The Tuned In Academy

FAQs

From time to time people call in or email with questions that are common, or that we think might arise. As they do, we will publish our answers here for your benefit.

The short answer is simple: the one you want to learn the most. Read our complete response here.

No. Our music classes and private lessons are open from the minimum age up, with no age limit. We want adult learners as well children. All who will respect our values are welcome.

This is an important question. Here are four practical reasons that everyone should study music. And here are four simple reasons your child should study music.

How about this reason?

Yes, we certainly do. And we could really use their help. We also think they would love to be a part of the academy, and we would love to see them flourish even more. Read more here.

All of our group classes are monthly tuition based. Our lab classes (our most popular classes) are just $65 monthly, $65 if you have multiple students enrolled for each additional child. This is essentially just over $15 per week of class! That’s ridiculously affordable quality music education, and that’s what we are all about. We are also always seeking partners in the community who seek to sponsor students with the gift of music education so we can provide quality and relational music education to those who otherwise would not be able to afford it.

Private lessons are just $100 monthly for weekly half hour lessons with our master faculty (each with at least one Masters degree or higher), $95 with regular faculty, and $80 for lessons with our associate or student faculty.

Great question! Many students struggle with music in the beginning. Most students (adults and children) just don’t realize how complex the language/rhythm aspect of music is. I would definitely encourage him not to quit. Challenge them to stick out the semester, and hopefully they will continue after that. It takes time for students to gain some familiarity to the point where it is more fun and less of a struggle. Read a complete response here.

Tuned In was an Oasis approved Community Based Facility. Sadly, while we much appreciate programs like that, the administrative responsibilities, costs, lag time between payment, just make it not feasible for a non-profit like ours.

There are many things that we believe make us different.

Friendship and community are a priority among students and faculty.

Relationships! We are very serious not just about teaching, but getting to know and relating to our students! Our mentor model is designed to give students the best opportunity for not just learning, but engaging, encouraging, and fun. Read what one mom recently said about this: “My son takes guitar lessons at TIA and he absolutely loves this music academy! He said it’s just like having a friend teach him. Such a great environment for kids to learn in.”

Standards and accountability

All of our teachers focus on the fundamentals needed to make music fun and great. We want all of our students to have fun and make great music, and that means learning and having a working knowledge of the proper technical aspects of the instrument. This also means learning the essentials of theory and reading music notation, and learning all of your scales and chords.

At TIA, we are not just a studio with bunch of individual teachers with their own philosophies or ideas about teaching. We are a team, and a team that is always committed to growing as humans, as musicians, and as educators.

We also select new themes every semester, so in addition to working on repertoire chosen by student and teacher, we have fun opportunities to be exposed to and learn music of all kinds of different genres!

We sure do. We also teach viola and cello, and we have two wonderful faculty to choose from (one regular faculty member and one associate faculty member). Call today to enroll!

Yes!

Performing music before others is important! Are you looking for performance opportunities? You’ve come to the right place! We have between 8-10 opportunities a year (see below), and some very special opportunities that we keep hush hush as they are proprietary.

We don’t prefer the word performance, but making music for others and for the community is both an essential part of why we learn and create music and what drives us, and it is literally built into the foundation of everything we do at TIA.

One of our core values is that we value presentation over performance, because music is more than mere entertainment or amusement, but art, and a gift to be presented. To live this out, the academy will always be seeking to find ways and opportunities to serve the community through music, not just putting on concerts. But if you are a part of TIA, we can assure you that you will have opportunities to share your music live before others every semester if you choose. To find out more, or see some of what we do with that, read here.

We have presentations (that’s what we call our recitals) every semester, usually in October/November, December, June, and August. We also have many of our students present at Arts Walk (the last weekend in April), and we have other events like Festival (sort of a competition with yourself, an opportunity for adjudication), Celebration of Scales, and occasional opportunities for community music making at the local senior centers and retirement homes.

Obviously right now, presentations are different because of Covid-19, but we have still been having them every semester and will continue to, via both live stream and recorded video. Different? Sure, but we are all learning important realities about making music for others in the age of Covid. And Covid restrictions willing, we will have some kind of out door live presentation this spring or summer outside, picnic style. Stay tuned?

Looking to make music for others? Come and be a part of the community, we would love to have you!

Yes! We are always looking for more great, qualified, talented, passionate, and like-minded people. Because we have a specific set of values and a specific mission however, we cannot extend an offer to pursue working with us to everyone. If you or someone you know is interested in working with us, we would recommend first carefully reading over our mission and values, and if you understand them and think that you might be a fit, give a a call and let’s pursue deeper conversations. With rare exception, we seek faculty that hold college degrees in music and are experienced educators.

We are also looking for student teachers.

