How often are lessons, and for how long? Lessons happen one a week, September through the end of July, excluding holidays. The student’s time slot is on the same day/time each week (for example, Mondays at 4pm), and is either 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes long. Lesson duration is determined by the students age and level.
Do we need to own a piano? Yes! Students must have access to a quality instrument at home. Acoustic pianos are ideal and can be found at many different price points through piano dealers, second-hand sources, etc. Digital pianos are acceptable for beginner students but will need to be upgraded to an acoustic once students reach advanced levels. Digitals must be full size (88 keys), and have working pedals and weighted keys.
What is the expectation for practice in-between lessons? Practice is required, as the most musical growth happens at home in between each lesson. I ask families to schedule practice time five days a week. The time needed in each practice session varies by age, level, and other factors, but a general rule of thumb is to multiply the students age x 3min every day (5 year-olds 15 minutes per day, 10 year-olds 30 minutes per day, etc)
What if we need to reschedule a lesson? A student’s time slot is reserved for them regardless of whether they attend or not. Students are scheduled back-to-back, so open slots for makeup lessons are only available when I get cancellations. Just as you would when scheduling soccer practice, dance classes, and theater rehearsals, make sure your weekly lesson slot is one that you can reliably attend to gain the full benefit from your tuition.
Are there any performances? Yes! I organize a studio recital that all students can perform in every spring. Students interested in a multi-round adjudicated performance festival are also welcome to participate in the Sutton festival each fall.
How do tuition payments work? Tuition is based on 41 lessons per year spread from September through July. Yearly tuition is divided into 11 equal monthly installments. Please contact me for current pricing!
The growth that our son made in such a short period time under Grace’s expert piano teaching was remarkable. She is truly a class act who builds an atmosphere of mutual respect and admiration, hard work, risk taking, and fun. My son looks forward to his lessons with Grace each week and even asked us to extend his time with her this past year. She provides high quality opportunities for community and stage performances that have helped our son grow his confidence and level of experience. Grace was particularly flexible during the pandemic and our son did not lose any instructional time as a result of her efforts. Thoughtful, kind, organized, and gifted are a few words that I would use to describe her. Grace is a role model who our son looks up to and we all admire her as a teacher and a master pianist. — Beth B.
Ms. Grace is an extremely talented pianist and is such a delight to work with. Her teaching methods are highly effective. She uses her warm and energetic personality to create a fun and interactive learning environment for our 3 daughters. This is accomplished by utilizing different teaching methods throughout her lessons. She not only tailors each lesson to fit the student's need, but she also incorporates games at the end to incentivize that goals set for that lesson are achieved.
In addition to piano skills, Ms. Grace reinforces patience and dedication to playing the piano itself. She reminds her students that practice is important to success and that some songs require more time to master than others.
We are lucky we found Ms. Grace and our daughters love learning with her. They continue to progress steadily and gain confidence from her patience, knowledge and encouragement. — April S.
Ms. Burns has been an outstanding teacher for my teenaged son. She is an extraordinarily gifted pianist, and her guidance has helped to strengthen my son’s understanding of theory and further develop his musicality. Her teaching techniques have been extremely effective and goal-oriented. Under Ms. Burn’s expertise, my son continues to grow as a musician, and he is building piano repertoire and technique. He thoroughly enjoys his lessons and is especially grateful to have Ms. Burns as his teacher. — Kristine C.
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Grace is an exceptional piano teacher who tailors her approach to each student's needs and abilities. Her lessons are appropriately challenging, but fun, and balance fundamentals with expression. The result: students learn to enjoy making music while they grow as performers. — Rob R.