round with the following exceptions: USD383 Spring Break, Memorial week, Thanksgiving Thu-Sat, Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day.
Lessons are optional on snow days, MLK Jr. Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving week Mon-Wed, and religious holidays a student observes.
Any week you are in town and well enough to attend school or work I look forward to seeing you for a lesson.
There are opportunities to reschedule lessons if I know in advance that the lesson will be missed. No refund for missed lessons.
Included in the tuition are private piano lessons. Group lessons count as “half lessons”. Not included are books, and audition fees.
The tuition for FaceTime lessons is the same as for in-person lessons.
TUITION
With the exception of individual coaching sessions, tuition 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 piano lesson, private or group;
planning and preparing the lesson;
organizing and preparing students for performances and seasonal activities;
communication outside of the piano lesson (mostly by email / text);
review and evaluation of my materials, books on teaching, professional journals, etc.;
review and purchase of new materials, paper or online, which my 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 possible road blocks that need to be addressed?
membership fees;
attending conferences, conventions, continuing education events, etc.
I maintain memberships in
the Kansas Music Teachers Association
the Manhattan Area Music Teachers Association
the Music Teachers National Association
These memberships allow my students to participate in local and state-wide events.
Tuition is evaluated and adjusted annually before the start of the fall semester.
LESSON FORMAT
Starting lessons in this studio, most students will attend two lessons, usually 30 min each, every week. This more frequent student-teacher 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.
Students who are reliably independent in their practicing take 45-minute lessons or 60-min lessons, once or twice a week, depending on our goals.
Students who are getting ready for competitions or auditions will be attending extra lessons.
10-LESSON PLAN
Instead of paying tuition by the month or semester or school year, in this studio you pay for ten weekly or twice-weekly lessons at a time. This allows us to start lessons any time during the year, without having to re-calculate and then prorate the tuition. It also makes allowance for absence due to travel throughout the year.
Tuition is as follows:
$270 for ten weekly or twice-weekly 30-min lessons,
$405 for ten weekly 45-min lessons, and
$540 for ten 60-min lessons (or twenty twice-weekly 30-min lessons).
Tuition is due at the first lesson of a new session. Tuition can be paid in two installments with the first installment due at the first lesson.
The yearly administrative fee is $30. It covers bookkeeping, materials such as worksheets, photocopies, printouts of online materials, upkeep of the studio, etc.
New students start with a trial period of five 30-min lessons the tuition for which is $135.
The fee for individual 60-min coaching sessions is $65.
The tuition for FaceTime lessons is the same as in-person lessons.
I accept personal checks, cashier’s checks, payments via Zelle and ApplePay, and money orders issued by a bank.
Unfortunately, I cannot accept cash, nor Venmo, nor Paypal. I also cannot accept money orders that say “mobile deposit prohibited”.