Version 2.4.2

General Agreement Information

With Simply Music lessons, certain policies are noted on the Simply Music Student Enrollment Form. Potluck Creative Arts has chosen to adopt those policies, and they have been integrated here for reference along with additional studio policies.

Students will be referred to here as “Participant(s).” The person responsible for the business relationship with Potluck Creative Arts will be referred to as the “Patron.” The Patron may or may not also be a Participant.

Except as noted, “lessons” applies to instructional sessions for either ongoing lessons or short-term workshops.

Tuition Payments and Discounts

Payment for any Lesson Cycle or part thereof, is made prior to commencement. In order to continue securing your regularly scheduled time, fees for each successive Cycle must be paid prior to commencement of the next Cycle. Fees that are paid after the due date will attract a service charge. This can also result in your time being forfeited.

For ongoing lessons, Lesson Cycles will be calendar months unless otherwise arranged. Tuition for each month will be due on the date of the enrolled household’s last lesson day of the prior month. If one person in a household is enrolled, payment is due by that Participant’s last lesson day of the prior month, while if more than one person in a household is enrolled, payment for all enrolled Participants is due by whichever Participant’s last lesson day of the prior month is latest.

The last lesson day refers to the weekday itself, whether or not a lesson actually takes place. For example, if a Participant’s lesson day is Monday, tuition is due on the last Monday of the month. If that last Monday’s lesson is planned ahead of time as off due to a Participant’s planned absence or Potluck Creative Arts cancellation, tuition need not be paid the week earlier at the last actual lesson held — it will be considered on time if paid by the last Monday of that month. If that last Monday’s lesson is taken off at the last moment due to a Participant’s unplanned absence, tuition is still due that day.

For workshops, the Lesson Cycle will be the complete duration of the workshop. Tuition is due by one week prior to the first workshop session.

Late fees will be calculated at $2.00 per day per enrolled Participant. Participants will be permitted to resume lessons only after payment has been caught up. Extenuating circumstances will be considered at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Family discounts are available. See the Potluck Creative Arts General Policy for details.

Referral incentives are available. For each new prospect a current Participant/Patron refers who then enrolls in ongoing lessons, after the referred Participant/Patron completes their second payment of at least one full month’s tuition for ongoing lessons, Potluck Creative Arts will provide a tuition credit of $50.00 to be applied to the referring Participant’s/Patron’s next tuition payment.

Checks are to be made out to Mark S. Meritt.

Attendance, Cancellations, Makeups and Refunds

When you enroll into lessons, you are paying to secure a specific time, on a specific day. This is your time that you are paying for, and this time is set aside, for the entire Lesson Cycle, as your exclusive time. As such, classes missed for any reason cannot be credited, nor made up.

When ongoing lesson Patrons know in advance of absences that will occur in the coming month, that month’s tuition payment may be reduced appropriately. In this case, the Patron is not paying to have those particular times set aside for the coming month, meaning that such absences are not actually missed classes, and so there is no issue of credits or makeups. To account for such planned absences, reduce the standard monthly tuition by the standard per-lesson rate for each of up to four planned absences. Notice of the dates of such planned absences is to be given along with tuition payment for the month in question.

Should a Participant later wish to attend any of a coming month’s lessons for which an absence had been planned in this way, for each such lesson, the Patron may make a separate payment of the standard per-lesson rate no later than the start of the given lesson.

Any classes missed after tuition has been paid for them cannot be credited, nor made up, except at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Planned absences for workshops will be handled at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

For each lesson a Participant would otherwise miss, the miss may possibly be avoided either by exchanging lessons with another Participant or by sitting in on a shared lesson at a different time. Such plans must be requested and cleared through Potluck Creative Arts to ensure that all Participants cover appropriate material.

When a Participant misses a shared lesson, that Participant is to contact another Participant who shares the lesson in order to learn what new material was covered. This fosters support between students sharing lessons while giving attending students an opportunity to deepen their own learning through teaching.

