Welcome to Private Lessons at the DaVinci Center
Dear Friends,
We are extremely happy to have you as part of our music community! We love the fact that music unites, motivates, and helps us grow, in every positive way and that we get to do music with you and your family every week. What could be more inspiring?
From ages 3-adult, we work at making music fun and pertinent for our students and tailor make our lessons, group classes, and parent support to meet the needs of each unique individual and family. If you want to play for fun or play to get into a good university music school, we can help.
With visions of kindness, inclusion, educational excellence, and creativity at our core, we hope you enjoy your time at our music school as much as we do!
Cheers,
Maria Hart
Founder/Owner
DaVinci Center for Musical Arts
720-838-8685
Please carefully read the following information below, as it contains important details you will
need to know in moving forward.
Basics
We value PROCESS over PERFORMANCE. Though it is important to be able to perform well, we love the process and focus on developing life skills through learning an instrument. Parents, friends, and family are welcome at the lessons and the Performance Parties to see this in action. Parents/family/friends can also perform a song with their students to inspire them and for this purpose, teachers often perform at the Group Events listed below. There is no pressure to perform, EVER. Some students prefer to watch the first few Performance Classes, and eventually join in when they are comfortable. We don’t want nail-biting events to interfere with the joy and progress of learning an instrument. Though learning to deal with performance
anxiety is valuable, it’s not for everyone, but PROCESS is.
Student-directed learning is the most important aspect of our lessons and so if a student would like to arrange to study with a different instructor, no problem. Students often relate to certain people better than others, and every musician will tell you that they have learned a lot from every unique instructor, and gratefully so. Just notify the office and we can tend to the details.
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum is based on the WHOLE MUSIC APPROACH, which comes from the ever-popular Whole Language Approach, used in literacy programs in schools. This means students are taught to improvise (which leads to composition), read music, play by ear, and play effectively in groups. According to the Whole Music Approach, music and language are learned best when experienced in a community with friends, families, and peers. Since we value inclusion, kindness, creativity, and student-directed learning, these group classes (Performance Parties, Harmony Classes, and events listed below) are an integral part of the curriculum. These “extras” add a LOT to the private lessons!
- Performance Parties (all ages)
Students play songs for each other and their family/friends and party together twice a year! These 1-hour parties take the place of the private lesson for that week, usually on Sunday afternoons. - Harmony Classes (ages 5-18)
Six times per year, these 1-hour classes involve music theory games and co-composing in a group and taking the place of the private lesson for that week. - Kidz Gigz (all ages)
Where students play for fun and tips (or no tips) at local coffee shops and retirement communities. This is great for keeping up on review songs. - Multiple Piano Festival (ages 6-adult)
Students play duets in a formal concert on nine grand pianos with a conductor in a “piano orchestra.” Always the Saturday night before Thanksgiving, it is truly an inspiring event with 20+ area teachers and 200+ students ages 6-adult. - Creations Concert (all ages) – The highlight of the year
Once per year, the student’s original songs are professionally orchestrated and performed in concert by top local musicians, including the DaVinci Center faculty in a Jazz Ensemble, Rock Band, and a professional orchestra.
Tuition Rates and Registration
The one-time registration fee is $40 for the first family member and $10 for every additional family member.
Tuition rates are as follows:
- 20-Minute Private Lessons (ages 4-7): $105/month
- 30-Minute Private Lessons (ages 5-adult): $152/month
- 45-Minute Private Lessons (ages 9+): $225/month
- 60-Minute a-la-carte Private Lesson (ages 9+): $75/lesson
- 40 Minute Private/Paired Combo (ages 5-8): $140/month (per student)
- 30-Minute Paired Lessons (all ages): $105/month (per student)
- Travel Fee: For In-Home lessons, a $55-$75/month additional travel fee is added to tuition (depending on location).
The tuition rates are based on four monthly lessons, so you pay a standard tuition each month. Tuition is processed on the first (1st) of each month and applies to the concurrent month. Typically, this payment is processed with AutoPay from the card you entered on the registration form. You can change payment information in the Parent Portal. Payments may also be made via check by placing the check in the payment drop box at the DaVinci Center. Check payments are due on the first (1st) of each month.
PLEASE NOTE: There is a $30 late fee for payments that are 10 or more days late.
The first month of lessons is always prorated according to the lessons actually taken if starting mid-month. After that, although some months (actually 4 per year) have five lessons, you only pay for 4 lessons per month, always. Tuition is based on 48 lessons per year. This is balanced out with the DaVinci Holiday Schedule when there are only 3 lessons/per month.
DaVinci Holiday Weeks (no lessons):
- July 4th week
- Thanksgiving week
- New Years’ week
Canceling/Disenrolling from Lessons:
When disenrolling from lessons, please provide a one-month written notice to the office. This is to give the billing team time to make the necessary adjustments to auto-pay. We cannot guarantee a refund for missed lessons within this one-month time frame.
DaVinci Makeup Lesson Policy:
DaVinci will no longer be doing LIVE makeup lessons unless the lesson is canceled by the teacher, who may initial a live makeup (see details below.) Student-missed lessons will be made up upon parent request and will be provided in the form of a video that is recorded by the teacher during the student’s missed lesson time. To receive a video make-up, a request must be sent upon time of cancellation to the teacher via text, phone call, or email at least 5 minutes before the missed lesson time begins. There is no limit to receiving video make-ups, but no more than one video make-up lesson will be provided per missed lesson.