The Academy Program

The “Academy Program” is for private (1:1) and semi-private (1:2) lessons. Students in this program meet one-on-one weekly with instructors throughout the year. The lessons follow an arc for each Academic Season from Fall to the following summer each year. Most students enroll for a minimum of the Academic Season, and our most successful students enroll year-round with breaks for holidays and three weeks off in the summer. We welcome families and teach multiple genres and instruments. For brand new students, who are very new to their instruments, we recommend taking our “Newbie Notes” class that is part of our “Live Ensembles” Program. We highly encourage all students to enroll in both the “Academy Program” and the “Live Ensembles” program to benefit from private instruction and ensemble experience. 

Musically Minded has a “People first, Music second” philosophy, breaking classical music training. This philosophy is a crucial driver for student development and success. For students to achieve their desired goals, build confidence, and enjoy the study of music, we intentionally position students to find sources of inspiration that enable them to develop a passion for their music-making. We constantly ask them what they want to do and why they want to do it, and then help them to discover pathways to achieve their goals. We are always interested in improving our instructional services.

General Information

Music lessons are available on most instruments at most levels. Although the Academy generally does not focus on one genre of music, our instructors can provide a genre focus. For example, you may want jazz piano lessons, Latin percussion, or classical voice. We have teachers who can provide lessons on specific genres.

Students may enroll in private lessons at any time. We schedule one lesson to see if it is a good fit. If it is, we enroll the student term-by-term with automatic reenrollment (withdraw with four weeks’ notice) for year-round enrollment. We observe all legal holidays and take every accompanying weekend off. For example, if Labor Day is a Monday, we also observe the prior Saturday and Sunday as holidays.

• Fall Semester (Aug 1 – Dec 31)
• Winter/Spring Semester (Jan 1 – May 31)
• Summer Session (Jun 1 – Jul 31)

Academic Season Educational Goals

Fall Semester (Early August through year-end)

There are two student performance events in the Fall Semester, the October and December Recitals. At the beginning of this term, students set goals for weekly practice, technique, performances, and more. Examples of goals may be to get through a level of method books, to learn all of the Major and Minor scales, to understand and build a list of student-selected repertoire, or to start composing, for example. Every student prepares for the performances, but may opt out if it does not fit their personal goals. 

Winter/Spring Semester (Start of Calendar Year through the end of May)

There are two student performance events this Semester, the Spring and Year-End Recitals. The Spring recital is scheduled for March, and the Year-End Recital is in May. At the beginning of this term, students may reset their goals from the prior term. While students may have focused on holiday repertoire for the previous semester, for this semester, students have built a solid practice habit. They are working towards preparing for the year-end recitals, our most polished events of the year. 

Locations

In-Person: We have multiple teachers throughout the Bay Area. Most offer lessons via Musically Minded in their private studios.

• Rob Finucane | Piano | West Oakland + Berkeley @ our 2727 College Avenue Location
• Jack Perla | Piano, composition, and more | Rockridge and in Berkeley @ our 2727 College Avenue Location
• Ondine Young | Violin, Viola, Beginning piano, voice, Beginning cello | in Berkeley @ our 2727 College Avenue Location
• Rodney Garcia | Violin/Viola | En Español! | in Berkeley @ our 2727 College Avenue Location
• Nancy Ewing | Violin, Viola, and Beginning Piano | her San Pablo studio as well as in student homes nearby San Pablo
• Ben Green | Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute | In students’ home near multiple local schools (he teaches band at various schools and will take students nearby)
• Anna Orias | Piano | Newbie Notes Group Lessons in Berkeley @ our 2727 College Avenue Location
• Imari Mubarak | Drums, Bass | Emeryville
• Maya Nag | Piano | in Berkeley @ our 2727 College Avenue Location

Online: We also offer online lessons to local students. Online students participate in our recitals, which are quarterly and in-person.

Enrollment Process

1. Contact our enrollment coordinator.
2. Get paired with an instructor.
3. Schedule and pay for one lesson
4. If the lesson was a good fit, enroll for the term with that instructor.
5. Start your term enrollment.