Before Lessons & Classes

• Please come early, unpack your instrument, music, and practice chart.
• Read all the news posted on the notice board. Do not assume all of it is old news.
• Come in at your scheduled time, or even before, even if your teacher did not finish yet with the previous lesson.
• Just come in quietly and respectfully. Do not disturb. Always bring your practice chart filled out.

During Lessons & Classes

• Everyone is welcome to observe a lesson, even young children if they can entertain themselves.
• Parents, please take detailed and understandable notes. Always use the same notebook.  Audio and video recordings are extremely useful since they eliminate discrepancies about what your teacher said or how a passage should sound.
• Parents and siblings are welcome to wait in the office area during their child’s lesson.  Please remember to keep noise to a minimum, as it can be distracting to the teacher and student.

Practice every day

If there are some problems (practices, lack of motivation, scheduling, communication with your teacher, etc.), please keep us informed. Your teacher cannot help if he/she is not aware of the situation. Please do not let a misunderstanding go on for a long time.

Ideas for good summer practice

Summer is a vacation time for many of us. It’s also traditionally a time of low (or no) practice. Because of this, students can experience frustration (including myself when I was a student) when returning back to school and not being able to play even close to the level they were playing when they took their last lesson. Many times it takes 2 or even 3 months to get back to their previous level (mainly for the students that took the entire summer off).

So don’t stop practicing! (Maybe you can just slow it down).

Remember that 15, even 10-minutes a day is much better than an hour twice a week. Play the things you like, know well, and have fun playing; don’t push to learn anything difficult. Find friends to play easy fun music together.  Listen a lot, especially if you are traveling and don’t have the instrument with you. And enjoy your vacation without compromising the skill you’ve acquired!