When a shared or private lesson is missed or in other situations when additional lesson time may be warranted, one or more individual paid private lessons may be scheduled, at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Participants who are sick or have recently been sick and could be considered contagious are asked to please stay at home.

In the event of a public school closing, whether on the standard school calendar or a more spontaneous situation such as due to weather or other immediate conditions, lessons generally should be assumed to take place as usual. If conditions seem particularly discouraging of travel, Potluck Creative Arts may cancel a lesson and will strive to inform you as early as possible. You are advised in such situations to check in with Potluck Creative Arts proactively if you are able.

Potluck Creative Arts may also cancel certain lessons in advance as a result of its own staff’s planned vacations or other commitments and will strive to provide as much advance notice of these cancellations as possible.

In all cases that Potluck Creative Arts cancels a lesson, prepaid tuition will be made up with an appropriate credit to the subsequent Lesson Cycle’s tuition payment, or otherwise as appropriate for workshops.

Either Potluck Creative Arts or the Patron may decide to end participation in lessons for any reason and at any time. Upon dissolution of participation by the Patron, any remaining prepaid tuition is forfeited. Upon dissolution by Potluck Creative Arts, Potluck Creative Arts will provide the Patron with a refund of the value of any remaining lesson(s) not yet completed.

Accompanying Participants

In certain workshop situations, there may be a more relaxed approach to at-home practice. Except to that extent, the following policies apply to all ongoing lessons and short-term workshops.

If the Participant is a minor, a parent or guardian’s presence is required at lessons. The parent or guardian is expected to pay attention to the material covered during lessons and to support the Participant’s practice routine during the subsequent week.

Such accompanying parents and guardians are encouraged to take advantage of their attendance as fully as possible, even going so far as to undertake their own complete practice routine, learning all material along with the Participant(s) they support. They are welcome to do this at no additional cost. An accompanying parent or guardian who wishes to be fully involved as a student during lesson time, however, would require additional tuition payment as appropriate.

Certain minors may at some point no longer require this kind of ongoing support from a parent or guardian. Such situations will be considered at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

No additional people may accompany the Participant/parent/guardian to lessons, except at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts. Appropriate requests and arrangements should be made in advance.

Location

Lessons generally take place at the Potluck Creative Arts studio in the Village of Red Hook, NY. Potluck Creative Arts asks that attendees at this location park off-street whenever possible. To promote cleanliness in the studio, shoes are to be removed upon entering. Attendees may leave socks on or bring slippers. An acoustic piano is provided for use.

Alternate locations, especially for workshops, will be considered at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Whether lessons occur at the Potluck Creative Arts studio or otherwise, food, drinks and any belongings other than materials which may be required for the lesson should not be brought to any lesson(s). Extenuating circumstances will be considered at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Schedule

Lessons typically vary in length from approximately 25-50 minutes based on how many Participants may be sharing the lesson. Lessons typically take place weekly at a regular day and time agreed upon between Potluck Creative Arts and the Participant.

Alternate schedules, especially for workshops, will be considered at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Punctuality is extraordinarily important. The Participant and any accompanying parent/guardian must arrive for lessons on time and no earlier than five minutes before the starting time.

If the Participant/parent/guardian will be more than five minutes late for a lesson, notice must be provided at least five minutes before the starting time, and preferably as early as possible to ensure that Potluck Creative Arts is made aware of the situation.

In the case of a late arrival, whether or not notice has been provided, the situation will be handled at the discretion of Potluck Creative Arts.

Materials

All Participants must have their own lesson materials, as appropriate to the Participant’s progress through the program. Appropriate current materials must be brought to each lesson.

When new materials are needed, Potluck Creative Arts will acquire these materials for the Participant, with payment due prior to the ordering of materials.

Upon completion of a given set of materials, any of that set’s teacher Evaluation forms must be completed by the Participant/parents/guardians as appropriate. The forms are to be turned in by the subsequent lesson.

With certain workshop materials, Potluck Creative Arts is pleased to offer an incentive to encourage Participants to continue with ongoing lessons. A credit of half the workshop materials’ purchase price would be offered toward the Participant’s first set of ongoing lesson materials.

