Elena Vasquez
Head of Music
Piano · here since 2013
Teaches piano, and runs the music side of the school.
4 instruments · one to one
Private lessons
Piano, violin, guitar and singing, one to one, at the same time every week with the same teacher. Booked in the diary on this site up to six weeks ahead.
What a private lesson is for
An instrument is learned by being watched closely by somebody who can hear what a beginner cannot yet hear. That is not a thing a room of eight people gets. So piano, violin and singing are taught one to one here by default, and guitar is not — because a beginner guitarist genuinely does learn faster in a room with five other beginners, and a beginner singer does not, since the instrument is attached to the ego.
Lessons are half an hour to begin with. Three-quarters of an hour is the right length once a student is practising properly between lessons, and an hour suits a teenager working on real repertoire. The teacher will tell you when to move up rather than waiting for you to ask.
When they happen
Mostly in the quiet part of the day, because the music rooms are upstairs and the building below them is full of dancing from four o'clock. There are after-school slots on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Saturday morning, and they are the ones that go first.
Private dance coaching is available for teens preparing an audition piece and is arranged with the teacher directly rather than through this diary, because it needs a studio rather than a music room and the studios are full until eight.
| Length | Per lesson | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| half an hour | $45 | A beginner, and any child under about ten |
| forty-five minutes | $62 | The standard lesson once a student is practising |
| an hour | $78 | Teenagers and adults on real repertoire |
The diary is the ordinary kind. Unlike a class, a private lesson is one student in one slot with one teacher — the same shape every appointment book has. It is here beside the class system on purpose: the interesting engineering in this site is the counting, and the contrast is the point.
Who teaches one to one
Four instruments, four teachers
Priya Raman
Violin and musicianship
Violin · here since 2018
Teaches violin, the string ensemble and musicianship.
Jonah Feldman
Voice and guitar
Voice and Guitar · here since 2019
Teaches guitar, singing and the teen vocal ensemble.
The diary
Book a private lesson
Every free slot for the next six weeks. Pick a teacher, a length and a time.
Loading the diary. If nothing appears, the office takes bookings by telephone from ten in the morning.
Before you buy an instrument
Do not, yet. The school lends guitars and violins for a first term precisely so that nobody buys the wrong one, and the teacher will tell you what to look for afterwards. The single most expensive mistake in this trade is a full-size instrument bought for a child who needs a three-quarter, because every compensation it teaches has to be undone later.
For piano, 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.
Missed lessons
Tell us before the day and it is rescheduled where the diary allows. Tell us on the day and it is charged, because the teacher is here and the hour cannot be sold to anybody else. That is the same rule every diary in the world has and we would rather write it down than improvise it.
How lessons and classes fit together
A student may do both, and many do: a weekly class for the discipline of it and a private lesson for the instrument. The family discount applies to classes rather than to private lessons, which are already priced per lesson rather than per term.
Piano, violin, guitar, singing
Book a private lesson
The diary shows every free slot for the next six weeks. Pick a teacher, a length and a time; you will get a confirmation with a link that cancels it if you need to.