Policies

Scheduling Lessons

All scheduling matters should be discussed with your teacher, not the administration or the directors of the school. Please contact your teacher directly by phone or email. Your teacher’s contact information can be found by logging into your student portal and clicking “contact info”.

Make-Ups

Your teacher will make-up for any lesson missed due to his /her needs throughout your entire semester. On the other hand, in order to qualify for a make-up lesson because you need to miss a class, your teacher needs more than 24 hours advance notice. Please go to the My Music Staff Student Portal and make the changes as soon as you know them. If you call the school the teacher may not get the information on time.

The best way to schedule a make-up lesson is to go to your portal in My Music Staff (MMS) and find an available time in the teacher’s schedule (a time that is open but doesn’t have a student’s name on it). The teacher’s available time is divided into 15-minute slots. Select 2, 3, or 4 slots to cover the entire length of your lesson. If the teacher doesn’t have an open space or the space you find doesn’t fit your schedule, you can call or email your teacher directly. Your teacher will not be responsible for more than 1 make up for lessons you miss in one semester. Teaching instrumental lessons is a performing art; as such, it has a specific time and place to be performed. Your time slot is yours and the teacher is ready to perform during that time, so he/she deserves to be paid for it.

There are no make-ups for group classes or chamber music classes you miss. Please understand that the class will take place even without your presence.

After Lessons & Classes

Parents, please pick up your child on time! We cannot be responsible for them when their lesson is over, since we usually have another lesson scheduled right away. Please instruct your child to wait inside the school, not on the sidewalk. (We cannot be responsible for children once outside the building and some neighbors don’t like having children wandering the block.)

If you’re not accompanying your child to their lesson, please come in during the last 5 minutes of the lesson to get important information or make sure to ask your child about their lesson and any information that may have been sent home.

Payment and Cancellation Policy

At the beginning of each month, you will receive an invoice through email for the lessons scheduled within that month. The invoice can be paid by clicking on the “click here to pay online” button. Bills can be set up so that they are auto-paid each month by clicking on accounts, adding a payment method, and checking the automatically pay emailed invoice box.

Should you decide to cancel a lesson more than 24 hours in advance, you will receive a make-up credit that will reduce the amount due on the next invoice. If you decide to add more lessons after the beginning of the month, the amount due will also be added to your next invoice.

If you do not receive an invoice, or if the invoice payment options do not work for you, please contact our office manager Ernesto Gasse for assistance. He can be reached at ernesto@gasseschoolofmusic.org.

Payment of invoices in full is due 31 days after the invoice has been sent. Invoices that are more than seven days past due will be subject to a 10% late fee. If you’d like or need to pay in cash or check, please put the payment inside an envelope with a note stating who the payment is for and put it in the safe box installed in the waiting room. Please don’t give the payment to your teacher.

If you need to terminate your commitment for lessons with us, we require a 4-lesson notice. The reason we organize the school year in semesters is to support the commitment of the student and to ensure continuity for the teacher. The teacher has committed his/her time to you for the entire semester and needs adequate time to find a new student. For that reason, we request payment for 4 lessons after your notice of termination.

Late Payments

The teacher will not be required to teach any lessons if you have overdue invoices. Late invoices will have a 10% fee attached to them.

Referrals

We appreciate your support. Referrals are our main source of new students. We will be glad to give you a $25.00 credit for the next month for every student who registers with the school from your referral.

Recitals

The school expects all students to play in one recital each semester (not including summer).

Graduation recitals are required for Suzuki students. We consider them to be extremely instructional. An audio or video recording of all the pieces of the graduating book should be given to your teacher one month prior to the recital date. Students and guests are expected to stay for the entire recital. It is disruptive to leave during a performance. We understand that there are exceptions. Please discuss any exceptions with your teacher prior to the recital.

Suzuki Group Class – Chamber Music

The School strongly recommends that all string students be enrolled in at least one Suzuki group or chamber music class. Please note that group and chamber classes will not offer makeup lessons. Group class and chamber music class will meet even without your presence.

Outreach Performances

GSM invites high-performing students to participate in many outreach events throughout the year. These are great learning opportunities not to mention a great way to show off your playing abilities too. We strongly recommend participating if you are invited.

Pictures and Video Permission

By registering at GSM, you give permission to use, free of compensation, your likeness in a photograph or video of the registered students, their parents and/or legal guardians, in any and all of GSM’s printed and digital publications for purposes of publicizing GSM’s programs or for any other related, lawful purpose.

School Recommendations

Before Lessons & Classes

  • Please come early, and unpack your instrument, music, and practice chart or notebook.

During Lessons & Classes

  • Everyone is welcome to observe a lesson, even young children if they can entertain themselves.
  • Parents of young Suzuki students, 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 lobby 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, such as 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.