General Info & Policies

RATE:  $82 per hour

Effective September 1st, 2024.  There is a flat $12 surcharge per visit for lessons in your home, waived for visits of 90 minutes or more.

 

Regarding Airborne Illnesses:  I’m comfortable teaching in-person with or without masks (your choice), and I also continue to offer remote lessons.  For in-person lessons at my studio, I continue to run a medical grade HEPA filter and do Lysol keyboard wipe-downs between lessons.  Remote lessons have continued to be an effective alternative for students in households still needing to be extra cautious.  They are also a convenient option for other instances when lessons would otherwise be canceled, e.g. due to other illnesses or basic logistics.

 

Scheduling and Payment:  Most students will have a regular, ongoing time slot at a set location—either in your home, in my studio, or remotely.  Lessons are booked and paid for monthly, in advance.  Payment for lessons for the upcoming month is due on your last lesson of the preceding month.  On the last lesson day of any given month we both check our calendars, plan out the particulars of the next month’s lessons, and settle up.  I may text you in advance of the lesson on a payment day in order to work out the next month’s schedule and save lesson time.  For payment, I accept checks or Zelle (QuickPay).  I do not accept Venmo.  For those paying remotely, the best thing for me is if you send payment right after we schedule and I tell you that month’s amount.  It saves me having to follow up when you forget J.

 

Cancellations:  I go by the standard protocol of most professionals, i.e. the 24-hour-notice rule.  If a paid lesson has to be canceled by you, a credit towards the next month’s lessons or a make-up lesson will be given as long as I am notified 24 hours in advance.  Cancellations made with shorter notice due to health emergencies or other extreme situations (e.g. you house catches on fire) are an exception to this.  Short-notice cancellations made by you for other common reasons, e.g. suddenly realizing that you have a conflict, or getting stuck in traffic on your way home to meet me, are not covered.  Basically, if I don’t have enough notice with which to reschedule my use of that time, then I lose income I was counting on.  I almost always have a make-up lesson or a rehearsal that I could put into a canceled timeslot if I have enough notice.  On my part, there will likely be canceled and/or rescheduled lessons here and there throughout the year.  A significant part of my living involves running the Evanston Children’s Choir, and at times there will be performances or rehearsals that conflict with lessons.  Of course, all paid lessons canceled by me for any reason will be covered by a credit, make-up or refund.

 

Lesson Start/End Times:  Lessons in my studio must end on time to accommodate the next arrival (there is a 5-minute gap in between lessons), so if you’re late please keep in mind that the time missed cannot be made up.  For lessons in your home, I need some flexibility as to my exact arrival time in order to make driving from house to house feasible.  I usually arrive within a 5-minute window of our start time, but keep in mind that unexpected traffic or weather events may occasionally delay my arrival.  Incidentally, you are always welcome to observe lessons, whether in my home or yours. 

 

“Floater Students”:  The vast majority of my students have regular weekly lesson times.  However, some students’ schedules aren’t amenable to weekly lessons, or sometimes a student really wants to start even though I have no regular time slots available on my end.  Becoming a “floater” is an option.  In their case, I wait until the tail end of the month to see where my schedule gaps are (there are always cancelations), and then I provide a list of various lesson time options to choose from.  My goal is to make sure floater students receive at least 2 lessons a month.

 

Regular Weekly Lesson Times, School Year vs. Summer:  I teach piano year-round.  During the school year everyone has a regular lesson time, which I try to keep as consistent as possible for everybody’s sake.  Occasionally somebody has a schedule change, which can have a domino effect on other people’s times.  I try to keep any shuffling minimal.  In the summer however, particularly the months of July and August, my set school year schedule tends to break down.  School is out and camps are in, which significantly changes routines.  On top of that, many families go on extended vacations, which leave gaps in my days, and which I try to condense.  In short, summer lesson times can be quite sporadic, especially in July and August.  When we do our monthly booking, we may even end up having different days/times week by week.  I of course try to limit this randomness, but it’s tricky.  In the summer let’s be sure to communicate well and write everything down.  Around mid/late August, I contact every family for all timeslot possibilities (and preferences) for the upcoming school year and I make a new schedule from scratch, coordinating all factors involved.

