Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

These FAQs relate to our local course, for questions about our tuition DVDs, please refer to that page and the online store for more information.

Location questions

Where is Musicademy based?
I would like to start a Musicademy in my area. How do I go about it?
How can I find out more about live music in Watford?
What do you use the mailing list for?

Money questions
How much are the courses?
How do I pay for classes?
Do I have to pay for classes that I miss?
Can I take classes that I have missed the following term?
Should I buy the backing track CDs?

How the courses work
How are the courses structured?
Can I join a course mid term?
How long are the classes?
What do I need to bring to the classes?
What size are the classes?
Does group tuition work as well as one to one?
Does Musicademy offer One to One tuition?
What happens if I don’t like my Musicademy class?
What is the youngest age we will take students?
Are ages mixed on courses?
Do the students perform at the end of term?
Does Musicademy teach classical music or instruments?
Does Musicademy teach for grades or exams?

Dates questions
What are the term dates?

Info for church based musicians
How do we integrate courses for church based musicians with those wanting to learn rock and pop music?

More about Musicademy
What is the history of Musicademy?
Would you like live music or tuition in your workplace?

Location Questions
Where is Musicademy based?
We are a 'mobile' music college. This means that we work in conjunction with schools, churches and other local groups, basing classes in community venues. At the moment we have classes in:

• Hollybush Hall (behind the War Memorial Hill), Common Road, Chorleywood WD3 5LN
• Oak Tree House, Berry Lane, Chorleywood WD3 5EY
• Rickmansworth School Music Block, Scots Hill, Rickmansworth, WD3 3AQ
• Garston Community Church, 816 St Albans Road WD25 9FL
• St Peters Church, Bushey Mill Lane, North Watford, WD24 7TQ (opposite the Tudor Arms)
• St Marys Church, Bryanstone Square, Marylebone, London W1H 1EA
• Westborough URC, 4b South Way, Guildford GU2 8DA
• Gold Hill Baptist Church Gold Hill Common East, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks SL9 9DG

I would like to start a Musicademy in my area. How do I go about it?
This can be achieved in a number of ways. We are developing a franchise product whereby you 'buy' our years’ of experience in perfecting the Musicademy business, the teaching notes, how to do marketing, business and admin systems etc so that you can hit the ground running in a new area. This type of franchise would be ideal for someone with administrative and management skills as the musical know-how is already contained within the materials. You would just need to employ the musicians to teach. It may also be that music teachers would be interested in buying a franchise.

We also license our DVDs for use in group teaching. Please contact us for a license pack.

Where there is sufficient interest in our courses in a particular geography (for instance where a school or church has a large number of people interested in taking courses), we can move into a new area by providing tutors and some additional marketing as well as class administration ourselves.

We can also run Musicademy worship conferences for your church. These condense the highlights of our teaching (normally in guitar, worship keys and vocals) into a single day.

How can I find out more about live music in Watford?
We keep a database of students interested in going to live music events in and around Watford. Please email info@musicademy.com to be added to the mailing list. We will then let you know about gigs given by our tutor’s band, individual tutors or students’ performances as well as other quality local live acts.

What do you use the mailing list for?
We do not sell or loan any of our mailing lists to other organisations. If at any time you would like to be removed from the list, please just let us know.


Money Questions
How much are the courses?

Guitar and vocals are £145.

All the other classes including, electric guitar masterclass, bass, keyboards and drums are £170 (due to the smaller group sizes and specialist nature of the classes)

We try to price tuition at about half the price you would pay for one to one tuition.

How do I pay for classes?
Please pay either by cheque (payable to Musicademy and posted to Oak Tree House, Berry Lane, Chorleywood, Herts WD3 5EY) or debit card (call 01923 282878). Credit cards can also be used but with an additional 4.1% surcharge.

Do I have to pay for classes that I miss?
Yes, you do. We still have the same administrative costs, venue hire and tutor fees to pay. Some of our groups are fairly small so without the payment of just one student they would stop being viable.

Can I take classes that I have missed the following term?
Yes. We charge these a bit cheaper for you - £8 per session. It works particularly well with vocals and intermediate guitar.

Should I buy the additional learning resources?
For vocals we have commissioned Karaoke-style backing track CDs containing all the rock and pop tracks from our courses with the lead vocals stripped out - this means that vocalists can sing the lead instead, and guitarists can hear the instruments more clearly. For vocalists the CD means you can sing and practise anywhere and for guitarists it means that you can play as part of the band and keep in time with the music.
The CDs are priced at £16 - this includes all copyright fees to the original artists.
There is also a great vocals workout CD - perfect for warm ups and vocalisation exercises. This is just £12.

For guitar we have many of our rock and pop courses available on CDrom. This is taught to camera and is an excellent additional learning aide either for students who have missed a class or simply want the benefit of a tutor"at home" for when you practice.


How do the courses work
How are the courses structured?
Beginners and Intermediate courses each have three 'stages'. Each stage runs for 10 weeks (concurrent with school terms). Complete beginners begin at stage 1 but more experienced players can access the courses at different points.

Can I join a course mid term?
Not usually although exceptions are sometimes made if the student already knows the techniques taught previously in the term.

How long are the classes?
All the classes are 60 minutes each apart from vocals which is 75 minutes. Please try to arrive on time as the courses will start and finish promptly.

What do I need to bring to the classes?
A pen and paper is useful for all the classes. We provide all the course notes.

