Lana Gaudio School of Music (FREE TRIAL LESSON)

Tuition is payable at the top of each month, and covers all lessons for that month. This streamlined pricing is helpful not only for me as a business, but also for my customers, since the price won't change from month to month. Some months you will receive 3 lessons, and some 5, but most months are 4-week months. It averages out to 4 lessons every month over the course of one year.

We begin with an evaluation lesson. This is an opportunity to get to know you, and talk about your musical goals, and how to achieve them. I will lay out a basic rough curriculum plan to get you to that goal. This will include short-term and long-term goals for your proficiency. Most standard lessons, we spend about 20 minutes at the piano, and 10 minutes learning music theory or music history/appreciation. I feel it's very important to develop a broad understanding of music and how it functions. During the applied portion of the lesson at the piano, I will check your progress on any material assigned the previous week. At any one time, we usually have assigned a very short scale or etude (which will change weekly), a "technique" piece (which should change bimonthy), and a "repertoire" piece (which you should expect to change approximately once per month or once every other month depending on difficulty.) If the student needs help overcoming a difficult passage, we will take the time during that 20 minutes to do so. Students are encouraged to ask questions as they think of them during the lesson; it lets me know that they are thinking critically about their music. Practicing expectations are never about how long the student spends at the piano. Instead, I try to foster an attitude of "short, focused practices" that happen multiple times a day. Each short practice session should last no more than 10-15 minutes, but should have a specific goal – like, say, repeating a difficult 4-measure section 5 times in a row correctly at any speed. Once that goal is accomplished, the practice session is over. This keeps my students from becoming "clockwatchers", and puts the focus instead on achieving a particular goal with every rehearsal. If you have any other questions, just ask! I've spent my entire adult life developing new ideas and techniques to overcome some of the most pernicious hassles of learning to play an instrument. Whether you are a new student, or you've been taking lessons for a few years, or even if you're an expert at the instrument, I probably have something to offer you to just bump you up to that next level in your musical journey.

I have an MME from University of Kansas, 6 years post-grad study with Sir Wladimir Kochanski, and I am entering my 25th year professionally teaching music to students.

I've been teaching music my entire adult life. It's literally the only thing I've ever wanted to do. I've taught hundreds (maybe thousands!) of students throughout my professional career, and it never ever gets old.

All ages, from 4 to 72. All skill levels. All styles. I pride myself on my classical training, but if you want to learn rock keyboards, or jazz stylings, I can do that too. I'm here to help you develop your musical passion.

Ask about a free evaluation lesson. Most reputable teachers will give you an opportunity to get to see them in action for free, and feel out their teaching style and personality. Choosing the right music teacher is often more about finding the right match with your personality than with whatever method or curriculum they teach.

Discuss your musical goals with your teacher. If you and your teacher agree on a goal, it's a lot easier to achieve it. Let him or her know "I want to be able to play X song" or "I want to be able to improvise in X style". If your teacher is working your classical repertoire, but you want to be able to play Blues with a jazz trio, you may not be getting the most out of your lessons.