What we offer
Why Excel is the best choice
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Music education is the studio’s only focus
Excel Music is NOT a music store. We’re a music SCHOOL. A lot of music stores adopt a special name to make you think that they’re an “academy” or a “fine arts school.” We actually are one. You will always know that your family’s music education is the only thing we think about. Sure, we offer convenience! If you need a book, a guitar string or some drum sticks—anything you might need to support your lessons—we have that available at reasonable prices. But it’s not our main objective; the most important thing to us is making sure that you get a high-quality music education in a comfortable, scholastic atmosphere from people who really care.
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Teachers’ only responsibility is teaching music – they don’t sell anything
Our teachers just teach. They don’t have to work a sales floor or earn a commission from selling things. If they tell you your instrument is holding you back, you can be sure that it’s because it is, and not because we’re trying to make some extra money. Because of this, our teachers love the atmosphere at Excel. You can check out some of their comments here.
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The same tuition every month – no hidden “5th lesson” charges
Our monthly tuition stays the same every month. Everyone gets the same number of lessons every year and it averages out to 4 per month. There are no surprises multiple times every year when an extra charge appears on your credit card statement. It’s easy to budget, easy to understand. When a store quotes their “monthly rate” for lessons, be sure to ask how much it costs for those 5-week months!
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Private make-up lessons
Even the best students have to miss a lesson every once in a while. Of course we encourage students to be at their lesson every week because the regularity of working with a private teacher is so important. But if you do need to miss one, we’ll do our best to see that you get a private make-up lesson with your regular instructor. Some stores offer “unlimited” make-up lessons, but what they do is put your child in a group make-up lesson made up of students at all different levels, they’ll offer those group make-ups only one or two days-a-week, with a teacher you’ve never seen before – that may or may not be comfortable teaching, (or even getting paid to teach!) group lessons.
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Comfortable waiting room – not a showroom
Relax! Have a seat, read a magazine, browse the web or get some work done on your phone or tablet with our complimentary WiFi. We have a waiting room, you know, like a real professional place. You don’t have to wander around a showroom looking at price tags of the things your kids are going to ask you to buy for them, nor just go sit in your car with the motor running to keep cool in the Florida sun.
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Multiple instructors per instrument
We have many teachers on staff that teach the same instruments – not just to save your time driving all over the place to take your 3 kids to different kinds of music lessons, but also because you can be sure to find a teacher that fits your child’s learning style. All of our teachers are background checked, have great credentials, and are really nice people that love to teach. That still doesn’t mean that any one teacher is the perfect fit for your child. You can always change to another teacher if the one you start with just isn’t the exact fit you’re looking for. No one takes it personally. They want your child to love music, not dread coming to their lessons!
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Lessons available for all instruments & voice
We have teachers for all standard band, orchestra and contemporary instruments, as well as singing instructors. A lot of schools are great at teaching one thing, which is great if you want that instrument and really love the way they teach it. We can offer you a choice of instructors on a wide range of instruments and voice to condense your music lessons for the whole family to one location – and often at the same time!
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University trained teachers that relate well to their students and love to teach music
We love a great resume as much as anyone. Unfortunately for you, a piece of parchment from a major university doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the best teacher. And even being a great player doesn’t always mean that the person will know how to teach the thing they’re great at doing. What’s a parent to do? We’ve got you covered! We’ve interviewed over a thousand teachers since 2006 and only a very small number have made the cut. Why? We know that it takes more than a good resume to teach music. It takes a passion for teaching and an ability to relate to students so that they feel motivated and want to learn. We’ve passed on some teachers that now teach in other places – and some music stores have even hired our intermediate-level students to teach. We’re proud that they want to teach, but we would need to see a LOT more experience before they joined our staff.