• For the Guitar class
  Bring a guitar - acoustic or electric is fine but no amps please
  Electronic tuner - these can be ordered from DM Music on 0500 026930
  Large thin plectrum (pick)
  
• For the Bass class
  Bass guitar - no amps necessary
  Bass tuners - these can be ordered from DM Music on 0500 026930
  Bass plectrum (pick)
  
• For the drum class We have two kits which we use for teaching. If you have a kit you can bring, that is really useful. We are recommending that students purchase Arbiter Flats kits. These sound like real drum kits but take up far less space. You can get them from DM Music on 0500 026930 for £279.
  Also bring a pair of drum sticks and a practice pad (available from DM Music)

Go to our Recommended Instruments webpage to download detailed information about prices and brands.

What size are the classes?
The smallest classes tend to be 3 or 4 students with 6 or 7 being typical. Drums and keyboards are between 3 and 5.

Does group tuition work as well as one to one?
We certainly think so! We have found that students progress just as quickly with group tuition. We think there are a number of reasons for this:

• Firstly, natural, gentle peer pressure from others in the group mean that students work hard at practising so that they can keep up
  
• Secondly, the group keeps tuition moving nice and quickly - Students learn from each other as well as the tutor
  
• Group tuition works out cheaper than one to one. You get more time in class and it’s a lot of fun learning with others
  
• Our tutors are very skilled at group tuition and the majority of students are delighted with the service they receive
  

Does Musicademy offer One-to-One tuition?
Only in drums, although we may occasionally be able to provide ad hoc one to one classes in the summer holidays for students requiring catch-up tuition.

What happens if I don’t like my Musicademy class?
Please talk to us as soon as you can. There are normally several other classes we could offer you instead. It may be that a different stage, a different, pace, an alternative tutor or peer group will help you.

What is the youngest age we will take students?
Normally around 11 although with keyboards we may take younfer students. If younger students do access our guitar classes it is typically with a parent.  

Are ages mixed on courses?
Sometimes they are but we generally find that teenagers go to classes in the afternoons and adults in the evenings. Where classes have been mixed they tend to work without problems as we teach a wide variety of music. If students are unhappy with their course there are normally other options they can try.

Do the students perform at the end of term?
Not normally. We find that live performances take a lot of additional practicing which eats into lesson times. Occasionally we work with some of our student groups to put on a performance in their school assemblies.

Does Musicademy teach classical music or instruments?
No, we focus exclusively on rock and pop music (and worship music for church based musicians). A number of our students learn classical instruments or guitar and vocals elsewhere and come to us for rock and pop tuition.

Does Musicademy teach for grades or exams?
No, we don’t. Our preference is to teach a far wider range of music rather than spend excessive amounts of time with students perfecting a few pieces. Younger students taking our courses receive a certificate at the end of each term. We are very happy to sign Duke of Edinburgh Award books charting musical progress.

Dates Questions
What are the term dates?

Information for church based musicians
How do we integrate courses for church based musicians with those wanting to learn rock and pop music?
We have courses specialising in worship music and others specialising in rock and pop music. We find that curch players often really enjoy the rock & pop courses - rock and pop music actually stretches players and vocalists more than the majority of worship songs. Occasionally we find non church goers keen to join a worship course.

Tthe technical principles on the courses are virtually identical. Most church based players tend to have more live playing experience which is beneficial for others and thankfully is far removed from the “happy clappy” Christian stereotype.


More about Musicademy
What is the history of Musicademy?
Andy Chamberlain (who had been playing guitar professionally as well as teaching for several years) and Marie Page (a marketing consultant and trained teacher) set up Musicademy in 2003. Andy had an ever increasing waiting list for one to one tuition and felt that group tuition could work well and open the possibility of music learning to far more people. Andy was able to condense years of teaching and learning experience into our courses and Marie set about forming the necessary business systems as well as marketing and day to day admin.

That first term we had 5 courses and 40 students. Over the year we refined the guitar course content so that now we have structured beginners and intermediate courses covering a broad range of techniques and songs as well as specialist courses such as the electric guitar masterclass.

Over that first year we piloted and added in vocals (now one of our most successful classes), bass guitar, drums & percussion and more recently keyboards. Each course meets our usual quality standards and is structured around sequential learning objectives designed to get students playing and singing a broad range of songs whilst receiving a good grounding in musical theory and appreciation.

We now have up to 50 classes running each term representing over 200 students and about 20 tutors. We have expanded the places we teach in to include Watford, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, High Wycombe, Guildford, Hounslow and Hoddesdon.

In 2005 we added guitar DVDs to our repetoire which brought us new students from around the world. Vocals, keyboards, drum and bass DVDs are in the pipeline.

We plan that during 2007 we will have a wide variety of our teaching (both rock & pop and worship) available as online downloads.

 

Would you like live music or tuition in your workplace?
Too busy to get to lessons? Would you like Musicademy to come to your workplace?
For larger companies or groups of companies, we can organise a Musicademy tutor to come to the workplace providing either group or one-to-one tuition in guitar, vocals, keyboards and drums. Call 01923 282878 for further information.

Looking for live music for an event or special occasion?
The Musicademy tutors are all full time professional musicians. Book them together as a four piece band performing classic rock and pop covers. With music from the 60s onwards set lists are tailored for weddings, birthdays, celebrations and also a wide range of corporate events. Artists covered include Van Morrison, The Beatles, The Kinks and Tom Jones through to Sheryl Crow, Coldplay, Daniel Bedingfield, Alanis Morisette and even The Darkness! Click to hear samples

Looking for a workplace training day or team building event?
We run a sister company to Musicademy called Drum Dynamics. This is a training organisation using the power of rhythm through the traditional African drum circle to draw a metaphor with issues in the workplace such as:

• Team building
• Change management
• Listening skills
• Other
  

Delegates have a great deal of fun at an away day with a difference and feedback to date from clients such as T-Mobile, housing association IDS and Newham Council have described it as “the best training event I have ever been to”. Go to www.drumdynamics.com for further information.

Call 01923 282878 for further information on Musicademy or Drum Dynamics.