School Policies

Snohomish County Music School Policy 2024-2025

Lessons

Address: 602 Maple Ave, Snohomish, WA 98290; Suites 201, 206, 209, or 210

Calendar

Fall Semester: September 9, 2024 – February 8, 2025

Makeup Week #1: October 27 – November 2, 2024
Thanksgiving Break: November 24 – 30, 2024
Winter Break: December 22 – January 4, 2025
Makeup Week #2: February 2-8, 2025

Spring Semester – February 10 – June 21, 2025

Spring Break: April 6 – April 13, 2025
Makeup Week #1: April 27 – May 3, 2025
Memorial Day: May 26, 2025
Makeup Week #2: June 22-28, 2025
Summer Break: June 29 – July 5, 2025

Summer Session: July 6 – August 30, 2025

Semesters are 5 months long and each student receives 17 lessons each Semester. You can find a breakdown of the Semester in Weeks with our additional Makeup Weeks and breaks on the door of Suite 201.

New students will go through a trial period to make sure that the teacher, student, and parent work together well. This period will last for 3 lessons. After this period, students can stay with their teacher, switch to a different teacher if needed provided there is room in their schedule or choose to discontinue.

School Performances, Rehearsals, and Studio Classes

Performances:

Fall Recital: at 2pm on October 13, 2024, at the Holiday Cascadian Place in Everett
Winter Concert: at 4pm on December 8, 2024, at the Lake Stevens HS Performing Arts Center in Lake Stevens

Rehearsal: December 7, 2024, time and location TBA

Winter Recital: at 2pm on February 2, 2025, at the Holiday Cascadian Place in Everett
Spring Recital: at 2pm on April 27, 2025, at the Holiday Cascadian Place in Everett
End of Year Recitals: June 8, 2025, at the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Lake Stevens, time of recitals TBA

Rehearsals: June 7, 2025, time and location TBA

Studio Classes:

Studio classes are held at the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Lake Stevens, WA from 2pm – 3:30pm.

Fall Semester - September 29; October 27; November 10; January 19

Spring Semester - February 16; March 16; April 13; May 18, 2025

Tuition/Fees

Tuition and fees cover more than just your time slot in your teacher’s schedule. This covers the time that they invest in making sure students have the correct tools and practice techniques to progress in their musical abilities. Tuition is for enrollment in lessons, not just attendance at those lessons. When you sign up for lessons, you reserve a specific time in your teacher’s schedule each week.

The $20 General Administration Fee covers general studio and administration costs and is built into the price of tuition. This fee will be shown as a separate charge on your invoice.

Tuition is due by the first lesson of the month with no exceptions. All invoices will be sent on the 1st of each month.

The school accepts payment via cash, check, ACH via My Music Staff or credit via My Music Staff. For credit card transactions, there is a 3.15% transaction fee. You can also pay via Zelle with no fee. Please use the phone number (509) 307-4833.

Below you will find Semester rates and the monthly installment breakdown.

30-minute lessons: $825/Semester, $165/monthly installment

45-minute lessons: $1,075/Semester, $215/monthly installment

60-minute lessons: $1,325/Semester, $265/monthly installment

After 14 days of not receiving your monthly tuition installment, a $30 late fee will be charged automatically to your account and a new invoice will be emailed. Invoice reminders will be sent out on the 9th of every month. If there is a school break for the first week of the month, reminders will be sent on the 14th of the month.

Lesson Reservation Fee

If a student plans to take an extended break from lessons lasting longer than one month, a monthly reservation fee of $60 will be required to hold their designated lesson time in the instructor’s schedule. This fee ensures the students’ time slot remains available upon their return and compensates the instructor for reserving this time.

The reservation fee does not cover any lessons during the break and is non-refundable. This fee goes directly to the instructor to pay them for keeping that time open in their schedule. If the reservation fee is not paid, the lesson time may be made available to other students, and a new time slot will need to be arranged upon the student’s return based on availability.

To arrange for a break and reserve your time, please contact the administrative team in advance.

Piano Accompaniment

If students need piano accompaniment for recitals, families will be responsible for paying the accompanist directly for rehearsals. For recital accompaniment, each student will have a $10 accompaniment fee added to the following month’s invoice.

Cancellation/Re-scheduling

Lessons cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice are not eligible for a makeup lesson and are treated as unexcused absences. This includes the morning of lesson cancelations due to waking up sick.
If you need to cancel, please email info@snocomusic.com immediately and go through your My Music Staff portal to cancel the lesson.
Makeup lessons are offered twice (2) per semester during the set Makeup Weeks. If more than two (2) lessons are cancelled during the semester, the student will only be eligible for two (2) makeup lessons during the set Makeup Weeks.
If you cancel your makeup lesson during Makeup Week with less than 24 hour notice, another makeup lesson will not be scheduled for the missed makeup lesson.
If a teacher must cancel a lesson, we will reschedule the lesson or you will receive a monetary refund that will go towards the next month’s tuition.

Please think hard on the time and day you choose the lesson to be every week and commit to it 100%. This is not only the time in your day that you are using but it is time in your teacher’s day that they are giving to the student. Write it down and make sure you do not forget!

