Here at Foothills Music Academy we accept students of all ages from 3 to 93. It is never too early and never too late to learn a musical instrument of any kind.

We encourage you to start with an instrument that you naturally gravitate towards and that you enjoy hearing. We have found that if you like the instrument and enjoy the sound of the instrument, you will be more likely to want to practice it, although we also find that certain instruments are a better fit for some of our younger students. For students age 2 to 4 piano seems to work out best since it is a very visual instrument and it makes it simpler for younger students to understand than some of the other instruments we offer. Students ages 4-7 can do piano as well as drums, voice and violin. Ages 8 and up can do almost any instrument we offer. These ages are of course only recommendations. We have sometimes found that some students are very determined to learn a specific instrument so we will always try to teach them even if they are younger than what we would normally recommend, as we never want to discourage a student from learning. The best idea is to come in for a free introductory lesson to determine what instrument would be the best fit for the age of the student.

Absolutely not! We actually have a large number of adults and senior citizens that take lessons with us here at Foothills Music Academy. We do not discriminate and our instructors can teach students of all ages. Music is timeless and ageless. So if you have never touched an instrument or maybe you used to take lessons back when you were much younger and just always wanted to get back to it we can work with you and help you in learning whichever instrument seems interesting to you.

Practice is the number one determining factor that is going to assist in improving your musical skills. That being said, each student moves at a different pace. With the instructors assistance you will know exactly what to practice in order to progress at a more rapid rate. Doing private lessons also allows for an individualized program for each student. This means that if you want to learn “Jingle Bells” then we will teach you that exact song. Because of this you will start learning a song at your first lesson and within a short period of time you will be able to play the whole thing.

Our lessons generally are done one time a week at a set day and time. We also offer lessons two times a week for some students. In addition to our standard schedules we can also work out special schedules for students that travel a lot or adults that may have an odd schedule because of work. We offer lessons in most of our instruments 7 days a week and are very good at ensuring that we find a convenient time and day for you to take lessons.

We offer a free 30 minute introductory lesson to anyone who is looking to learn an instrument. We find that it’s important to ensure that you have a good connection with the instructor and that you actually enjoy learning the instrument you have chosen to play.

All of our instructors are educated and have degrees from colleges all over the US. Please refer to our “Instructors” page to view each of their credentials.

We have at least 3 recitals a year. We have a Spring recital, a Summer recital and a Holiday recital. It is not mandatory to participate in the recitals although we definitely encourage our students to do so. Performing in front of an audience can build a great deal of self-confidence and stage presence and gives students a goal to work towards. We do our recitals at a local church and we usually have about 200 people in attendance. This provides a great audience for our students to perform for and also gives us a wonderful opportunity to acknowledgement them for their hard work.

We teach just about all of the most popular instruments you can think of including voice and vocals. We also teach some less popular and more obscure instruments. Listed below are several of the instruments we teach. We can teach students from an absolute beginner level to a very advanced level. If the instrument you are interested in isn’t listed here please contact us to see if we can assist in finding you an instructor.

Yes. All of our instructors are fully educated in music theory and are excellent at explaining it in a way that anyone can understand. Music is similar to learning another language and the theory is like the alphabet. Understanding the theory is about half of the battle of learning how to play an instrument and we make it easy and fun to learn.

We approach practicing in a different way than most music schools and instructors. Instead of practicing for a set amount of time each day we use repetition. An assignment will be given weekly to practice a certain number of days and a specific number of times each day. For example: Play “Mary Had a Little Lamb” 3xs a week, 3xs each day. This works very well for young kids that don’t quite understand the concept of time. If you tell them to practice for 20 minutes they don’t fully understand how long that is. If you tell them to practice 3 songs 3 times each then they can be in control of that. They tend to focus better as well since they know exactly what to do. We also have a practice game where students can win prizes weekly if they do their practice. This gives a bit of incentive to help the students practice more and in turn progress in their instrument at a more rapid rate.

We are so excited to meet you and get you started on your wonderful journey to learn an instrument or take you to the next level in your music education. Please give us a call at (818) 248-4848 and we will set you up for a free introductory lesson as soon as possible.

We have found that the stability of having the same instructor each week has proven to be the best way to advance in learning an instrument. The only time there may be a substitute instructor is if your usual instructor is out of town for more than a week as we do not want you to go without a lesson for an extended period of time. In this instance the substitute instructor will be given a full write up of what you are currently working on in order to allow for a seamless transition during the short period of time that your regular instructor will not be available.

We schedule students to come to their lesson at a specific day and time each week, although we also understand that life happens and things come up. If you are going out of town or have back to school night etc… all you have to do is let us know by the day before and we will reschedule your lesson to a time when you will be able to make it.

We offer lessons in several different instruments and by several different instructors. We feel that all lessons and instructors are important and because of that we charge the same price for every lesson and instructor. Our rates are based solely on the amount of time you want to spend with the instructor each week. We offer 30 minute lessons, 45 minute lesson and 1 hour lessons weekly. We can also accommodate other lesson lengths. Please contact us if you have any special requests and we will do our best to work with you. Please contact us so we can discuss what lesson length would be most ideal for you and what are flat rate amounts are.

We charge for lessons by the month instead of by the individual lesson. Because of this some months you will receive 4 lessons (4 weeks in the month) and some months you will receive 5 lessons (5 weeks in the month). We have found that it works better for the students to ensure they receive a lesson each week and to know that there will be a flat rate charge monthly instead of it changing a few months throughout the year.

All of our students sign a student agreement. It goes over simple things such as the enrollment fee, our rescheduling policy and the cancellation date. Our agreement is only a month to month agreement. If you do not want to continue into the next month you simply let us know by the 14th of the prior month. (This is about a 2 week notice) This gives us enough time to adjust the payment and the schedule for the instructors.

No. We only charge a one-time $25 enrollment fee for each student. This is not a recurring fee that is charged.