Montara Music Lessons

Jeff has been great! I'm an adult student, returning to drumming after at least 15 years. My lessons have been fun, and the instructions have been excellent.

Jeff is awesome! He's super kind and patient, as well as talented at the drums. He's definitely invested in his students' success too.

Great lessons, great teacher

It's only been 4 lessons but I really appreciate how the lessons are going. Jeff gives good explanations on how to read music and how to execute on the drums.Good pieces of advice too when some parts are hard to play !

Connected well with my 9 year old daughter. Strong musical and teaching skills and a pleasure to work with. Run don't walk to see Arrica!

First lesson very comfortable, relaxed yet structured, getting to know each others personality, musical abilities.
Take home exercises.
Looking forward to the next lesson.
Thanks Arrica

Arrica has been such a wonderful teacher for my 11-year-old daughter. (She was 9 when she started with Arrica.) Our girl has a lot of raw talent but needed some good instruction that wasn't too formal. Africa is just the right blend of traditional singing technique and fun rock-n-roll, record your own music on Garage band. We love her!

Alix is truly a phenomenal teacher! She is compassionate, nurturing, and seeks to improve her student's vocal abilities. All of our lessons have been thorough, educational, and certainly insightful. I have become such a better singer in only a few short lessons, and look forward to becoming a master in the next few!

Alex is an exceptional teacher. My 13 year-old wished for voice lessons for such a long time, and I'm so pleased Alix is working with her. She is helping my daughter improve her technique (breathing, posture, range, etc.), while keeping lessons positive and encouraging, and finding music that my daughter enjoys. When Alix demonstrates what she is describing- WOW, what a voice! My daughter looks forward to every lesson, and if it's possible, loves to sing even more since she has been learning with Alix.

Alix was a delight. My 7 year old has been begging me for signing lessons and she came in ready for him! Professional and loving

5 stars' teacher

We just had our first lesson and we hit a few bumps but my daughter has never had music instruction before so we're giving it another go next week to see if things go more smoothly. 3 stars above says meets expectations, and though it didn't, I just hesitate to give someone 2 stars based on one lesson.
Here are some details from class:
My daughter (K) just turned 5 but is pretty mature for her age and has expressed an interest in learning the piano so we signed up for individual lessons with Lella. At the start of class I mentioned again (I had noted it at booking time as well) that K has had zero experience with music instruction. Immediately Lella sat with K on the piano bench and started explaining treble clef sign, bass clef sign and what hands they relate to. Lella also has a thick accent as I was trying to follow along with her explanations with a little difficulty. She even asked if K speaks Chinese and I said "no" so she said "you're Indian right?" My daughter would look around from time to time while Lella was explaining at which point Lella would just keep seeing "Pay attention sweetie!" Then she asked my daughter to write the numbers 1-5 in a book and when she said she didn't know how to write the number 2, Lella laughed and said "you know, but you forgot right" so I spoke up and explained "no she has not been taught to write her numbers yet, but she can read/recognize them" to which Lella seemed very surprised, so I felt the need to say, "she's still in preschool. But if you write them she'll be able to tell you what they are." So then Lella switched to counts, explaining about the values of different notes. She asked my daughter if she had questions, to which my daughter said "I think I understand what you're saying, if it's just a circle that means four, but if it's a circle with a line..." And before she could finish her thought Lella said "no that's not a line, it's a stem". At another point when Lella asked if she had any questions, my daughter slowly said "yes... what's velour?" And when Lella looked confused I had to step in and explain that Lella was saying "value", the amount of counts for a note. By the end of the half hour lesson, Lella had reached her explanation of middle C, which she described to my daughter saying "this is middle C because it's in the middle, there are two black keys, then on the left is C. Can you find another one?" When K didn't respond right away, she repeated herself, and again another time. So I said "she really has had no previous music experience, I think you need to even explain to her that those are called keys, like there are black keys, white keys..." And Lella just looked at me confused.
At the end of the lesson I agreed to buy the theory book so we can practice that at home, and Lella asked if I can sit in on the next lesson to help explain things to my daughter, because she "doesn't really focus". I agreed to sit in on the lesson, for my own benefit so I can help her with HW since I also don't have music experience. But I also mentioned to Lella that her accent is quite strong and I think my daughter was having trouble understanding her, and Lella seemed surprised by that comment.
I don't know... it says on Lella's profile that she has worked with young kids but I can't really see how the class was any different from how she would teach me, an adult with no prior music experience.
Oh! I forgot to mention something so basic - when we met Lella she thought I was someone else so I re-introduced myself and introduced my daughter. Then as we were saying goodbye at the end of class I realized Lella had never introduced herself to my daughter, so I asked "oh, what would you like K to call you, Ms. Li, or Lella? Ms. Lella?" She said Lella was fine so I turned to K and said "Tell Lella bye K." It just hit me, I mean that's something about creating a relationship with a young student. Speaking to them directly, making that connection. Lella was really smiley which gave the impression she was friendly but she never really made a connection with K who is the student, not me.

