What instrument should I begin with?

(Age 10 and older - if you're under 10, please go to the Child students section) Each instrument (including voice) has strengths and weaknesses and actual "personality" or "temperament". Contrast what a drummer, vocalist, bassist, guitarist, and saxophonist do on stage. We think it's best that students start on the instrument or voice that creates the music they like best. We teach all students to play and sing with correct technique regardless of the kind of music or instrument they're doing, so their future ability and musicianship is not limited by any particular instrument choice. That also covers learning a certain instrument because "you're supposed to" or "its good for you". Go for what you love.

Piano and guitar are the only fully "self-contained" instruments we teach, meaning they are capable of hours and hours of music without any other instrument or singing (harp is an example of one we don't teach yet). All of the other instruments and the voice can make music alone, but typically perform with some kind of accompaniment (recording or live group). If you can't decide, just think about some of the albums and music you really like and about what's going on in them. Who do you think has the coolest part? What instrument are you drawn to? Consider that in choosing.  Another possible consideration is physical or mental handicaps you might have, which come up occasionally with students.

We really do believe you can succeed in pretty much whatever you choose here, so ignore the people who told you you couldn't sing or that so-and-so instrument is really hard. Both in lesson setup (over the phone) and in actual lessons we will work with you to give you suggestions and advise of any serious problems that might come up at first or in the future, regardless of your instrument choice, including suggesting you switch to something else - but that is scarcely ever necessary with competent instruction and consistent practice.

What kind of guitar should I start with?

We think it's best that students start on the type of guitar that plays the music they like.  We teach all students to play with correct technique regardless of the kind of guitar they're playing, so their ability is not limited by guitar choice. So, metal and hard rock = electric, right? Country leans acoustic. And so forth. If a student is neutral on what kind of music they like, or just uncertain, we recommend starting on acoustic guitar (steel strings, wooden, hollow body), because you can play almost all types of music on the acoustic and you can move easily from the acoustic to another type of guitar if you want to switch later. But we teach all kinds very well.

Can I start piano lessons with just a cheap keyboard?

Absolutely. What's best for all pianists (or keyboard players) is to play and practice on the traditional acoustic piano. If you don't have that, an 88 key fully piano-weighted keyboard is recommended. The resistance of the heavier key action develops finger muscles and thus technique (blazing fingers of death = you play real fast). However, we have many students who are playing on 61 key, un-weighted keyboards to start ($100 to $500 bucks). We understand what it's like to just want to get started without an instrument that costs as much per month as your car payment. An un-weighted keyboard will work for 1 to 2 years. We recommend moving to the better keyboard as soon as possible, though. If you're shooting for greatness or begin getting serious with your piano playing, switch to the acoustic piano or the weighted 88 key keyboard ASAP. FYI, if you take lessons on an electronic keyboard, you must get a sustain pedal also or it'll mess up your technique. Relax, though, they don't cost much.

Which piano teaching method do you use?

We use our own method to teach piano, the Promethean method. Essentially the idea is to use smart, knowledgeable teachers to teach students to play their music as directly and thoroughly as possible by using insightful lesson segments (learning tracks of information such as music theory, rhythm training, improvising, rhythm playing, etc) to give students strong direction yet personalize each lesson. And to make lessons as enjoyable as we can. We have our piano students work on targeted, useful exercises, music theory, and get them to play both rhythm and note pieces. Of course there are many, many opinions on how to teach and learn piano. We are trying to strike a balance between excellence and fun, so the love of playing animates the learning process.

What we don't want to produce is another 10,000,000 people who took piano for 3 to 10 years as a child and now can't play a note, because most of the time they were playing music they didn't like, or they didn't feel they were making any progress, or they weren't learning to play the way they heard other people play on albums or the radio. As soon as they could escape lessons, they did. By mixing 3 things, reading by note (the "normal" way), music theory (understanding what youre doing - oddly enough 60% of classical students do not), and playing rhythm piano (typically that's how "cool" and modern music is played), we're trying hard to make musicians who have fun constantly, see regular progress, can play the songs they have on their ipod or in their record collection, and are skilled pianists who read well. Go to the Home page and select Why Us? if you'd like more information on our methods.

I'm just starting, how much money should I spend on my instrument?

Just as much as you can afford. An experienced professional can take a cruddy instrument and make it sound good (he'll complain about it later, though). The reverse is not true though; poor instruments really harm beginning players. They can't make chords, low notes don't come out, keys stick, the tone is bad. Having said that, we understand if you've got a kid who may or may not continue more than 2 months or you're in the same situation as an adult. You don't want to waste money. Your teacher will tell you in the 1st lesson if your instrument is going to hold you back or give you recommendations for instrument purchase if you don't have one. All things being equal, buy the Selmer, Steinway, Ramirez, Haynes, Loree', Gibson, Martin, PRS, Warrior, Taylor, Fodera or Motif. But we understand if you can't just now.