Frequently Asked Questions





Do I need a piano at home to take piano lessons?

It is ideal if you do have a piano at home, but you can start lessons with our piano teachers by using an electric keyboard to practice on at home. Most of our students rent or buy small electric keyboards to practice on at home. We recommend a keyboard that has a minimum of 61 regular sized keys, a sustain pedal, and a touch sensitive response. A touch sensitive keyboard means if you press a key harder it will play louder and if you press a key softer it will play quieter.

There is no set answer of how long it takes to learn an instrument. This varies from student to student and really depends on the individual, how much practicing you do and your age. Playing is a physical skill so it does take repetition to improve. With regular practice a basic level of playing can be accomplished within a few months. Most of our students take lessons on a long term basis because they want to be constantly improving and they find the lessons enjoyable.

Yes. Even if you don't have a musical background you can ask the teacher for advice on how to help your child practice. By simply monitoring that they are doing exercises a certain number of times per day the student will progress. Many parents occasionally sit in on their child's music lesson to get an idea of the proper way a song should sound or how the student should be positioning their hands. You are your child’s best coach!

Our teachers are highly educated, experienced and licensed professional instructors. Each instructor has already been properly screened and has been very carefully chosen for their skills and abilities. Our job is to give you best music education possible, in order to do this our instructors are required to focus solely on teaching. For that reason, it is not in the instructor’s job description, nor in our policies, to be interviewed by prospective students or parents.

This is one of the advantages of taking your lessons at our school – we have other teachers for most instruments so if a problem occurs – which is extremely rare – we can switch you over to one of the other teachers. If you think you may get more out of lessons from a teacher with a different teaching style, we have the flexibility to change you to another instructor.

In one month you really don’t have enough time to give your lessons a fair chance. It takes time to translate what you are learning into a physical skill. Much like going to the gym, it takes time to see results. However, the Academy does not require semester minimums for lessons. Every student here is on a month to month basis. To discontinue lessons, all you need to do is fill out a withdrawal form before the 15th of your last month.

It is very important that the teacher checks your progress and corrects your form every week, because of this, we only offer weekly lessons. In addition, it is impossible for us to find a student to fill the hole that is created on the weeks you are not here.

We recommend a minimum of 15 minutes per day, six day’s per week. Although this is the absolute minimum recommendation, students will progress faster and remember more if they are able to practice more often. Short practice sessions done several times per day, every day, works out much better than longer practice sessions a few times per week. For young children, the practicing goes much better if the parent supervises.