If something comes up where you need to change your lesson to a different time or day of the week, we will do everything we can to keep you on the schedule, however there is no guarantee that we will be able to accommodate this change.

Tardiness

Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. Please be a few minutes early for the lesson. If you are tardy to your lesson, time added to the end of your lesson is not guaranteed.

If you know you are going to be late to your lesson, please email your teacher directly and copy info@snocomusic.com on the email. Please add both email addresses to your contacts.

If a student is more than 15 minutes late, we will assume you are not coming, and the lesson payment will be forfeited. The teacher will contact the student/parent after 10 minutes to see if the lesson was just forgotten.

If the teacher is late for a lesson, the time will be made up either at the end of the lesson or at a different time.

Student Expectations

Students are expected to bring all the materials to each lesson. Please double check before leaving your house to make sure that you have all the books and materials to bring to the lesson.

Materials for each instrument will be different. Please ask your teacher what materials you should bring for your specific instrument.

Violin, viola or cello – instrument, rosin, cleaning cloth, music, pencil, shoulder rest (violin/viola), rock stop/endpin strap (cello).
Guitar – instrument, music, foot stand, pencil
Piano – music and pencil
Voice – music, pencil, water

Students should make sure to keep their fingernails trimmed short enough to accommodate playing a musical instrument! Not only is this keeping good hygiene but having long nails will not allow the student to play the instrument correctly.

If you play any instrument besides the guitar, both hands should have short fingernails.
If you play the guitar, your right plucking hand will need to have longer nails, but your left hand should stay trimmed.

Practice expectations are as follows:

Students taking 30-minute lessons should have a goal of practicing for 30-45 minutes weekly outside of the lesson.
Students taking 45-minute lessons should have a goal of practicing for 45-60 minutes weekly outside of the lesson.
Students taking 60-minute lessons should have a goal of practicing for a minimum of 60 minutes weekly.
Students that are playing at an advanced level should aim for about 3-4 hours of practice per week.

The more consistently you practice the better you will get! Practice efficiently and you will see progress. If you practice the day before your lesson, you are more than likely to not feel like you have made progress. If you practice every day between your lessons, you are going to make progress!

A note on practicing – practice does not always mean to play with the instrument. Sometimes practice means listening to a recording and observing movements and trying to apply that to your playing. Mental practice is also very important, and your teacher can discuss this type of practice in lessons.

If your student is just not wanting to practice on a particular day, please don’t pull your own hair out and make the situation more frustrating. Some days will be like this, and it is best for everyone to keep the experience positive and do something musical that is not picking up the instrument.

Parental Involvement

Teachers at SnoCo Music School believe that parental involvement is vital for student success, especially during the beginning through intermediate years of learning to play a new instrument. Learning to read music is like learning a new language; it takes constant encouragement from the parent for the child to become excited about learning. Even if the parent is not musically inclined, showing support will only further the progress of the student.

We highly recommend that parents stay to observe their student’s entire lesson, even if it is just one lesson. If parents are comfortable having their student attend their lessons alone, then parents can wait outside during the lesson. When practicing at home, parents can help guide good practice habits and remind students what to practice after observing lessons. If practicing with your student is not possible daily, have them play something for you at the end of each practice session during the week.

If the teacher feels that a parent is being too vocal during lessons, they can request for the parent to wait outside of the room for the lesson. There can be only one teacher in the room, and that needs to be the teacher.

Materials

Students will need to purchase music in their own time. Please be sure to order books sent by teachers as soon as possible so they are available to use at the next lesson. Almost all the books can be purchased through Amazon.

Violin/viola/cello - most students will need to rent a violin from the local music shop. Renting is recommended if the student is young and growing as the violin size will change quickly. Snohomish County Music School also provides rental instruments for violin and viola at $20 per month.

Students looking to purchase an instrument should try many out before making a final decision. Please bring the instrument to the lesson so that your teacher may hear the student play and give an honest opinion on the quality of the instrument. We recommend that families do not purchase instruments from Amazon no matter how good the reviews are. Please confer with your teacher before purchasing an instrument that suits your needs.

Summer Lessons

Summer lessons will be “a la carte”, meaning you can pick and choose which weeks you would like to attend lessons with your teacher depending on yours and their vacation schedule.

We encourage students to take lessons through the summer so that they continue making progress throughout the whole year. We understand that everyone enjoys taking a break and camps or vacations take place during the summer. If you are only able to make it to a lesson every other week, that is still better than no lessons for two full months!

Withdrawals/Dismissals

If a student wishes to withdraw from the school for any reason, they must give a 30-day notice and a written note - email is fine - stating they would no longer like to take private lessons. Students who withdraw at the beginning or the middle of a month will forfeit the rest of the month’s tuition as they made a commitment and have taken up the time slot in their teacher’s calendar.

Snohomish County Music School reserves the right to dismiss a student at any time for any of the following reasons:

Not making a dedicated effort to practice
Disrespect towards a teacher and their property
Missing lessons on a consistent basis without proper notice
Multiple late payments

If for any of these reasons your teacher dismisses a student, the lesson will end immediately and there will be no refund of the month’s tuition. Teachers will speak plainly with a student and parent if any of these issues arise during the lesson.