From a teaching standpoint, I prefer 60-minute in-person lessons.

While most of my experience as a teacher has been in-person, I have taught enough online lessons (and taken enough online classes myself) to know that I much much much prefer lessons to be in-person. There are some great reasons to have online lessons, such as if someone lives too far away, or if the student or instructor has the sniffles for a lesson or two. I also understand that many students feel they learn better online vs in an in-person classroom. However, when it comes to learning a musical instrument, I know from experience that the benefits of in-person longterm learning far outweigh the benefits of online learning. I highly suggest choosing in-person lessons whenever possible!

I also prefer 60-minute lessons, so much so that I include a built-in discount for that option! I cover a lot in lessons. When you tally up everything we do—including instrument assembly, warmups, review of prior info, learning new techniques, answering questions, etc—30 minutes begins to feel very tight. 60-minute lessons allow me to go more in-depth in the moment when I'm explaining things; they give the student more time to try new techniques with their instructor present to correct them; they also allow us to be a little more flexible when surprise questions or difficulties arise, or when the student wants to practice something that's more of a "want" and less of a "need." Overall, 60-minute lessons give us a little more breathing room instead of feeling like we need to be go go go! the entire time.

For some students, 60 minutes might feel like a long time to focus (and I can definitely relate), but I make sure to check in with students who might need quick breaks during that time. Additionally, I can easily squeeze enough variety into 60-minute lessons that most students are actually surprised to hear that a full hour has passed!

My recommendation will always be to give 60-minute in-person lessons a try. If they don't work out, we can always switch it up!

For most beginner students, I recommend between 60 to 80 minutes of practice time per week (not including lessons/rehearsals). For intermediate students, that number might increase or decrease depending on what our goals are and the ability level of the student. Regardless of your ability level or your goals, you must maintain a consistent practice routine in between lessons in order for lessons to be productive (and worth the payment!).

That being said, the part of practicing that is more important than the number of minutes is the consistency. Consistency is key! A consistent 10 minutes per day for four days over each week will yield better results than just one day of 80 minutes each week, even though it totals up to half the amount of minutes. The reason the 10 minutes per day, four days a week option is better is because it is more consistent! (Of course, a consistent 20 minutes per day, four days a week would be even better!)

During our first lesson, I will work with you to help you figure out a consistent practice routine that works with your schedule!

Usually, the answer to this question will be yes.

My goals for teaching lessons are 1.) that my students will grow as musicians, and 2.) that they will have fun while doing so. There are specific things that all musicians must eventually learn in order to grow, however there are many ways for me to teach these things, and many paths we can take to get there. Whether you have fun while learning (and whether you continue to see the value in private lessons) will be more dependent on whether you feel like you are achieving your own personal goals!

As such, I tailor lessons to each individual student. When we first start lessons, I will ask you if you have specific goals in mind or if there is something you are most interested in learning/achieving in lessons, and you are welcome to add to or change your goals at any time. If you are playing in a school ensemble and you want to get better at that music, I'll help you with it! If you are hoping to make it into an auditioned ensemble, let's work on the audition materials! If you are having a rough week and all you want to do is work on an arrangement of your favorite pop singer's newest hit, we can take a break and do that! And if your goal is "I just want to get better at my instrument," then that's definitely doable too!

You know what your goals are, and I know how to help you achieve them 😎

When it comes to playing instruments, there are some skills that are universal to all instruments (i.e., identifying notes on a staff), and other skills that are instrument-specific (i.e., actually playing the notes on your instrument). For some instruments, such as the trumpet and trombone, there may come a point where the student's instrument-specific abilities begin to surpass my own.

If I feel that we are approaching that point, I will communicate that to you and will even do my best to help you find a more suitable instructor if you wish to discontinue lessons with me. In the meantime (and for as long as you desire), we can continue lessons, as I will still be able to help with universal musical skills.

I consider it to be a good thing when this happens! It means the student has grown as a musician, which is my goal as an instructor. It is bittersweet to discontinue lessons, but I will always look forward to hearing about the future pursuits of my students!

Sort of! There are several instruments I am qualified and comfortable teaching at the beginner level that are not listed in my policies. These instruments include the French Horn, Baritone/Euphonium, Tuba, and Percussion (pitched & non-pitched, no drum set).

The reason I do not include these instruments in my policies is because these instruments are ones I do not currently own. In order to feel like I can teach an instrument adequately, I need to be able to model instrument-specific techniques and play along with my students as needed, which is a little tricky to do without the correct instrument! I value my students' time and money as much as my own, so I only list the instruments that I currently own—and therefore can adequately teach—in my lesson policies.

If you are interested in taking lessons specifically with me on one of these instruments, feel free to reach out via the form above. I will evaluate the situation, and if I believe I might still be able to adequately teach, we can set up some trial lessons! If I don't believe I will do an adequate job, I will do my best to help you find a different instructor who can! :)

Emergencies happen! Surprise costs happen! I totally get it. If a financial hardship occurs during the course of our lessons and you cannot afford the full payment for that month, it will be okay! I am more than happy to make short-term accommodations for my students.

The number one thing I need in order to be able to do that is communication. If you run into financial hardship, I just ask that you communicate that you'll need an accommodation as soon as you can!

If payment is more than 30 days late and I have NOT received communication about financial accommodations, then lessons will be discontinued until the outstanding balance is paid. You can read more about that in the Payment section of my Lesson Policies Handbook!

Students may discontinue lessons at any time for any reason. If you wish to discontinue lessons, all I will need is a written notice that you'd like to terminate lessons (including date of termination). Please just keep in mind that your time slot will no longer be reserved once lessons are terminated, so if you would ever want to restart lessons, your original time slot will not be guaranteed.

Additionally, I also reserve the right to discontinue lessons. You can read about reasons why I could need to terminate lessons in the Instructor Termination section of my Lesson Policies Handbook. That being said, I do make it a goal to communicate any problems I'm seeing up front so that any discontinuation of lessons from my end does not feel like a surprise!

If lessons are terminated for any reason, all fees that have already been paid are non-refundable and any unpaid fees are due immediately.

First, check out my LINK page if you haven't already. If the answer to your question isn't listed there, check out my Lesson Policies Handbook, which goes more in depth about my policies and rates.

If the info you're looking for isn't in either of those spots and it's not listed here in the FAQ, use the form at the top of this page to send me your question! I'll get back to you as soon as I can :)