About Lessons
Here you will find details on lessons for guitar, fretted strings, and percussion. Please contact Tiffany-Ann Gorton for more information regarding piano lessons at:
612-600-7744
Scheduling and Tuition:
Students may book lessons one at a time or reserve a weekly time slot in the schedule for a month at a time. Please contact Rob for current tuition rates at:
763-245-4504
Mission Statement:
We will provide instruction of the highest caliber on all respective instruments. Using curriculum we have either created ourselves or carefully selected, we will guide our students towards their desired skill level and purpose on their instrument. Whether a student is casually seeking a lifetime of musical enrichment, preparing themselves for college level playing, or playing gigs regularly, we will help them achieve their musical goals.
Tuition:
Students may reserve a weekly time slot a month in advance and pay a monthly tuition. It is a flat rate regardless of how many weeks there are in the month. Usually there will be four, sometimes five or three due to a holiday. Holidays are listed below. Monthly tuition does not go up if there are five lessons in a month, nor does it go down if there are three lessons due to a holiday.
Students may also book lessons one at a time and pay an individual lesson rate.
Please pay tuition at the beginning of the month. Check, Cash, or online payments including Venmo, Square, and Zelle are available. There are service charges for Venmo and Square, but none for Zelle as of 2023.
Missed Lessons and Make-up Lessons:
Missed lessons can be made up within the same week, these can be scheduled over any openings we may have that particular week. We are very committed to making up lessons, but we cannot 100% guarantee that available make- up slots will be ideal for your schedule.
Any missed lessons that are not made up during that week will be forfeit.
There is a 48 hour cancellation policy for monthly lessons, i.e. if the student cancels the day of or the day before the lesson we will not be obligated to schedule a make-up lesson, I do this so I can prioritize limited make-up lesson times for students who let me know in advance. On a monthly tuition plan, missed lessons do not carry over into the next month.
If we have to cancel lessons for any reason then we will prorate tuition for that month. Tuition will only change if we (the teacher) have to cancel.
As stated above please contact us for current tuition rates.
There is a 24 hour cancellation policy for one-at-a-time lessons, i.e. if the student cancels the day before the lesson no problem, but we do ask that the student pays for the lesson if they cancel the day of.
Any missed lessons that are not made up during that week will be forfeit. We are very committed to making up lessons, but we cannot 100% guarantee that available make up slots will be ideal for your schedule.
45m and 60m lessons are available as well with tuition adjusting accordingly.
Holidays:
We don't hold lessons on the following holidays:
New Year’s Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
If a lesson should fall on a holiday it will be considered one less week in the month.
Student Expectations:
Students that desire to progress quickly will need to at least play something on their instrument every day. Practice sessions do not always need to be very long, but playing on the instrument and reviewing what we went over on a daily basis is essential to rapid progress. If you can’t possibly play every day, this can be made up for by playing a little longer on other days, but if you can only play your instrument on one or two days of the week do not expect to progress very quickly.
Materials:
Students will need an instrument to play on. They should also bring a folder for the various worksheets and assignments they’ll be receiving. At some point it may become useful to have a binder to separate materials into categories. Sometimes we will use a metronome during lessons. There are many metronome apps for smart phones that are free, any of these should work just fine.
Books:
Our in house instruction books are included with the cost of tuition and supplied by us, but students should always remember to bring their books to the lesson with them! Students may advance to the point where additional outside books are needed, in which case we ask that the student purchase said materials. These can typically be found used and on the cheap.
Guitar Accessories:
Guitar students should acquire the following:
Guitar picks – a variety of thicknesses is fine, but over-sized picks are not recommended. Students should consider bringing a pick just as important as bringing their guitar and folder.
Electronic tuner – Clip on tuners can be very effective and convenient, but the telescoping arms on them can be flimsy, try to pick something sturdy. Snark makes block shaped clip on tuners that are harder to break. Korg produces high quality tuners that will last. There are many free tuning apps for smartphones, but having a dedicated electronic tuner is better as the apps tend to be a little less accurate.
Capo – A clamping device for easily playing chords in different keys. Not necessary, but students who have an interest in chords and strumming should have one. The Kyser Guitar Capo is fairly standard.
A small pouch for guitar picks is very handy!
Students that play an electric guitar will probably want a small practice amp and a cable to play on at home. Small Fender amps work well, Livewire and Monster cables sometimes come with practice amps at the time of purchase, and they are usually quality cables.
For Young Guitar Students:
It is recommended that younger students have an instrument that is proportionate to their size and height. A ¾ size guitar is usually sufficient for a younger pupil. If needed, ½ size guitars can also be found. We have had much luck with the Yamaha JR-1 ¾ size acoustic guitars.
In our experience smaller sized electric guitars do not function very well. Try at your own risk.
Banjo:
Banjo students should acquire an electronic tuner such as the Snark SN-5. Finger picks are optional, many great players use them, but we do not.
Ukulele:
Ukulele students should acquire an electronic tuner such as the Snark SN-5. Picks are optional. Soft, felt picks for ukulele are available and often sound nice.
Drums:
Drum students should acquire a set of drum sticks, a drum key, and a metronome. A metronome app is just fine. 2B drum sticks are good for beginners. Smaller students should use smaller sized sticks.