Central Iowa Music Lab

Click here first to read our FAQs!

We believe that a consistent lesson, class, and attendance schedule is incredibly important in the continual progress of our students and our goal is for our day to day (or week to week!) operation to reflect this!

At CIML, we feel that ‘a couple of trial lessons’ is really just not enough for a student (of any age) to get a feel for whether they may like something that could be completely foreign to them. So much of these lessons can also be the instructor, with which they could end up with someone different when switching from trial to scheduled lessons. Due to this, we do not offer trial lessons and require a minimum commitment of 3 months for any new or transfer lessons. This includes students switching instruments/instructors.

Additional opportunities:

In addition to your weekly lessons, we are working to add some awesome opportunities for you and your budding musician to learn and grow in all areas of music, at no additional cost to you! This is a program that we are working into throughout 2023. On specified dates, a CIML instructor or guest instructor will offer a group class, master class, demonstration, audition prep, etc. that your student and entire family are invited to attend and participate in, where applicable. These opportunities will be offered in a variety of genres and instrument groups, so that there is something for all!

Your membership fee includes:

• Weekly lessons/Registered classes
• Demonstrations, Master Classes, and other enrichment-entire family welcome!
• Opportunity to perform in at least 2 recitals/year.

Monthly Membership Fee:

Your membership fee is the same each month, regardless of the number of lessons in a month.

Fees will be as follows:

• 30 minute weekly lessons * (most common):

• 60 minute weekly lessons * (most are instructor recommended, and it must be the same instrument, teacher, and student for the entire hour)

*rates are subject to change. Membership rate changes will be made no more than once per year and no increases will be more than $10/mo for 30 min lessons and $20/mo for 60 min.

**If a student chooses to switch from 60 to 30 min lessons, a new term must be chosen or the current term renewed.

Students will average about 4 lessons per month. Some months, there may be 5, due to the way the calendar falls that month, or there may be 2-3 lessons due to a holiday. There will be no adjustment in tuition for these differences. This makes it easy to budget for lessons each month and no family will have to worry about months where their tuition spikes due to an extra lesson!

*As of January 1st, 2022, all enrolled students are required to submit payment using the autopay feature that will be a part of each TeacherZone account. This will be the only method of payment going forward. Processing fee will be a flat $5.00 per family.*

New students joining CIML and returning students who have taken a break will be subject to current rates at the time of enrollment/re-enrollment. These rates may be higher than those of existing students at CIML.

Continuation:

If the student chooses to continue past the chosen term and would like to keep their assigned day/time, CIML must be notified, in writing, at least 7 days prior to the beginning of the last scheduled month in order to secure the same lesson time. Notification in the last month of a term will suffice for continuation, however a new day/time may need to be chosen if the existing time has already been scheduled with another student to begin within the next month. When a student chooses continuation, a new term will need to be chosen. ‘Ongoing’ lessons are also an option once the initial term has been completed- if the initial term was at least 6 months or the student has just completed at least 2 consecutive 3 month terms.

Cancellation policies and procedures:

Thank you for your commitment to weekly lessons/classes. We assume that the day/time assigned for your lesson or class works for you the majority of the time. If a student must miss a lesson, please let the instructor know as soon as possible. Make-up lessons are not guaranteed. Your spot (specific day/time) is reserved for you. If you are unable to come at that time, you will likely just skip your lesson for that week. Depending on the lesson content, it is possible for your instructor to upload materials for you to practice, new practice instructions, send videos back and forth with the student, etc to keep the learning going! :) If you are available at your lesson time, but not able to get to the studio, it is also possible for the instructor to hop online and do a virtual lesson, with advance notice. Please note, many of our instructors work full time jobs in addition to teaching at CIML. They commit to being at work during a specific timeframe each week, similarly to other jobs and therefore are not required to schedule make-up lessons (for student-cancelled lessons) outside of that time frame. We want to do what we can to honor their commitments to providing for and spending time with their families and friends. If the instructor must cancel your lesson, they will do their best to offer a weekend make-up or provide appropriate online material for the student to work on. If they are unable to do so, or the offered make-up doesn’t work in your schedule, we will issue a refund for that lesson. Thank you for understanding.

*For Ongoing Memberships:

Once enrolled, your membership is continuous from month to month. If you are wanting to terminate your membership, we kindly ask for at least a 14 day notice PRIOR TO YOUR LAST BILLING CYCLE. This is for Ongoing Memberships Only. You will still be charged your final full monthly membership fee and lessons will continue through that month. For example, on October 15th, you turn in your notice, your last fee will draw on November 1st, and lessons will be paid for and reserved through the end of November. CIML reserves the right to assess late fees associated with lack of on-time payment. 

*For Term Memberships:

Please note that you are committing to the full term of your membership (3, 6, 9, or 12 months). If, for any reason, this needs to be terminated sooner, you will be subject to a final charge equal to:

$25/mo that your term is cut short ($50/mo for 60 min lessons) + 2 additional months of tuition.  If you have chosen a lump sum payment, no refunds will be given for any reason.

Virtual lessons:

Thanks to the pandemic times, our instructors are well-versed in teaching over the internet. This is something that we ask all teachers to be in communication about and all families to be prepared to switch to, if needed. We understand that some simply learn best in person, and we strive to do this the majority of the time. We would like to be able to offer a temporary online lesson, where possible, as an option for families when an illness within a home or icky winter weather prevents a student or instructor from coming to lessons, but they are otherwise able to meet at the agreed-upon time. We view this as an acceptable lesson replacement, when necessary, and only on rare occasion.

Updated August 2023