FAQ

Usually, 4 to 6 is too young for guitar lessons. Piano or voice is usually a better choice at that age. While the guitar is easier for slightly older students, the complexity of putting your second finger on the third fret of the fourth string can be overwhelming for the youngest students. There are a few 6-year-olds who can manage that, and your child might be one of them. However, that's not typical. As we mentioned above, non-string bands and orchestral instruments normally start at 10 or 11 due to the size of the instrument and player. Voice students can start at any age, but all students must be mentally old enough to focus on a topic for 30 minutes-the length of lessons and daily practice.

Ages 7 to 9 typically require a 1/2 or 3/4 size guitar. Several companies make a good-quality small guitar-emphasis here is on "good quality." We know it's tempting to buy a $50 guitar for a small child just starting, but it usually makes it impossible for him/her to succeed because bad sound and high-string action result from poor-quality guitars. 10 years old and up typically are old enough for a full-size guitar. While a full-size guitar will be large to most 10-year-olds, they'll be able to get used to the size and grow into it.

Kids must be comfortable with their instruments so there are no barriers to practicing at home. Our program provides a range of options to adjust student's guitars to make their playability match the student's skill, size, and age, including changing strings, changing tunings, removing strings, and using capos-all as needed to help the student.

Absolutely. What's best for all pianists (or keyboard players) is to play and practice on the traditional acoustic piano. If you don't have that, an 88-key fully piano-weighted keyboard is recommended. The resistance of the heavier key action develops finger muscles, and thus technique. However, we have many students who are playing on 61-key, un-weighted keyboards to start, which cost between $100 and $500.

We understand what it's like to just want to get started without an instrument that costs as much per month as your car payment. An unweighted keyboard will work for 1 to 2 years. However, we recommend moving to a better keyboard as soon as possible. If you're shooting for greatness or begin to get serious with your piano playing, switch to the acoustic piano or the weighted 88-key keyboard ASAP. Keep in mind that if you take lessons on an electronic keyboard, you must get a sustain pedal or it'll mess up your technique, although they don’t cost much.

While we can't predict results in students, most of our students feel they are making music within 2 to 6 months. Most students are pleased with their progress, and as a studio, we are focused on moving all students forward. 99.99% of students can learn to play as well as they want at Promethean if they practice and follow our methods.

Progress is the combination of practice time, natural ability, and efficient learning techniques. How long it takes to reach "good" is dependent upon those three elements and your definition of “playing well.” Students should plan on taking lessons for at least six months, although most students will see significant progress long before that. However, keep in mind that many professional musicians take lessons until the day they die.

Your desired progress, goals, and natural abilities or obstacles are all factors in determining practice requirements. Unless you already play, you're going to have to practice at least two hours a week to make headway on an instrument or voice. We recommend all students practice at least 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week, but when each student begins lessons we get them to commit to one of 5 practice levels, ranging from 0 practice a week to 15 hours or more a week.

Most of our students are either practice level 2 (30 to 45 minutes a day) or level 3 (45 to 60 minutes a day). However, some of our students practice level 5 (15 hours a week)! If you're asking our opinion, practice at least 45 minutes a day, but we'll accommodate whatever you decide, while encouraging you to do what it takes for you to achieve your musical goals.

All studios make more money per hour for group lessons (because there are multiple students in the lesson), so there is always an incentive for studios to push groups (frequently hidden as "semi-private" lessons). That said, we recommend private in-studio lessons for almost all students because we think that they produce the most progress. In general, we think group lessons only work for a few months, when all the participants are brand new.

Within 2 to 4 months, individual tastes and abilities develop, so each person needs private in-studio lessons to go at their pace (slow or fast) and play their music. That's why we make each group class only last 3 months and only let a student take group lessons for a year maximum. Group lessons can only hit the average of the class, and the non-average are hurt. Don't misunderstand-we make our group classes as effective as humanly possible you should only choose them if you can't afford private in-studio lessons.

