Studio Policies

Contacting Us

Please contact your teacher directly with any questions or concerns about lessons or scheduling. Your teacher will let you know the preferred contact method, usually email or text message. If you have to miss a lesson for a non-emergency reason, please notify the teacher with as much notice as possible, and as soon as you can in emergency situations. Please do not notify the office about scheduling issues as the message will not reach your teacher in time.

For any billing questions, concerns, updates or changes, contact the office at lessons@citystrings.com.

Lessons in your home

Lessons will begin within a 15 minute window of your assigned lesson time to accommodate for traffic and other concerns. For example, if you have a 4:00 lesson, the teacher will arrive at your home between 3:45 and 4:15. There must always be a parent or guardian present in the home during the lesson time. You are responsible for your child at all times during the lesson.

Students should be prepared to begin their lesson immediately upon the teacher’s arrival in your home. Lessons should occur in an appropriate space free from distractions. Parent involvement in lessons is paramount to your child’s success and siblings are encouraged to quietly observe.

Parental Involvement

Parents of young students should plan on being active in lessons and during home practice. For children ten years and younger this is crucial—your little musician needs help at first! Most parents are not musicians, but don’t worry, you will learn what to look for at home during lessons.

Learning an instrument requires patience and dedication. In order to grow as a musician, you should expect your child to practice at least 5 days a week. Your teacher will provide practice goals and expectations in each lesson.

Studio Calendar

The study of music is a year round endeavor. City Strings & Piano students receive 44 lessons per year (Jan-Dec) and are charged an equal amount each month. Your teacher will schedule 11 lessons per quarter, with at least 3 lessons in each month. Students are assigned a weekly lesson day and time. Each teacher makes their individual quarterly schedule and will inform you ahead of time about their vacation and holiday weeks. Because tuition is charged monthly and not assessed on a per lesson basis, some months may have fewer or more lessons than others.

Make Up Lessons

Due to the complexity of scheduling in home lessons, make up lessons for lessons canceled by you cannot be guaranteed, but may be available upon request and at the discretion of the teacher. If the teacher is not available for a make up lesson, it will not be refunded. Many teachers have schedules that are completely full and make ups may not be possible. Teachers will make every effort not to disrupt the regular schedule, but may occasionally need to reschedule the lessons. In such cases, you will always receive as much notice as possible and your teacher will work with you to find a suitable make up time or provide a well qualified substitute for that lesson.

In case of inclement weather or school closures, teachers may cancel the lessons and make them up at a later date, or provide lessons online. Weather cancellations are at the discretion of each individual teacher.

Billing

The monthly tuition fee is charged to your credit card on the first of each month. If you need to make any adjustments to your plan, send an email to lessons@citystrings.com and we will make the updates. To change your credit card information, use the link in the first email you received after signing up. Lesson cancellation requires 30 days notice and refunds are not available.

When you sign up, your card will be charged a one-time registration fee. The office will set up your account to automatically charge the tuition to your card on file on the first of each month. The first month’s tuition will be charged manually to your card before your first lesson, usually on the day that you complete the registration form. The first month’s tuition will be prorated if you start mid-month.