“I’m just a beginner and I literally don’t know a single thing about music, can I learn with you?”
Yes. The vast majority of our students start from absolute scratch - many of the videos of students at RMA started with us as a beginner - you can achieve a lot in a few years. If you are committed to learning, we are committed to helping you learn.
“There are a lot of mentions of performing and concerts, I’m not really interested in getting on stage, I just want some lessons. ”
Totally fine - these are only for the students who are keen. It’s probably about 50/50 at the school. Some people like the idea of the challenge and the goal of performing, for other people it is their worst nightmare! A lot of people just have their weekly lesson and keep it just for fun at home.
“Are the lessons one-on-one or in groups?”
We mainly teach individual, one on one lessons. Although occasionally we do teach group events. We do have a weekly group choir which is open to anyone, especially beginners.
“I work full time, do you teach after hours?”
Yes. You would be surprised to learn that almost nobody wants to learn music during the day - everyone is at work or school. We do the bulk of our teaching from 3pm till 10pm on weekdays and early morning till mid afternoon on Saturdays and Sundays. This being said - we do teach many students who want lessons outside of these times (i.e weekday mornings) and we are happy to do lessons whenever suits you. We mostly can and do accommodate these requests.
“I’m an adult - am I too old to learn?”
RMA is a very different school to most music schools - we mostly teach adults. There are literally people of almost every age at the school - 20 year olds, 30 year olds, 40 year olds, 50 year olds, 60 year olds, 70 year olds and 80 year olds, although we are looking forwards to our first 90 and 100 year old… any day now.
Also, it is good to talk about one thing - a lot of people think that you can only learn music if you are young. It’s not true. In fact, often the benefit of life experience really helps the process. We have taught hundreds upon hundreds of adult beginners and honestly our conclusion is that if you are committed, you will be fine.
“I see that you have lessons in different styles, I really don’t know what I’m looking for yet. Can I start and work it out once I get some idea of how the instrument works?”
Yes. We do teach Jazz, Classical and Contemporary(Rock, Pop, Folk) but you don’t have to set your path down straight away - a lot of students have started with intention of playing Jazz and ended up in pop... or starting in rock and taken a liking to classical. We are happy to help you work out your own path as you go.
“Do you have specific program do you teach to?”
We don’t. Every student is different and every student needs something specific for their own learning. We don’t prescribe a universal approach, because there isn't one in our opinion.
We do keep each student on a structured path but according to your own learning style we will find an approach that fits you best.
That being said, there are many choices - if you are looking for even more structure we have a lot of students doing Rock, Jazz or Classical exams. These work very well if you feel you will need a goal to keep momentum. Exams don’t work for everyone but when they do work, they can really drive development.