Do you want your child to experience the joy of playing a musical instrument?
Do you want them to develop life-long skills such as self-confidence, imagination and creativity?
Do you want very convenient scheduling options for their lessons?
We understand that as a parent, you want the best for your child.
Here’s what our students get:
Perfect balance between structure & creativity, organization and fun. Too many times, kids are taught either with too much structure and no creativity, or vice versa. Every child is different, but everyone responds well to a certain degree of organization as well as fun and opportunities for creative self-expression.
Teachers who adapt to his or her own style of learning. When teachers have only one style of teaching, kids who also share that style will thrive, but the rest will feel unfulfilled. It is an art form to adapt to different students’ preferred ways of learning. For example, some kids are more visual, some more audial. Some like to be told exactly what to do and others like to explore, etc. There is no right or wrong. Our teachers are trained to be versatile in their approaches.
Short-term satisfaction and long-term development in the fundamentals of music at the same time. Our younger students love playing their favorite songs, as all musicians do. It brings them immediate gratification and fuels their motivation. However, if other general musicianship skills (such as ear training, fretboard knowledge, music theory) are not mentioned at all, then the students who progress in music will be in for a rude awakening down the road.
Modern teaching methods that get results much faster than traditional ones. This critical difference between great lessons and average lessons can be further explained in the free introductory session, but suffice it to say that many of the ways music has been traditionally taught were not developed because they were shown to be superior to other methods, but simply because they were handed down from generation to generation. Much of the latest research points to much faster and more rewarding, if potentially less ‘neat and tidy’ learning methods.
Scroll down to see what our kids are saying about the School!
Click the button below to tell us more about your child, or call head teacher Dennis Winge directly at 607-222-3166
Benefits of Lessons to Children:
– Development of both sides of the brain. It is widely known that music is both a creative and a logical activity, unlike most subjects, sports, or activities that your child is likely engaged in.
– Higher IQ. In studies such as this one (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00711.x), the group that took music lessons experienced “greater increases in full-scale IQ”
– Greater self-confidence. As your child is able to hear better and better music coming out of their guitar, they undoubtedly feel a sense of personal accomplishment, which often pervades other areas of their life. We also offer performance opportunities for them as well, which act as a major booster for self-esteem as well.
– Social skills. Music is a team sport. Kids learn the art of listening and responding, and they get the opportunity to vocalize their musical preferences and even make suggestions on repertoire.
– Goal-setting skills. In school, a focus on longer-term goals is rarely encouraged. Your child will be invited to think about what they want to be able to do on the guitar and we will create a customized strategy to help them get there as soon as possible.
– Self-discipline. Everyone knows that in order to see progress, a musician must practice. We break down big goals into easy, doable steps so that kids feel fulfilled and are also more likely to increase the length of their subsequent focused time on the instrument.
– Organizational skills. All students are expected to maintain a clean, well-organized binder. They manage their own Practice Tracker, and they are given customized online resources to help them keep on track as well.
Advantages to Parents:
We are very conscious about the fact that giving your child lessons is a big commitment on your part. In order to make it much easier for you to give your child the benefits of guitar lessons, you will enjoy these benefits:
– very flexible scheduling options. We will explain more about this in the free introductory session.
– strategies for greatly reducing or totally removing your stress about whether your kid practices at home. Our head teacher, Dennis Winge, has had many difficult discussions with his son about practicing his violin over the years. We know what it’s like and we will explain more about how we can help you avoid this ongoing struggle when we meet you in the free intro session.
– opportunity to get shopping done, as we are located near one of Ithaca’s biggest shopping districts
– opportunity to get work done. We have a comfortable and quiet waiting area with wifi where parents sometimes bring laptops, etc.
– relief that your child is in a safe, supportive, & professional learning environment. Some lesson environments can be too noisy or industrial (not to mention the headache for parking their location often induces), and others can be too informal (like a living room or bedroom.) Come see for yourself that our environment has the best of both worlds.
Here’s what our younger students and their parents are saying:
Ricky has been with our School over 2 years now and has played in 3 recitals and on 2 student albums. He explains that he likes the variety and creativity of doing lots of different things on guitar and using them to play his favorite songs. He can play chords, write music, improvise, play famous licks and riffs using tablature, and more!
Amalie is a relatively shy girl who says that she took to guitar after trying many other instruments. She also says that, unlike previous teachers, Dennis Winge, (our head teacher) is very supportive and encouraging. Is this a coincidence? There’s no way of telling for sure in this case, but for most kids there is a strong correlation between how supportive the teacher is, how much they enjoy the lessons, and how long they stick with it.
Andrew is an active, creative kid who plays and sings at his school’s talent shows and is now learning to play lead guitar.
His mom says that he “has made a huge amount of progress in a very short time. Every time he interacts with Dennis he comes home really enthused and motivated. He plays with his dad now and the whole family has benefitted greatly from the lessons.”
Ulric is a teenager who is into heavy metal. Even though he doesn’t use the word “implement” in the video, he says his favorite part of the lessons is the hands-on approach. People learn by doing.
Every kid is different. Some thrive with reading music and the use of method books, and some hate that approach. Demetri is a very creative kid with a wild imagination. Unfortunately, he was subjected to strict adherence to a method book for his first year of guitar lessons in another city. Now, Demetri is writing lots of songs and finally enjoying guitar playing!
“Dennis is an excellent instructor. He has been super patient with my 8 year old daughter yet still pushes her to give her best and keep at it when she becomes discouraged. I would recommend Dennis to anyone looking to learn an instrument or even to just improve upon their skills as a musician.” – Hank
“My son Nial is learning so much faster now with Dennis than he was with his former teacher. “- Angie
Click the button below to tell us more about your child, or call head teacher Dennis Winge directly at 607-222-3166
Dennis Winge, head teacher. Dennis has been teaching guitar professionally since the year 2000.