Central Iowa Music Lab Membership: All students are members!
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! As of January 2022, we no longer have the previous ‘session’ model, which included some bigger potential breaks for those who consistently attend lessons. Students transitioned from having 40 lessons per year, to having on average, 46-48 lessons per year. Imagine the learning and progress that can take place in almost 2 extra months’ worth of lessons next year! This structure is much more in line with other music schools around the country and the studies so strongly support the value in the consistency, that we felt it was time to acknowledge that!
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 with NO ADMISSION FEE for anyone.
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:
- Private lesson students with 30 min weekly lessons- $130/mo
- Private lesson students with 60 min weekly lessons- $240/mo
- Group class (CIML member also taking private, weekly lessons)- $90/mo
- Non-CIML Member Participating in a group class with no private lessons: $130
- *rates are subject to change. 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.
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 will make 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.
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 will not be guaranteed, however, if the instructor has another opening within the week and is given enough notice, they may be able to ‘swap’ two students. If the student is able to attend an upcoming workshop (included in membership), this will help to keep the music learning going that week as well! The instructor may also be able to point the student to some prerecorded or online materials to help enhance their learning during the week that a lesson may be missed. Our new system allows for easier virtual communication and upload of videos from instructor to student. 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 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 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 add a credit to your account to be taken off of your membership fee the following month. Thank you for understanding.
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. 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.
Virtual lessons:
Thanks to the pandemic times we’ve been living in over the last couple of years, 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.