half an hour
$45a lesson
Music
Piano lessons in Woodside, Queens
One to one, thirty to sixty minutes, and the instrument every other one is easier to learn beside.
“We do not have a piano. Can she still start?”
What piano actually is
Piano is taught one to one because it is an instrument you can be quietly wrong at for a whole term in a group and nobody notices. Lessons are half an hour to begin with, three-quarters or an hour once a student is practising properly, and they happen at the same time every week with the same teacher.
In the room
What is actually taught
- Technique and repertoire in every lesson, in that order, from the first term
- Reading taught from the beginning rather than after a year of learning by imitation
- Whatever the student actually wants to play, alongside the work that makes them able to play it
- Two informal playing afternoons a year in Music Room 1, which are not concerts and have no audience beyond the families in the room
On the timetable
The classes
Every row is the real class: the day, the room, the teacher and the fee the enrolment system actually charges.
| Class | Day | Time | Room | Teacher | Places | Term fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PianoMusic and movement ages 3 to 5 | Friday | 4:00pm - 4:45pm | Studio A | Elena Vasquez | 12 | $234 |
What it costs
The arithmetic, for one class in full
Music and movement with Elena Vasquez is one example. Every other class in this discipline, and every class in the school, is the same sum with different numbers.
How that figure is arrived at
- Piano, Music and movement — forty-five minutesrate$18
- Fridays in Fall Term 2026, recess weeks removed× thirteen—
- Registration, once a school year per studentonce$30
- Fall Term 2026, this classthirteen sessions$234
$18 is the published rate for forty-five minutes, and it is on the fees page. That multiplication is the whole of it: no materials charge, no studio levy and no compulsory extras. A 10 per cent family discount comes off every class after the first, and a student joining part-way through the term pays for the sessions still to come rather than for the ones already gone.
Most of this discipline is not in the table above
Private lessons
The class above is the only piano class on the group timetable; almost everyone who studies piano here does it one to one, in a lesson booked into Elena's own diary rather than found on this page.
forty-five minutes
$62a lesson
an hour
$78a lesson
You do need something to practise on, and it does not have to be a piano
A student who cannot practise between lessons does not progress, and paying us seventy-eight dollars a week to watch that happen is a waste of your money. A full-size weighted digital keyboard is entirely sufficient for the first several years and can be had second-hand for less than a term of lessons. What will not do is a small unweighted keyboard with short keys — the hand shape it teaches has to be untaught later. Elena will tell you what to look for and will not sell you one.
Who teaches it
One teacher, and no rota
In a school this size, the person watching a technique in the first week of a term is the same person watching it in the last.
Elena Vasquez
Head of Music
Piano · here since 2013
Teaches piano, and runs the music side of the school.
Before the first lesson
What to bring
- The instrument, if it is one that travels; the school keeps loan guitars and violins for the first term
- A notebook, which the teacher writes the week's practice into
- Any music you have been given, in a folder rather than loose
- Nails short for guitar, violin and piano
You do not need to buy an instrument before the first lesson and you should not. Talk to the teacher first — the wrong size is worse than none.
Questions about piano
Do we need to own a piano before starting?
No, and you should not buy one yet. A full-size weighted digital keyboard is entirely sufficient for the first several years; a small unweighted keyboard with short keys is not, because the hand shape it teaches has to be untaught later. Elena will tell you what to look for.
Are piano lessons private or in a group?
Private, almost entirely — that is what the instrument wants, because a student can be quietly wrong at it for a whole term in a group and nobody notices. The one exception is the class in the table above, which is for the youngest children and is about the beat rather than the instrument itself.
How much is a private piano lesson?
A private lesson is $45 for half an hour, $62 for forty-five minutes, or $78 for an hour, booked in the diary on this site up to six weeks ahead.
Piano · one free trial per student
Book a free trial lesson
A trial is a real lesson and the student joins in — the only evidence about a school that is not marketing, which is why it costs nothing.