Lesson Expectations

Student Responsibilities

Please arrive on time with your music, instrument, and other accessories (reeds, mouthpiece & ligature, swab, pencil, etc.). You should come to your lessons feeling prepared to play any of the music we are currently working on. Preparing & practicing during the week is to your benefit: your lessons will be more productive the more prepared you are. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask them - they help me help you as best I can! Take notes during your lessons, and stay attentive.

Family Involvement

Parents & families should feel welcome to ask questions about your child's music lessons & progress. I am available to discuss any concerns or questions that may come up.

As much as possible, please be a supportive voice by encouraging your child's musical activities. If they are in middle school, you can begin to allow them to monitor their own practice time. High school students should be developing the ability to self-motivate & self-monitor, so when possible, give them the space to plan their practice into their week independently.

Payment for Lessons

You may choose to pay monthly or weekly for your lessons. Checks, Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle are all acceptable payment methods. If you are paying electronically, you will receive a request for payment by the end of the day on due dates. Weekly payments are due before each lesson, and monthly payments are due on the 1st of each month. You will incur a late fee of $5 for payments more than 3 business days late.

Cancellation Policy

If you know you will not be available during your lesson time, you may cancel your lesson for any reason with no charge incurred as long as you provide at least 24 hours (1 full day) of notice. You may also cancel your lesson within 24 hours in the case of an excused absence (illness, family emergency, anything that would excuse you from school), but do still do your best to notify me as soon as you know you won't be coming.

If you miss a lesson without providing ample notice as described in the previous paragraph, you will still be charged for that time. You may schedule a make-up lesson if there is time available, but because of my performance schedule, this may not always be possible. I'm happy to exercise some lenience for first-time issues, but in general I will need to be firm with this policy to discourage recurring problems.

Business Hours

I am available via call or text at (347) 674-1792 from 10am-5pm, Monday through Saturday. If I do not answer, I will return your message as soon as possible. Please note that because of my performance schedule, my phone is occasionally off during these hours. My email address is [email protected]. On business days, I will return your email within 24-48 hours.

Reeds

You are responsible for having at least one functional reed to play on at the beginning of every lesson. High school students should have at least 3 reeds at all times.

Oboe students are not required to purchase reeds from me, but I offer a reduced rate for my students. Reeds for my students are $20 each (normally $25), and reduced even further to $15 each when returning the staple (cork tube) from a previous reed.

Reed-Making

All oboe students in high school (or older) may begin reed making lessons. The ratio of reed lesson time to oboe lesson time will be dependent on your goals and needs - for example, learning to make reeds will be of much greater importance for students preparing to go to college for music.

You are responsible for bringing all your reed tools to your reed lessons. I will make time to discuss with interested students what exactly the necessary tools are, as well as multiple options for where they can be purchased. If you have a financial barrier to purchasing your own reed tools, you may borrow studio reed tools on a yearly basis.

Additional Equipment Requirements for Online Lessons

In order for us to learn effectively, students taking online lessons will need to have certain additional equipment. These will include:

A sufficiently fast & powerful internet connection, including using a wired connection rather than wifi if necessary. If this need is not met, our lessons would have a high potential of being a waste of your time & money, as we could conceivably spend more time waiting or otherwise struggling with the connection than actually learning.
A suitably decent microphone. If the microphone being used doesn't meet the baseline we need, the sound will likely be distorted or drop out entirely, leading to issues of being able to accurately assess the student's playing.
A camera/desk/lighting setup that makes it possible to see what the student is doing physically to assess anything they are doing that affects their work. This includes determining if they are playing with proper posture, hand position, note fingerings, breathing, and more, all of which is integral to enabling good, unstrained playing.

There may be other equipment or related concerns that come up during our lessons, and those will be addressed as needed. This is part of why I charge less for online lessons: though their are some perks, there is a great deal of additional setup required, and even with the ideal setup the teaching & learning experience still has some limitations that the in person experience does not.

Practice Guidelines for Students

Why should I practice?

Practicing, and maintaining a regular practice routine, reinforces everything that we work on in your lessons so we can make more progress each lesson.
When you are practicing, you are learning to teach yourself and make your own musical decisions.
Your practice time is your daily opportunity to focus on your personal goals as a musician and express yourself without others hearing. This time is for you and is a form of self care!

How much should I practice?

Different people have different needs & capacities for practice time, but a good rule of thumb is to practice every day for the length of your lesson. So, if you have a 1 hour lesson once a week, on all of the remaining days of the week you should aim to practice for 1 hour.

When should I practice?

Everyone is productive during different hours of the day. Experiment with practicing in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening, and find out for yourself what time you get your best work done.
If you find yourself getting tired or losing focus before you've practiced for as long as you'd like to, try splitting your practicing into two sessions per day. For example, practice 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening, or two 30 minute sessions with a 10 minute break in between, and you've still played for a full hour that day while doing the most effective practice you can.

What should I practice?

Each new day you pick up your instrument, start your routine by playing long tones with a drone.
Establish a daily scale routine. (We can & will discuss this in our lessons.)
You don't need to practice every piece you're working on every day. Each week, make a list of everything you need to prepare for your next lesson (and any other musical obligations you might have), then plan which pieces you will practice on which days.

How should I practice?

Find a comfortable, private, and quiet space where you can focus on your practice with as few distractions as possible
Practice in front of a mirror so you can be more aware of your posture, hand position, and embouchure
Use tools like metronomes, drones, and tuners to check & ground yourself throughout your practice sessions
When practicing scales, always use a drone so you're training your ear and not just your fingers.
When practicing technical passages, always use a metronome.
Be patient with yourself. Sometimes things need more time to "click" than you think they should. Trust in incremental progress and in yourself!
Use your practice time as a healthy outlet for fun & self-expression!

Philosophy: Ever Better

We are here to learn to express music beautifully with our instrument as a medium. As your teacher, I will help you plan to meet your goals and learn how to make the music you want to make. Everything you work on in your lessons is meant to help you grow and also to be fun! Please feel free to openly share with me what is working best for you in your lessons, as well as what you don't think is working well for you. These policies are intended to ensure you are getting the most you can out of your lessons. By communicating openly and clearly, we can work together to make our lessons ever better!