Practice Requirments:

Students are expected to maintain a regular schedule of home practice. To derive all of the benefits of piano study, I would estimate that practicing 20-30 minutes a day, five days a week is a bare minimum for school-aged children just starting lessons.

As students advance and mature and their goals change, more practice time will be needed. Younger children generally have a shorter attention span, and will benefit more from shorter practices throughout the day/evening rather than one longer practice session. 

Lesson Procedure:

I strongly encourage parents to stay at the studio during lessons with students under the age of
10 so that they will learn how to assist their children during home practice. Parents can leave
older students at the studio during their lesson – and in many cases older students prefer this –
but parents should still come upstairs to drop off and pick up their child. I can't let students leave
the studio unattended for safety reasons.

Siblings and/or friends are welcome to sit in on lessons if they are quiet and under the direct supervision of the student's parent, but should under no circumstances be dropped off at the studio while the parent goes elsewhere. The parent MUST stay at the studio during the lesson if guests are
present. Siblings may NOT roam the building/outside the building without parental supervision.

Tuition: See Tuition Information for details

Attendance and Missed Lessons:

If you are unable to make it to a scheduled lesson, please inform me by phone as soon as
possible. My phone number is 330-241-0479. Please leave a voice mail if I don’t answer the
phone. I turn my phone on “silent” while I am teaching.

I don't give credits or refunds for lessons missed due to illness, but I will allow you to schedule a
make-up lesson if it is at all possible assuming that I have an open time available during that
same month. If you or I can't come up with an
acceptable make-up time before the end of the month, the missed lesson is automatically
forfeited – it will NOT carry over into the next month.

**There will be absolutely no refunds, tuition discounts/credits, or make-up lessons given
for lessons missed for reasons other than illness. To be fair to everyone, I must strictly
enforce this policy across the board without exception! **

Because specific times are set aside for specific students during the school year, a student who cancels a lesson will simply miss the benefit of that lesson. I will then use that time to locate materials, do bookkeeping, etc. There simply aren't enough hours days to accommodate numerous requests to reschedule lessons due to conflicts with sports practices, etc. If you anticipate a long term
conflict with other activities, please talk with me about permanently switching your lesson time.
I will be very happy to do that if there is a more convenient time slot available.

Withdrawing from Lessons:

I greatly appreciate the courtesy of 2 weeks advance notice if you plan to withdraw a child from
lessons. This gives me time to contact other potential students who might want to take their spot.

Termination:

The following will result in the termination of lessons:

• Paying for lessons with checks that bounce due to insufficient funds (All of my bank fees must be paid in full before I will consider resuming lessons)
• Consistently failing to pay tuition in a timely manner/failure to pay for skipped lessons
• Repeated incidents of skipping scheduled lessons without advance notice of cancellation
• Consistent lack of progress due to insufficient home practice
• Uncooperative attitude/failure to follow rules of conduct after numerous warnings

Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to teach you or your child! Though all students progress at
different rates, I strongly believe that if students make a genuine effort in their piano study, that
they will find the experience of studying music to be very rewarding, and will greatly enjoy the
lifelong gift of learning to play a musical instrument. I look forward to your  success!

"If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it."

 ~Andre Previn