I offer Group Piano Lessons and Private 1-on-1 Piano Lessons for children (from 6 years old) and adults. I teach both pop and classical piano. The 5 main areas that will be covered are – Ear Training, Note Reading, Fundamentals of Rhythms, Music Theory and Musicianship. For younger children, Music Appreciation will be the main focus in building musical interests and musicianship.
Lessons will be customized individually as everyone learns in a different way and at a different pace. I will look into students’ strengths and weaknesses and will strike a balance to help make the learning effective and enjoyable. My method of teaching goes beyond just covering pages of a piano book.
Lessons details:
Private 1-on-1 piano lesson:
– Age group: 6 years old and above
– 60min session
– To book a slot or for further enquiries, please drop me an email, SMS or a voicemail. (prefer NOT to call my mobile as most of the time I am teaching).
Group piano lesson:
– Age group: 6 – 15 years old (children group)
– 16 years and above (adult group)
– 60min session
– 2 to 4 students per class.
– To book a slot or for further enquires, please drop me an email, SMS or a voicemail. (prefer NOT to call my mobile as most of the time I am teaching).
For more answers to your questions, please read the FAQ below.
What is the lesson duration and how frequent should lessons be?
Private 1-on-1 piano lessons – 60mins each session, Weekly.
Group piano lesson – 60mins each session, Weekly.
I recommend lessons twice a week for those who are highly committed and eager to improve at a faster pace. You may also want to consider a consistent weekly lesson and additional lessons bi-weekly.
Why weekly or even twice a week? If you read my other blog post about ‘practicing’, getting your hands on the piano is a nurturing process, it is difficult if there is too long of a gap in your piano guidance journey. Please read the blog post here.
How do I make payment? and what is the procedure like?
You can make payment in cash or e-transfer before the start of each month. Students have to confirm the number of classes they book for the month. Make sure to commit to it and I will send an invoice before each month stating the number of lessons booked for the month. Thereafter, will send another email of receipt after the payment is made.
What do I do if I need to cancel lessons? What is your policy?
My time and schedule are dedicated to each student once lessons are booked, confirmed and paid for the said month. I expect mutual respect and honor for each other’s time. Please make cancellations ONLY when necessary. (inconsistent lessons will disrupt your progress. You can see a significant effect quite obviously. Try it and you will know what I mean!)
For any reasons given, cancellations notified within less than 24 hours will be forfeited. This applies to both the teacher and the student. It will then be the responsibility of the person who calls off/misses the lesson to schedule a make-up lesson within 4 weeks. However, it is best to schedule a make up lesson within a week (trust me). Even if your make up lesson is too close to your next lesson day, it is actually better because you are literally getting good piano guidance for many hours in that week itself! Just like how I spend time teaching piano to my kids more than 3 times a week! Just like how some of my students take 2 lessons a week, see how they blossom! (why not picture yourself in that!)
However, no refund is offered if the student does not take up the scheduled make up lesson.
Note: make up lessons can be done ONLINE if you are game for it. These are mainly for those who fall sick and are still able to learn without spreading the germs.
Any age limits?
No age limits! I teach adults and children (from 6 years old). I enjoy teaching all adults, seniors, and children. Please read my other blog post about when to start learning the piano. Click Here to read it.
I have no piano or keyboard, can I still learn?
Well, you will still be able to learn without owning a piano, BUT not for long. As you progress, you will need to practice often to get your muscles and brains going. For a start, I highly recommend getting a 61-key keyboard at the least. Then as you proceed, you can invest in an 88-key digital piano for less than $900, brand new. You can also try to get 2nd-hand digital pianos on FB marketplace, Kijiji or eBay for a very good price too. You just got to keep a lookout for the right one.
On the other hand, if available, I do offer keyboard rental to those who wish not to commit to buying one. Please contact me for further details.
Do you teach in-person or online?
I teach both in-person AND online. if you got just a little unwell and would really like to have lessons without spreading the germs (totally socially responsible, thank you!), I highly recommend that you stay home and get on screen with me. Let me know as soon as you can so that I can set up the links to connect the online lesson.
However, if any lockdown happens, I will have to comply with the government rules and hold lessons online.
So this means if you are reading this from outside of Ottawa or in the far west of Ottawa, you can take lessons from me online too! Drop me a message and we can discuss this.
Where will in-person lessons be held?
In-person lessons will be at my home basement studio. However, I can only travel to a student’s place only on weekday mornings between 9am to 2pm (limited slots). Additional charges will be applied depending on the distance. (*note: I have travel distance limits. Please holler to discuss this).
Is your place Covid safe? What are your safety measures?
I am not able to guarantee a Covid-safe place (I mean, who is able to do so at all?!) but I have safety measures applied at my place, that is:
- Although putting on mask is optional, my advice is to put on your mask whenever you are unwell.
- I sanitize my piano keys and bench and the entire teaching area before and after each student.
- Every student has to wash and wipe their hands before lessons. oh! and shoes off too!
- I request for students to inform me if they have any Covid encounters.
How are your lessons like?
My method of teaching goes beyond completing pages of a piano book. On the whole, I focus on Ear Training, Note Reading, Fundamentals of Rhythms, Music Theory and Musicianship. Take a read at my other blog post on how my general lesson structure looks like. Read it here.
For a start, printed materials will be provided from my vast library resource. So, a small fee ($15 per year) will be charged in the first month. As a student progresses, I will recommend piano books to purchase. Beginners will be recommended to purchase music theory books in order to help further understand the application of theory to the piano. You can purchase the books at music stores, online or purchase them from me. I do not make any profit from selling books. I just help to make the purchase.
Nonetheless, even with your purchased books, supplementary materials will be provided according to the student’s progress and needs.
Besides teaching pages of songs, I focus a lot on Aural training. Listening, writing and identifying notes and rhythms are constantly trained in lessons. This is what people think it’s ‘music theory’, but no… it is … Ear Training!
I teach various types of songs, mainly Pop, Christian contemporary songs (for churchgoers), Jazz, Classical.
Please contact me for further enquiries.
Ottawa Piano Teacher 