It’s that time of year again when we start receiving lots of enquiries for 1-to-1 tuition to help Year 5 students prepare for the upcoming Music Scholarship exams.
We are offering Zoom tuition to help you prepare for the Music Aptitude Tests and you can book this online. If you do not see a suitable time or date please keep checking back as we will add more dates. Our teachers have the most availability during the half-term break and Summer holidays. During term-time we have some space on Friday and Saturday as detailed in the schedule here. No other times are available and we are unable to offer phone or email support before you book a lesson due to the high number of enquiries we receive every day.
We also have training tests available to help familiarise you with the style of tests you will hear on the day. Please note these will never be the exact same test you will hear as every single school uses a different test and it changes each year. However we have been using the tests successfully to help students gain places at their chosen schools and they are best used with the assistance of your music teacher. We advise practising earlier rather than last minute for the test!
Half-term is over and we’re thinking ahead to this Autumn when many students will sit the Music Aptitude Tests for schools such as Habs, Kingsdale and Prendergast in South London. Further afield, there are many schools throughout the UK also using this system.
Join us for a 1-to-1 session to help Year 4, 5 and 6 musicians prepare for the upcoming Music Scholarships for 2019 state secondary admissions.
The session will focus on Music Aptitude Test training that is the first round of the selective music intake process.
If you would like to focus on Round Two, do bring your instrument (if possible) and we will listen to your audition piece(s) and give advice on performance as well as prep the interview questions with you. We have a piano available for your use as well as an accompanist so please both music parts if accompanied.
In our terms and conditions that all piano students sign when starting lessons, it states that we do not reschedule piano lessons. This includes swapping lessons. If you are wondering why we have this condition, here is some information:
Each student receives a weekly slot for lesson. Our teachers all work on different days and some travel a long way to give your lesson so they are not available on days other than when they are scheduled to work in the studio. Alex and Mirna both live over an hour each way by bus, therefore they cannot just pop in for 1 lesson on a day that they do not teach. We also have a very packed schedule 7 days a week so we can’t interrupt the studio to slot in ad hoc lessons as our students attend lessons back to back.
If you are unable to attend, the teacher will still be paid for that lesson as their teaching hours are fixed for each half-term by the number of students on their roster. If they were to teach you again later during the week, then this would be an additional lesson that would incur the usual lesson fee. We cannot adjust the next invoice to remove the missed lesson’s fee as your teacher will have already been paid for this lesson.
Even with plenty of notice, we are unable to administer requests for lesson swaps or reschedules. To reschedule just one lesson could lead to a series of complex timetable swaps and multiple emails to secure a change of time. As you can appreciate, with over 100 students, this would be a heavy administrative burden that would not be sustainable for a small business. We do not have a full-time administrator and every single email sent costs the business time and resources to reply. This is why we will not respond to any requests about rescheduling lessons as we explained fully our terms and conditions to you when you first came for lessons. We will however do a refresher in person when we next see you and go through this information with you if you are unclear about any of it.
Our piano teaching studio offers a well-planned weekly lesson that is supplemented by termly performance opportunities, school trips and graded exams. By keeping a fixed weekly lesson schedule, we can use our time to plan the extra-curricular schedule which goes above and beyond what other piano teachers offer.
We do not share contact details of students/parents as they have not consented to receive emails from other students/parents nor are we able to implement this service due to GDPR rules and ICO data compliance.
We include the terms and conditions on every email communication and these are also readily viewable online on our web site Fees page. All students sign this document before starting lessons and we explain this in person to you when you come for your consultation lesson.
We thank you for your cooperation in the smooth running of the piano teaching studio!
We are receiving a record number of Music Aptitude Test enquiries at the moment and are struggling to answer all of your emails at the moment. The majority of the emails are enquiring with the same question so have a read here to see the answer to the most commonly asked question. We also have a very comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions about the Music Aptitude Test guide here. Do have a read as it is a growing resource that we regularly update with questions from parents and students about the Music Scholarship process.
If you are preparing for Round One of the Music Aptitude Test or you have successfully secured your Round Two audition place, book an 11+ music scholarship tutoring lesson online and we will help fully prepare you for the exact requirments of any UK state or private secondary school. The lesson is tailored to your chosen school(s).
We are running an Open Studio session where you can come and meet the teacher, find out about music lessons and have a try of the piano.
Join us for a free taster session which is open to groups of up to 4 musicians at a time that are interested in learning the piano. You can find out what we offer, how lessons work and you can ask any questions to the teacher. They can also let you know how to book in for a 1-to-1 consultation lesson plus give you details of all the current vacancies. Please note this is not an individual piano lesson but more an opportunity to come to our music studio and try out the piano briefly if you like. This session is open to children from age 4+ and adult learners too. Please note this session is not suitable for candidates enquiring about Music Aptitude Tests or Scholarships.
