Studio Details
Studio Calendar
My studio runs year-round from September-August, with lessons organized into three terms (Fall, Spring, and Summer) through the year. I strongly encourage all students to take lessons throughout the year as prolonged breaks can lead to significant loss of skills learned (much like taking a 3-month break from jogging would significantly impact a runner’s fitness).
Fall and Spring terms each last for 18 weeks and include 18 weekly lessons. Students commit to all lessons in Fall and Spring Terms and their day and time remains the same every week. Fall Term goes from September through mid-January. Spring Term goes from February through June. There are breaks for the Christmas/New Years holidays and for Spring Break; these exact dates vary year to year depending on when the holidays happen in the calendar.
Summer Term is typically 8 weeks and runs from late June through August. Unlike Fall and Spring Terms, students can choose which weeks they will take lessons in the Summer Term to help accommodate for vacations and summer camps.
Tuition
Contact me for 2025-2026 Tuition Rates.
Tuition in the Fall and Spring Terms is a set rate for the entire Term. Tuition can be paid either for the entire Term at once at the beginning of the term, or in five equal monthly payments averaged across the term. Tuition for the Summer Term is at the same hourly base rate as the Fall and Spring terms that immediately preceded it, and is based on the number of lessons a student signs up for.
Please note that tuition is non-refundable, and that tuition payments are due on the 1st of each month.
Tuition rates will be updated once a year to reflect cost-of-living changes.
Term Commitments, Absences & Cancellations
Term Commitments:
Students (or their parents) commit to attending and paying for their day and time for all 18 weeks in the Fall and Spring Terms. Students are reserving their lesson time from my schedule for each week, and it is their time whether they are there or not. Learning to play the piano is a skill that takes dedication, commitment, and good practice over many months to develop and that it is normal for there to be some fluctuations in interest level in students. Please also keep in mind that I am a working musician and I plan my work life around my teaching schedule. It is very difficult for me to fill a lesson slot in the middle of a Term.
Make-up Lesson Policy:
Students are allowed to receive one make-up lesson per Term. There is a lot of preparation and administrative work that I dedicate to all of my students, and in order to best serve my students overall, I only allow for one makeup lesson per student per term. I reserve special Makeup Days at the end of my terms for makeup lessons, or, at my discretion, I may schedule a makeup lesson at another time. In general, students or their parents are responsible for scheduling their makeup lesson, and makeup lessons do not carry forward from term to term.
Missed Lessons:
Because students are reserving their own specific day and time for their lesson, a student who does not attend a lesson (beyond the one allowable make-up lesson) will simply miss that week’s lesson. If a student cannot attend in person but can attend online, then a remote lesson can fill in for a lesson that is normally in person. There are no refunds, discounts, or additional make-up lessons given unless I am unable to teach the promised number of lessons.
Changing Lesson Times:
Please give Dr. Lewis as much notice as possible (at least 30 days) if you need to switch your lesson time. Schedules are very full for most students and it is difficult to accommodate requests in the middle of a term, so more notice means more time to find a good switch.
Practice Guidelines
Studying the piano is like learning a foreign language with an unfamiliar alphabet while also training as an athlete while also developing one’s creativity and curiosity in a rich and vibrant cultural tradition. In order to make good, steady progress, students of different experience levels should practice at least this much:
Beginning students: 30 minutes/day, 5-6 days/week
Intermediate students: 45-60 minutes/day, 5-7 days/week
Advanced students: 90 minutes-3 hours/day, 6-7 days/week
A good practice habit is a fundamental part of learning to play the piano, and is required for the student to see the improvements they want from lessons. Playing the piano is a richly rewarding activity in part because it is a difficult one, and consistent, focused, and well-planned practicing is crucial to making good progress on the piano. Students who do practice well will make great progress, be able to advance to more demanding repertoire, and feel a deep sense of satisfaction with how they build up their abilities over time. Younger students often need help from their parents to build a good practice habit.
It is useful to schedule practice time into your calendar so it is the same every day of the week. This helps practicing become a part of your normal routine. For intermediate and advanced students, it is good to practice in two (or more) separate sessions per day.
Fundamental Principle of Learning and Practicing Music
“Learning” and “practicing” are two separate tasks. Learning is the initial step, where you use the score, your ears, or your teacher’s demonstrations to figure out how to play the music in the first place; this is the slower and more careful part of piano study. Practicing is the process of repeating what you have learned multiple times per day for multiple days until you commit it to your long-term memory and have developed your technique until it feels like second nature.
Piano Practice Session Outline
Full body warm up (2 minutes). This can include basic shoulder rolls, neck rolls, light aerobics to get the legs and core engaged, and stretches.
Hand and wrist warm up (3 minutes). Time to wake up the small muscles of the fingers, hand, wrist, and forearms! This can include thumb circles, the starfish-fist exercise, and gentle stretches. I usually use the routine found in this video: Hand Exercises for Piano Players.
Review weekly and daily goals for practicing (2-3 minutes).
Technique (5-10 minutes). Chords and chord crawls, scales, arpeggios, and exercises (like Hanon). This time builds awareness of the physical techniques of playing the piano without the added element of the musical expression.
Repertoire (15-45 minutes). Spend time on your pieces, switching between them once you have completed your daily goal. Try going between newer pieces where you spend more time learning the notes and techniques and pieces you know better and are working on expression and interpretation. Our brains thrive on variety!
Reflection (2-3 minutes). Before finishing, reflect on what you have achieved and what you want to do better next time. This can include thinking about how your pieces sounded, how your technique felt, or how well you practiced over all.
Note: If you practice over more than one session, you can gauge whether you still need to do a full warm up for the second session or if you can move towards your repertoire practice sooner. I usually do not need as extensive a warm up if I have already warmed up earlier in the day.