Lella quickly recognized what I needed to practice and brought me a great book that helped me get back to where I was very quickly.

Great first lesson- Winslow is easy to talk to and very knowledgeable. He is very good at explaining and demonstrating technique in a clear way. Thanks again!

Winslow is very knowledgeable and an excellent teacher.
He's very passionate about the harmonica, which makes for a great learning experience. I look forward to future lessons.

My first lesson went very well and was just as I had hoped.

Very good experience. DeHanna took her time to reach a comfortable start . Very good first lesson. Looking forward to more lessons

Remi my grandson enjoy his piano class very much. Especially when Remi got home he practice or continue the song he did with his teacher...like he appreciate himself because it sounds beautiful. We grandparents are very proud to here a lovely melody he played.
The instructor is very good and patient with Remi, she makes sure she gets through him in her own special way.
Very grateful,
Remi's grandparents.

My grandson seems to enjoy it, it's the first class and I hope he'll continue the positive behavior I'd seen on him toward his piano.
I appreciate the instructor very much and I believe that Remi will gain something better from his piano.

Grateful, Remi's grandmother.
+

The lesson was great I told Victor the things I struggle with most & he started me off with some basics that I need to work on & also showed me some bad habits I needed to correct all with a patient pleasant attitude I'm looking forward to the next lesson.Steve S

Victor was great I haven't picked up my Guitar in it felt like forever and I had picked up a lot of bad habits he was very patient and gave me the building blocks to help me get started back on the right track.

Had a great lesson with Victor! He knows music really well and is very patient with beginners.

Marc is a patient, and a diligent teacher. He's creative and applies multiple ideas in getting me to "get it" when I'm stuck. I am very pleased with my experience. He's an accomplished musician and I can tell he studies how to make others learn best. He also makes certain to praise my progress and, he's not afraid to shift gears if my playing interest is getting stale.

I came into this with NO experience. A complete novice AND, a left handed novice at that! After 8 lessons now, I've progressed really well and I'm satisfied with the outcomes so far. I'm on my way!

And, I highly recommend Marc!

Lessons with Marc have been a blast. I have never taken guitar lessons before. Marc's encouragement and enthusiasm immediately put me at ease and got me excited to be playing. He really went out of way to find out what I was interested in learning and gave me suggestions of new music to listen to based on what I want to learn. He does an excellent job breaking musical concepts down to make learning easier. It is clear he cares a lot about teaching and his passion for music is contagious. I highly recommend taking lessons from Marc!

Marc is great teacher! He is positive, customizes the lessons to what I am interested in, delivers feedback really well, and has helped me learn new skills and techniques. I definitely feel like I am improving a lot after each lesson and becoming a more polished player. He also sends great notes after the lesson with reminders or suggestions, which I really appreciate.

Ms. Tracy Chen is a great music teacher. She is very good with kids and teaching!

Tracy has been teaching my daughter piano and violin for more than 2 years now. She has helped her improve in technique, form, style, and sight reading. Also, my daughter took the National Guild Examinations in piano, and with Tracy's help and guidance, she was able to pass into the preparatory(advanced) level with flying colors. When my daughter wanted to start learning violin, Tracy created a very convenient platform for her to learn the new instrument while taking a break from piano. Overall, Tracy's positive teaching style and motivational personality have really helped my daughter keep her passion for music alive.