Give the Gift of Music!
Studies suggest that music lessons enhance intelligence and academic achievement, build self-esteem and improve discipline, but students love them because they are FUN!
DMA offers private lessons in 30-minute sessions. A comfortable waiting area allows you to watch your child through large windows in each door. Performance opportunities are available for DMA music students at no additional cost!
Click on instrument above to see Tuition and Availability
Guitar lessons: We follow are own method consisting in a series of books focused on finger placement, reading tablature, learning melodies, chords and strumming patterns, power chords and fingerpicking . Students will learn how to play their songs as well as playing along a backing track. From classical music to current music, guitar lessons are a lot of fun.
Piano Lessons: Younger students begin with the Piano Adventures method books, starting at the primer level, and older students begin with Accelerated Piano Adventures, which is tailored to an older age group. Studies in Piano Adventures are supplemented with technical instruction on how to properly play the keys and an in-depth study of note identification and reading for students who have not read music before. In combination with their technical instruction, students will learn pentascales, scales, and arpeggios: the basic building blocks of music. As students progress, more books targeting different aspects of playing and note reading will be introduced, such as Progressive Sight Reading Exercises by Hannah Smith and Fundamentals of Piano Theory by K. Snell & M. Ashleigh. This curriculum targets specific areas of difficulty for piano, such as music reading - since pianists must combine both hands and play multiple notes at once - and technical proficiency, which eliminates unnecessary tension and produces comfortable and relaxed playing.
Violin Lessons: Students will learn the basics of violin playing with Essential Elements for Strings - Violin Book 1. When they are ready, they will begin learning solo pieces by working through the Suzuki Violin School volumes 1-4. In addition, Wohlfahrt - 60 Studies for the Violin and Laoureux's violin method book 2 address technical aspects of playing the violin. As students progress, they will move on to more advanced technical studies such as Kreutzer - 42 Studies for Violin and Schradieck - The School of Violin Techniques. By the time students have finished working through the first 4 volumes of Suzuki and have learned the techniques addressed in Wohlfahrt and Laoureux, they are ready to tackle classical violin repertoire and work their way through more and more intricate and challenging pieces.
Drum lessons: Learn drumming fundamentals such as note values, rudiments, drum fills, and song form. Lessons are individually personalized so that students are able to play the styles of music that match their interests.
Voice lessons begin with 10 minutes of vocal exercises that improve technique and warm up the vocal cords. Solfège (do re mi…) is used to practice aural skills/ear training. Based on the student’s goals/interests, teacher and student select a song to master for 4-6 weeks.
Clarinet Lessons: Focuses instruction on clarinet pedagogy with the aid of the Rubank series of books. Beginning students learn the proper technique for holding a clarinet, how to assemble a clarinet, and how to clean and store it. Beginning clarinet lessons also cover finger positions, scales, and tips for
getting the most out of your practice time. Advanced students work on All-State preparation, advanced scale studies, sight reading, and college audition material.