A student’s growth is deeply influenced by his or her instructor. The Bible (yes, the Bible) has a good point related to this in Matthew 10:24, 25a. It says "A student is not above his instructor, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his instructor.” To us, the point here is all students need a great instructor because students can only grow to the capacity of their instructor.

Every student needs an instructor who believes in that student's ability to learn and become a good player or singer, famous or not. The instructor should be looking for ways to create measurable progress in lessons and have the students work on performing enjoyable and challenging music as they develop new and better abilities. Lessons should also encourage you without being just touchy-feely.

Some studios are focused on being "big-time,” a "we'll make you a STAR!" attitude when almost any professional musician/vocalist will tell you no one can guarantee financial success and stardom in music, There are just too many people out there pursuing fame with only a few positions available. If there was a studio that could make you famous, there'd be only one- everyone would go there, including most of the other music instructors in the world.

Many private in-studio instructors and studios are organized around a talent search mentality in which lessons are more of a culling process, weeding out the "losers" to find the "gifted." Another kind of private instructor asks every lesson "What do you want to do today?" and never challenges students or pulls them beyond themselves, making you wonder if the instructor has any larger vision for the student other than next month's tuition. Some studios and instructors are so warm and fuzzy that while you're feeling great about yourself, you don't notice you haven't learned anything in six months. And we could go on and on.

Some studios are focused on teaching without application, so they have a dry, formal approach that limits real-world progress. A private in-studio instructor might be focused on playing music you don't necessarily like, so everyone in his or her studio must learn jazz rock, or classical. People need room to grow musically, as well as play music they like. That’s why we believe Promethean our instructor is the best in the business and strikes the balance between being encouraging and challenging, teaching fundamental music theory, and getting you to start playing your instrument as soon as possible.

There is no minimum age for taking lessons at Promethean Studios. Mozart started playing at 3 and wrote piano pieces at 5. No matter the age, a student should be mature enough to focus on a topic for at least 30 minutes. Many 5-year-olds are too young (but not all) and most 8-year-olds are old enough (but not all). In any case, when it comes to young students, children will progress better when parents are involved in their process.

The only exception to the minimum age limit is for non-string band and orchestral instruments; in that case, students must be 10 or 11 at least, due to the size of the instruments. If you're having difficulty determining if your child is mature enough for lessons, you can always schedule a consultation or a month of coaching lessons to see how your child does. Regardless of the type of lesson, our instructor evaluates all students in the first few sessions and makes any recommendations needed to make lessons successful.

We use what we call the Promethean method. Our idea is to use a smart, knowledgeable instructor to teach students to play their music as directly and thoroughly as possible by using insightful lesson segments centered on music theory, rhythm training/playing, and improvising to give students personalized lessons with strong direction. We have our piano students work on targeted, useful exercises and get them to play both rhythm and note pieces. Of course, there are many opinions on how to teach and learn piano. We are trying to strike a balance between excellence and fun, so the love of playing animates the learning process.

What we don't want to produce is another 10,000,000 people who took piano for 3 to 10 years as a child and now can't play a note because they were playing music they didn't like, or they didn't feel they were making any progress, or they weren't learning to play the way they heard other people play on albums or the radio. By mixing three approaches, reading by note (the "normal" way), music theory (understanding the fundamental principles of playing music), and playing rhythm piano (typically how contemporary music is played), we're trying hard to make musicians who have fun constantly, see regular progress, can play the songs they have on their iPhone or in their record collection, and are skilled pianists who read well.

As much as you can afford! An experienced professional can take a cruddy instrument and make it sound good (he'll complain about it later, though). However, that’s only for experienced players; poor instruments harm beginning players. They can't make chords, low notes don't come out, keys stick, and the tone is bad.

Having said that, we understand if you've got a kid who may or may not continue more than 2 months or if you're in the same situation as an adult. You don't want to waste money. Don’t worry- your instructor will tell you upfront if your instrument is going to hold you back or will give you recommendations for instrument purchase if you don't have one. All things being equal, buy the Selmer, Steinway, Ramirez, Haynes, Loree', Gibson, Martin, PRS, Warrior, Taylor, Fodera, or Motif. But we understand if you can't just now.

