FAQ

We accept students 2.5 years old or older.

We generally encourage students to play with other people, rather than compete against each other. We believe that this creates a positive atmosphere and increases the chances of students continuing to play into adulthood. We also believe that competitions encourage students to spend large amounts of time preparing a small amount of difficult music, which is often a poor use of practice time and often not conducive to producing well-rounded musicians. This applies equally to casual learners and pre-professional students. Therefore, we are generally hesitant to recommend competition entry even to very strong players unless we are certain that competition preparation will not detract from their long-term development.

We have multiple recitals each year. In the Spring, we have a traditional recital in a large, fancy hall while around Christmas time we have a smaller Christmas party with more informal performances. Accelerated course students may have additional solo recitals depending on their level.

Students 9 years old or older are expected to already have access to an instrument.

For younger students, we generally have a rental violin available for trial lessons. However, as our rentals are subject to availability, and as we cannot know the student’s size prior to the first meeting, we cannot guarantee that the size will be correct. Students are welcome to bring their own instrument.

Trial lessons are free, and there is no charge for the studio rental.

Parents of younger children are required to attend the lesson and take notes. This is to ensure that the parent fully understands all of the details of the lesson and is able to fulfill their role as “home teacher” during practice time. Parental involvement both in the lesson and at home is one of the fundamental requirements for taking lessons at this studio.

Lessons can be made up during designated make-up lesson weeks (marked in red on the lesson calendar) during the student's usual time slot.

All of our lessons are offered both in Japanese and in English, so English is not required.

With the exception of Irish Music Group Lessons, group lessons are only available to students who are also enrolled in private lessons. Irish Music Group lessons are open to players of all ages of at least lower-intermediate level or higher.

For students 8 years old and younger, experience is neither required nor expected. Prospective students age 9 and older are expected to have some experience, with older students expected to have more experience.

With the exception of Irish Music Lessons, we only accept students of high school age and younger. Irish Music Lessons are open to all ages.

Unfortunately, we only offer monthly lesson plans, with lessons 3-4 times per month.

At a minimum, students are expected to be able to understand basic commands and simple explanations given proper context. The amount of English actually used in the lesson will correspond to the amount of English the student can understand. For simple or review topics and general lesson commands, English is commonly used, while Japanese may need to be used for new, difficult, or highly technical topics. Lessons for older students usually have a higher proportion of English to Japanese than those for younger students.

The price is the same regardless of the language used.

Initially your child will be using a small violin, which doesn’t make much noise, especially compared to other instruments like pianos. However, as they move on to larger and larger instruments their sound will become louder and louder, so it is important to check to ensure that this will not cause problems with your neighbors in the future. Renting or buying a sound-proof room and having it installed in your apartment may provide a solution to this problem, although it may be necessary to check with your landlord before installing it.

Unfortunately, rentals are currently only available to students at this studio.