Smiles and Symphonies Music Studio
​Studio Handbook and Policies

Parent Expectations and Responsibilities

1. Consistency is the key to learning a musical instrument!  This means showing up to lessons, practice and performances.
2. Celebrate the baby steps!  Many small steps throughout the year yield big results!
3. Encourage your son/daughter to practice daily and help them to schedule this practice time in their daily routine.  
4. Provide a practice environment that is free from interruptions (family, friends, TV, computer or phone).
5. Be financially responsible and pay tuition ON TIME.  
6. Communicate with the teacher about any questions or concerns you have regarding the student, music, practicing, festivals, recitals or lesson content.
7. Practice should not be a negative experience:  Learning a new instrument can be very challenging.  It is not unusual for younger children and children with learning difficulties to be hesitant to practice.  Practice should never be a battle.  If you are having trouble getting your child to practice please discuss this with the instructor so that the practice routines or times can be modified.

Student Expectations and Responsibilities

1. Schedule 15-30 minutes of practice each day for at least five days per week. Two of those days must include the day of and following the private lesson.
2. Complete all assignments the teacher has written down on the assignment sheet. Practice steps are included verbally in the lesson, and on the lesson assignment sheet.
3. Review carefully any suggestions or instructions given in the previous lesson. Teachers will write the main goals of each assignment on your assignment sheet.
4. Arrive promptly at your lesson time. You reserve the time slot, not the number of minutes.
5. If questions arise, be sure to ask your teacher questions during lessons.  We want you to understand the assignment and expectations.

Teacher Expectations and Responsibilities

1. Provide each student with the personal attention and respect necessary to develop his/her individual talents.
2. Guide each student to a greater understanding and enjoyment of all musical styles.
3. Guide each student towards an awareness of her/his capabilities – clearly communicating short-term and long-term goals. This may be verbal or written communication.
4. Encourage a feeling of success at each student’s individual rate of learning.
5. Guide each student towards Musical Independence and Initiative through a balanced program of theory, technique and repertoire.
   • Theory - studying the “grammar” of the language of music.
   • Technique - the physical mechanics of the instrument
   • Repertoire - a list of pieces to be learned based on standard classical, jazz and popular music essential to gaining an understanding and appreciation for music of many different kinds
6. Report the progress of the student to the parent, listen to any concerns and answer any questions that the parent and student may have.

Attendance
Students are expected to attend all scheduled lessons per each spring and fall semester.  All parents receive an attendance contract to sign upon enrollment. 

Our tuition fees are non-refundable.  Please plan lesson times and social engagements accordingly. 
Summer participation in lessons will be expected and scheduled on an individual basis. Each student is learning a new language and without reinforcement, new ideas, a change of pace and practice – they lose the very skills they have worked so hard to attain over the course of the past nine months. 

Practice
"You don’t have to practice every day, just on the days that you eat."
This is good advice, but not always the most practical. The most important time for the student to practice is immediately following the lesson – or at least on the same day as the lesson, after the student has received instruction. Research indicates that retention rate is as high as 90% on the first day, whereas it drops to almost 60% if the students waits just 24-hours.
Aim for six and expect five days of practice. If a student has 30 minute lessons, a good daily practice session would last between 15 and 20 minutes each day. If a student has a 45 minute lesson, a good daily practice session would last between 30 and 45 minutes each day.

Very young students and some special needs students will have less "practice time" daily and their practice will take the form of games to play at the piano with parents and siblings rather than independent practice.  
You get out of it what you put into it – what we require is consistency and the results speak for themselves.

“Practice” is essential to learning any new thing.  It takes many hours of repetition to master any new skill whether academic, artistic or physical.   Unfortunately even the word practice has negative undertones to some today.  Some students automatically equate the word practice with boring, hard, or other negative thoughts.  Below are some ideas to make your students piano experience and practice interesting, fun, and rewarding.
 
Don’t call it practice.  Use phrases like “Come play this for me.”  “Show me what you’ve learned.”  “Can you teach it to me?”
Let them teach it.  Young children love to teach grown-ups and siblings.  Encourage them to show others what they have learned. 
Have a talent show night.  Children, teens, and even adults love to show their stuff.  Set aside a time each week for everyone to show off a bit.  Everyone in the family has some talent.

​Drop-off/Pick-up
Prompt drop off and pick up are expected. Parents are welcome to wait in the waiting area or sit in on the lesson.  Please do not bring siblings or friends if you plan to sit in on your child’s lesson.

Recitals and Public Performances
Please see calendar for more specific dates!

Inclement Weather
Should the need arise to cancel lessons due to bad weather, online video lessons can be provided, skype or FaceTime lesson could be an option, or in extreme cases, rescheduled. The lesson may be made up in the form of a master class, group class or individual lesson (at the teacher's discretion.) 

Summer
The summer semester consists of four lessons.  If you are going to be out of town in the summer you can use the My Music Staff app to arrange to make up your lessons ahead of time during the school year, or you can adjust your schedule during the summer to accommodate your needs.   Summer tuition is included in the yearly tuition.  ​

"Extraordinary results in every student!"

EVER WONDER WHERE YOUR TUITION DOLLARS GO?

We’d like to give you some insight on what your fees cover, so you can better understand what we as a music studio provide for you.

• Teacher Experience
• Sales, Property, and other taxes
• Teacher certifications
• Teacher Education
• Teacher publications
• Office supplies
• Teacher connections with other professionals in the industry
• Professional quality acoustic and digital instruments
• New software to stay up-to-date
• Time spent with student in lessons
• Shipping costs associated with music
• Planning and time spent at recitals
• Time spent planning for student lessons
• Paid professionals (Accountants, etc.)
• Student incentives(Stickers, stamps, etc.)
• Trips to music store
• Upkeep of instruments
• Teacher salary

You get the idea…..

New Make Up Procedure

At Smiles and Symphonies, we are committed to a professional teaching environment.  We are experienced professionals with full schedules and request that cancellations be made with reasonable notice.  Imagine what ten cancellations in one week would do!  Please understand we do this to be fair to all of our students as well as to protect our personal time.  
​
At Smiles and Symphonies, we feel everyone deserves a makeup lesson in the event of illness, family emergency, or school event.  Our calendar is published on our website and is in your student handbook.  Holidays and dates published in the calendar are scheduled events and already accounted for in the yearly tuition so there is no need to schedule a makeup for those dates.  However, if you miss a lesson, as long as you cancel through mymusicstaff.com before the lesson, you will automatically be issued a makeup credit.  Your makeup credit can be used at any available lesson time throughout the year.  I will be adding a few makeup Fridays this year to accommodate some makeup lessons.

A few things to know about makeup lessons:

• Makeup lessons are NEVER guaranteed.  I will always teach a makeup lesson if the allotted time is available but it never guaranteed.
• This year there is NO LIMIT on make up lessons.  You can have as many makeup lessons as you need as long as there is the availability in the schedule. 
• All makeup credits must be used by July 24, 2020.  Makeup lessons will not carry over into the next school year.  Credits remaining July 25, 2020 will be deleted.