And even have a need for a volunteer in non-profit community relations that could eventually turn into a paid position.

This is an important question, please see our response here.

This is not a commonly asked question.

But the response is one that should affect some major ways in which we view music study in general.

We wish we did! But sadly, no, we do not.

Yes of course! Our musician-educators love to teach, and so if private instruction is what you want and need, we are here for you to meet that need. And we love teaching private lessons too! The one-on-one mentor model is a lot of fun, relational, and highly effective.

That is a great question! See our answer here.

The short answer is, of course! Music study is so much more than simply moving forward on material from the prior week. See here for a full response.

The short answer is no. For a more detailed response, see here. We take two one-week breaks at the end of the spring and the end of the summer.

Believe it or not, pianos are often far easier to come by than you might think. You can purchase a brand new, quality electric keyboard often for just a few hundred dollars. But we happen to think acoustic pianos are so much better to learn on. You and your children will enjoy them more, and they really add warmth and character to the home. We would suggest getting on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, and you can often find a decent piano for $100 or less, sometimes even free. Why? Because sadly many people have them in their home and don’t play any more or never did, and they just want to get rid of them. They need a good home, which could be yours! With a piano dolly they are pretty easy to move, you just need two or three strong guys and either a truck or you can rent a U-Haul trailer for about $20 (they are conveniently located right across the street from us). And if you are enrolling in lessons or classes with us, you could borrow our dolly.

Yes! We have many adult private students studying piano, voice, ukulele, flute, and guitar. Some take lessons with their children, some on their own. We also have an all adult group piano class and try to launch new ones at least once or twice a year.

We love our adult students and have probably about 50 currently! Some are in adult group classes, many are in private lessons and studying recorder, piano, guitar, drums, and voice. We have students that are university faculty and staff, high ranking officers in the US Army, military and postal retirees, state employees, retired engineers, forensic scientists, band directors, octogenarians, and missionaries, and they are all awesome people. You should join them on the journey! It is never too late to learn an instrument.

We recommend and accept private students for piano at around six. The same is true for piano group classes, depending on the child. We will sometimes accept five-year-old piano students, beginning with fifteen-minute lessons. Drums and ukulele, we suggest starting at seven or older. Guitar may be workable at eight and up, though nine or ten is usually better. The same is true with wind instruments generally. Recorder is fairly accessible from six and up. We do teach our Step in Tune class, which is an immersion based elementary music class to students between three and five. For private voice lessons, we recommend no younger than eight. All of these are rather general, there are always exceptions, but any instrument requires a bit of physical involvement as well as attention and focus that these ages consider.
While this varies by individual and instrument, most students that put forth serious effort can begin playing simple songs om their instrument within a few weeks, and more involved even full-page pieces by around eight weeks. Many piano and guitar students will begin playing chords by around three to four months, if not sooner.

What’s with the name, The Tuned In Academy? What makes TIA an academy and how is that different from a music store that teaches lessons, a private lessons studio, or any other similar kind of place/business?

This is a great question. An academy is a specialty school in which unique skills are taught. For us, this includes repertoire, technique, and theory, advanced scales and improvisation techniques. We are serious about music, but don’t let the name fool you, we have a blast too! Long answer here.

We love it when folks stop by the studio to see who we are and to enroll students. Unfortunately, we don’t have a desk person or anything and most of us are teaching back to back all day when we are in the studio. If you need to chat, have questions, want to enroll, best is to call between 10AM-noon Monday through Saturday, email, or FB Messenger.

We unfortunately do not have any traveling teachers. We reach so many families and so many students, which is a major part of why we exist, to serve the community! And sadly, traveling would take a lot of time that would cut our ability to teach and reach more students significantly. As is we are often on a waitlist. SD and Jenna (our founding teachers and director) come into the studio to teach their own daughters as well. There is a certain focus, formal space, and atmosphere that often helps students in the learning process, to get out of the home and have a place of study. Even if it is someone else’s living room, which it was for us when we began!

That said, if you just can’t get out of the house, we understand. We can’t necessarily recommend anyone who teaches to our standards that we know of, but we wish you the best if that is what you choose and need to do.

Music therapy is a unique, research proven, effective, and beautiful therapeutic treatment that meets real needs in people. For more details on music therapy and what it has done and can do, see here. Sarah would love to work with you to develop personalized plans to meet your emotional, mental health, and other goals.

TIA plans and schedules new classes as we have classroom space and teacher availability a few times a year, usually the beginning of each semester (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer). We need at least 4-5 students for most classes. If we don’t get the numbers, we will usually pull the class from the schedule and book any interested students into private lessons. We are getting usually quite busy and very full. If you are looking to take a class, keep an eye out on the Facebook page and contact us when one is approaching or you could miss out!