Hayes School of Music

Private Lesson Policies 

See "Policies for Minors (Youth)" above for additional policies about private lessons for minors.

Faculty and Instruments 

• Visit our Private Lessons page to read about our instruments, faculty, and pay rates.

• Email the CMS team at asucommunitymusic@appstate.edu and we will put you in touch with your desired teacher. We can also recommend a teacher for you. 

• CMS is not able to provide instruments at this time. Please visit your local music store for more information about instrument rentals and purchases. Your teacher may be able to recommend instruments and supplies to purchase. If you have any further questions, please contact us at asucommunitymusic@appstate.edu. 

New Students

• New students are defined as the following:
  • Students new to CMS
  • Current CMS students trying out lessons on a different instrument
  • Current CMS students trying lessons with a faculty member they have not learned from before
• As a new student, you can initially register for a 4-lesson package and then add more lessons if desired. To learn more and sign up for your first lessons, please visit our pages on Private Lessons and Private Lesson Registration and contact asucommunitymusic@appstate.edu with questions. New students also have the option to register for a full semester.
• If you wish to add more lessons later, you can request to add a custom amount to finish out the semester. If you do this through the steps shown - that is, by contacting your teacher and CMS staff to assist - will not be charged another registration fee to add more private lessons for the semester.

Make-up Policies for Private Lessons

• A lesson missed or rescheduled with less than 24 hours’ notice will be charged as a regular lesson. 
• A teacher will reschedule one lesson without penalty if the student/family provides over 24 hours’ notice. 
• Even with advance notice, a teacher may not be able to reschedule frequently due to their other time commitments. For this reason, a teacher is not required to reschedule more than one lesson. Students and families are recommended to ask their teacher if and when a lesson can be rescheduled before planning to reschedule a lesson for a vacation, appointment, etc. Please note that unfinished lessons may not roll over to future semesters and are not refunded. 24 hours’ notice is necessary to reschedule a lesson without penalty. 
• If a student is late, the teacher will still need to end the lesson at the original ending time. A teacher will wait 10 minutes for a late arrival before marking the lesson a no-show, which will be charged as a normal lesson. 
• Any lesson missed by a CMS teacher will be made up. If the teacher must reschedule a lesson, the teacher will notify the student at least 24 hours in advance. The missed lesson may be made up by moving it to a different date or by adding time to one or more future lessons. 
• TUITION ASSISTANCE: Missing lessons or rescheduling more than one lesson may affect tuition assistance eligibility or cause the student to forfeit the remaining tuition assistance for the semester. Please communicate with your teacher and asucommunitymusic@appstate.edu if you need to pause lessons due to health issues or other life circumstances! 

Teacher Assignment

While CMS endeavors to create positive growing experiences by maintaining student/teacher relationships throughout a student’s study in CMS, periodic teacher reassignments may occur due to graduation of CMS teachers. Continuing students receive first priority in re-enrollment and teacher assignments. Please contact asucommunitymusic@appstate.edu with any additional questions or concerns. 

Student Practice Guidelines

All students are required to provide their own instruments for study. Your teacher can offer advice on instrument rental and/or purchase.

At each lesson, students will receive a lesson assignment detailing what is to be practiced during the coming week. Students are encouraged to practice for shorter periods each day (as little as 10 minutes each day will make a difference for a beginner) rather than one longer session the day before the lesson. 

Parents are encouraged to help students develop a weekly practice routine. Music study and practice can be a wonderful sharing time for students and parents. While parent involvement is encouraged, parents are urged to be supportive and not overly aggressive in their demands on students.

Basic Supply Checklist

• Instrument (in good playing condition)
• Pencil
• Book or music assigned by instructor
• Additional supplies (rosin, reeds, oil, swabs etc.) as recommended by the instructor
• If a student wishes to read music from a device such as an iPad in an online lesson, it is recommended to read off a separate device than the one being used for the video lesson.

The student and/or parent/guardian is responsible for purchasing music books or supplies.