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Optional low pressure recitals
Our recitals are awesome! We always use a giant grand piano, a beautiful recital hall and a professional accompanist if the student needs one. And yet, we keep them very low-pressure. Performing is an extremely important part of the learning process. It’s valuable for keeping a student interested, setting goals, and giving confidence that will flow over into other areas of life. But it can be scary to walk out on stage in front of a bunch of people to play. We don’t force it. Students are not required to participate. But, if they do, we make sure it’s fun and rewarding, and leaves them with a sense of pride in their accomplishment.
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Instruction for all ages
Well… okay, not ALL ages. Our Preschool Music class starts at age 18 months. And there are recommended ages for starting various instruments to ensure that students have a positive experience with music. Let’s face it, young children don’t really understand the difference between “this is hard” and “I don’t like it.” This especially applies to very young children that only “play” when it means games. We want to make sure that young kids love music, so getting them started at the right age is really critical. Many schools will take extremely young students for private lessons, but this can be more damaging than it is helpful. For every “Mozart” that can start to learn the piano at age two, there are at least 100,000 other kids that won’t like it and won’t want to take music again – and that’s the last thing we want!
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Private lessons for multiple family members
The lady up the street is very nice and teaches piano. That’s great, but she doesn’t teach guitar or drums and that’s what your other two kids want. Or maybe all 4 of your kids want to play piano. She can take them all, but they’ll all have to amuse themselves (or you will) at her house until they’re all done. Or maybe one of your kids likes her, but the other one thinks she’s boring. This is where we come in! We’re close to where you live and we can very often get multiple family members’ lessons all at the same time – whether they all want one instrument or a bunch of different ones.
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Lesson observation monitors in every room
This means there are cameras in the rooms and we record video of the lessons and the whole school. Parents love this, of course, but the ones who like it most are the teachers. The first thing we show any prospective teacher is the observation system we have and all of our teachers LOVE it! And as a parent you can be sure that, any teacher that didn’t like those cameras, never got hired.
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No “zoo windows” in the lesson rooms
This one goes hand-in-hand with the one, above: if you can observe every room, discretely, then you don’t need a giant “zoo window” in every room. This is a big plus for everyone, from the shy adult in voice lessons all the way down to the five-year-old that’s completely distracted by every moving thing in their peripheral vision. Those big windows can sometimes make parents feel better, but for the person taking the lesson they’re distracting at best, and at worst, really intimidating. Our wonderful observation monitors mean that we don’t have to have them. You’re welcome!
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Students are able to choose any style of music
In truth, beginning students on any instrument start with pretty much the same thing – there are basic skills everyone needs to get started playing music; learning the note names and where they are on the instrument, understanding rhythm, reading music, ear training, building muscle memory, etc. After that, though, a lot of places still have a very specific curriculum that students have to follow because the teacher knows what is “best” for the student. It does work and, if you are interested in becoming a music major in college, a professional performer – or, especially, a classical musician – then our teachers can do that for you, too. But not every student wants that. Once they’ve got the basics, our teachers let their students go wherever their creativity takes them. Our students play classical, rock, jazz, hip-hop, country, even write their own songs! We want them to love music and that means encouraging them to experiment with styles that interest them – and, when they follow their passion, it’s surprising how much “classical” training they get without even realizing it!
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Desk staff available to assist you every day
Our friendly, highly-trained and courteous office staff is there to assist you during all business hours. Remember, before (it’s ok if you don’t, it’s been a while), when we were talking about our teachers only being responsible for teaching? That applies to the owner, too! It’s great to see a sign that reads “owner always on job site!” Of course, what that sign really means it that the only person that knows what’s actually going on is likely teaching lessons when you’re there – and they’ll only be able to talk to you for 30 seconds in the hallway on the way to their next lesson. Or worse, they’ll be taking time out of your lesson to talk to another parent! And do they prep for your lesson before or after they do advertising, payroll, customer service, bookkeeping, managing, budgeting, research, planning, interviewing, hiring…? (That reminds me, I need a vacation.) Our staff keeps things running as smooth as silk. They can help you with any question or concern that you may have and, if they don’t know the answer, they’ll find out quickly and get back to you.