 

Retainer Fee:  Sometimes students take a break from piano or go on extended vacations, typically during the summer.  For students who are planning to miss 3 weeks or more in a row at any point during the year and want me to hold their spot, I usually charge a retainer fee.  For students taking a break during the summer months, I guarantee that they will be accommodated with a to-be-determined timeslot in the fall that works for them (figured out in late summer, as usual).  The retainer fee amounts to 33% of the value of the lessons missed.  For example, if a student regularly takes half hour lessons at their house and will miss 3 weeks in a row, the fee would be $53 x 3 x 33% = $53.  If a family regularly takes hour lessons at its house and will miss 5 weeks in a row, the fee would be $94 x 5 x 33% = $155.  With this system, I am still bearing the brunt of the financial hit from lesson gaps (66% of it), but I still get some compensation for holding spots for students who are on vacation or hiatus for some reason.

 

Recitals/Master Classes:  I used to have recitals for students twice a year, which were stopped by the pandemic.  I never did start having them again—partly because I haven’t recently had a good consistent venue for them, and partly because only about 1/3 of my students typically end up participating.  However, I recognize that there are a number of students and families that highly value recitals and the opportunity they present.  I am currently thinking through various scenarios for once again creating performance opportunities for my students, from larger recitals to smaller “master classes” with just a handful of students at a time.  Securing my new studio space is part of what plays into this, opening up some options.  For those interested in recitals, I ask for your patience and understanding as I get re-settled and sort through different scenarios.  In the meantime, for students who would like to perform even more, I encourage taking advantage of opportunities like school talent shows, playing in church services, etc.  Find—or create—an opportunity anywhere and any way you can.

 

Waiting List:  I keep an ongoing waiting list for potential new students, since I almost always have a full roster of students at any given time.  Please freely give out my name, phone number and e-mail, and I will take it from there.  It’s generally hard to predict how long it will be before a new student can join my studio.  Having room to add new students is simply a matter of others stopping for some reason—be it going off to college, deciding they’d rather play the flugelhorn, or whatever.  Thank you in advance for referring new families to me, and I sincerely appreciate those of you who have done so in the past.  Word-of-mouth is the best way to stay in business, and the best form of approval.  You all keep me going, and I appreciate you greatly!

 

Notes on Remote Lessons:  

• Set up a camera angle such that I can see the full keyboard and the student’s hands on the keys.

• After each lesson, I will email you a copy of the student’s lesson sheet for the week.  It’s important to print this sheet and have it accessible to the student right after the lesson, so they know what and how to practice during that week until the next lesson.  I may also email supplemental materials, like a new piece you may not have at home.

• Students should number the measures of all their pieces, if not already in the edition.

• A high-quality mic is the most important piece of equipment you can have. The standard mics built into computers and mobile devices are great for speaking, but not good for music because they try to "noise cancel" the music.  When students suddenly play with full sound, the mics cut back.  An ideal external mic is one with a setting designed for live music streaming, i.e. it will capture and stream the sound of everything in the room as is, without distortion.  You have to read the descriptions to be sure you're getting this.  I have a Shure MV5 mic, which seems to work fine.  It's also important to note that once you hook up your mic, you should check the preferences in whatever app you're using to be sure your mic is engaged.  You may have to "select" the mic in the menu.  And even with a good mic, you want to turn “noise cancelling” OFF in your settings, or limit it as much as you can.

• For speakers, pretty much any type of basic external speaker would be better than what devices have built in.  Hardwired speakers seem to work better than Bluetooth ones for live music (I have Bose speakers hard wired to my laptop), but anything is better than what comes built into your device.

 

EVERY STUDENT SHOULD HAVE:

• a notebook for weekly lesson plans

• a folder or binder for loose leaf copies

• pencils on their piano, for taking notes during practice or remote lessons

• a working metronome (apps work fine, but an easily accessible physical metronome kept on the piano is best)

• a pocket-sized music dictionary (again, apps, Google and Wikipedia are great, but keeping a mini dictionary of musical terms on the piano is much more convenient)