Mark Black's videos on ExpertVillage, eHow, and YouTube have been viewed over a million times. Beyond that, Mark teaches from his belief that most people can learn to sing well, rather than just using his lesson to look for a few star students to make him famous. While a million people can be wrong, in this case, we're sure they're right-Promethean rocks!

Odds are definitely in your favor that you can learn to sing, and sing well! Your problem is most likely that you've trained your ear not to listen to your voice, so to speak. The ear is the target for the voice, the only "person" who knows what note you're supposed to be hitting. Singing without really listening is like a blind man trying to drive. With directed practice over time, most vocalists can overcome this obstacle, but it takes work.

Absolutely. Whatever level you want to achieve with your voice, from “pretty good singer” to world-class vocalist, we can teach you how to get there. However, what we won’t promise you is to make you rich and famous. Despite many claims to the contrary, no instructor, producer, or studio can do that. If you find someone who can do that, please let us know.

Bring your instrument and something to write on and with, except for piano and voice students bring the writing material. If you've had lessons or played/sung before, bring as much of your old music and method books as possible so we can see where you are and possibly use some of your old stuff.

Usually, you don't have to have your instrument for the first lesson, and we'd love to make recommendations as to what instrument to purchase. You will need your instrument to practice at home to continue lessons, though vocalists have a decided advantage here.

We provide some materials for students and have students purchase other materials, mostly so that students can play exactly the music they love, and we don't violate any copyright laws in the process. We'll give you a list of materials you need to purchase at your first lesson. We can recommend stores in the area where you can purchase any needed materials.

Yes, we rent some types of instruments.

Our instructor has varied experiences and styles. When we set up lessons, we will ask about your age, interests, skill level, and other factors to find the instructor that fits you best. If we don't have anyone who can teach you what you want to learn, we'll be glad to tell you so. But, of course, that's pretty unusual.

While the majority of our students are kids and teens, a large portion of our students are adult musicians. We feel very blessed that our student base is about 40% adult and 60% kids and teenagers, giving us the broadest spectrum of opportunities for teaching excellence.

Not. Some have degrees, and some have advanced degrees, but we'd put 15 or 20 years of playing experience against a degree any day of the week. Degreed or not, our instructor is a great player, skilled at teaching, motivated and trained to make lessons enjoyable and purposeful, and able to take students from any level to professional quality. Having a degree doesn't make someone a great musician or a great instructor, as anyone with a degree knows.

Musicians and music instructors without degrees have a long history of excellence. Just ask:

• Monteverdi
• Chris Martin
• Bach
• Norah Jones
• Mozart
• Victor Wooten
• Beethoven
• Ray Charles
• Wagner
• Gershwin
• Brahms
• Stevie Ray
• Clapton
• Barbara Streisand
• Miles Davis
• Luciano Pavarotti
• Coltrane
• John Maher
• James Taylor
• George Strait
• Joe Satriani
• Nat King Cole
• Eric Johnson
• Tony Rice
• Shania Twain
• Oscar Peterson
• Kirk Hammett
• Frank Sinatra
• Faith Hill
• Alan Jackson
• Ronnie Van Zant,
• BB King
• Paul Desmond

...and countless other amazing musicians. It's the quality that counts, not the paper on the wall.

We are open from 9 am to 10 pm, Monday thru Saturday. To find out currently available lesson times though, you'll have to call and talk to our office because our instructor schedules change frequently, and so do the available times.

No, you can start lessons at any time.

Not. Like recitals, being in a performing group will help you become a good musician. However, it's just highly recommended, not required, and plenty of our students aren't in our bands.

Not. We offer bands as a very useful service to our students, but we want anyone to be able to be in them. Lots of our band members aren't in lessons.

It means boldly creative and original. The word comes from Greek mythology-Prometheus was the name of the Titan who brought fire from Olympus down to humanity. His gift became a symbol of human expression, creation, and improvement. As a result, the words “Prometheus” and “Promethean” have always been associated with innovation, learning, and technology.