Practice

In certain workshop situations, there may be a more relaxed approach to at-home practice. Except to that extent, the following policies apply to all ongoing lessons and short-term workshops.

Participants are expected at all times to follow the Simply Music curriculum carefully, as delivered by the instructor and the home materials. Failure to do so can severely reduce the likelihood of achieving the program’s stated goals.

Participants must have access to an appropriate instrument in order to undertake an appropriate practice routine. A properly tuned acoustic piano is best, and a full-size digital piano is next best, though other electronic keyboards may be acceptable. Such a keyboard should have a minimum of 61 regular-sized keys, with 88 regular-sized keys being ideal. A sustain pedal is highly recommended. Touch-sensitive keys are the next priority, with weighted keys being recommended but less important than the other factors mentioned here.

Participants must have access to a DVD player in order to undertake an appropriate practice routine.

Participants are expected to agree to and maintain a schedule of regular and consistent practice throughout each week. Ideally, the practice amount begins at 15-20 minutes per day, and practice would take place daily, at the same time each of day. A minimum of 5-6 days a week practice is expected. In addition, any newly assigned material should be practiced on the lesson day itself as soon as possible after the lesson, in order to best reinforce what was covered.

Participants must maintain their playlists, both the performance of the repertoire itself as well as the completion of the tracking book.

There is no maximum suggested daily practice time. It is recommended that a Participant who is motivated to practice beyond what has been agreed to be allowed to do so without bound. However, it remains of primary importance that this not be at the expense of the appropriate carrying out of formal practice time on any given day, or at the expense of effective practice habits.

Participants benefit from mastering skills and knowledge before trying to build on them. The Simply Music method in particular is based on this approach. Participants are therefore required to refrain from skipping ahead, in lesson materials or otherwise, beyond the level of content that has been formally assigned during lessons. Listening to recordings of yet-to-be-learned lesson pieces, though, is encouraged at any time, as long as the Participant simply listens and does not try in any way to learn such pieces.

Except for skipping ahead as just described, it is highly recommended that a Participant who is motivated to spend any additional time involved with music beyond the assigned material, especially at the piano but otherwise as well, be allowed to do so without bound.

Newsletter

The Potluck Creative Arts Lesson Line is a combination blog and email newsletter that allows lesson time to focus as often as possible on new musical learning, while enabling Potluck Creative Arts to keep Participants/parents/guardians reliably informed not only about administrative issues but also practice/curriculum advice that is often crucial to supporting a Participant’s progress.

Potluck Creative Arts requires that at least one person from each ongoing lesson Participant’s household subscribe to the Lesson Line email list no later than the Participant’s second lesson after commencing ongoing lessons.

If the Participant is a minor, a parent or guardian should subscribe. If there is more than one parent or guardian actively engaged in supporting the Participant’s practice routine, it is strongly recommended that each such parent or guardian subscribe. In addition, minor Participants themselves are encouraged to subscribe, at the discretion of their parents/guardians.

If the Participant is an adult, the Participant should subscribe. If an adult Participant has anyone else actively engaged in supporting the Participant’s practice routine, it is strongly recommended that each such person subscribe as well.

To subscribe, complete the form at the bottom of the enrollment page. You will then receive a verification email, in which you must click the appropriate link to verify your subscription.

If one cannot or will not maintain and regularly check an email account, alternatives should be discussed with Potluck Creative Arts to ensure receipt of the newsletter content.

General Policy

All subject to this Policy are also subject to the Potluck Creative Arts General Policy, which is applicable independent of particular services of which one might take advantage.

Additional Simply Music Policies on the Student Enrollment Form

Personal Information

This information helps us to administer the Simply Music organization, manage the Simply Music teacher body, understand trends, support our Simply Music students and keep everybody informed and up-to-date with what’s happening within Simply Music as well as music education as a whole. We communicate regularly, via email and through our website, with our teachers and our student body. We do not sell, nor disclose private and confidential information to unrelated third parties. All information collected is securely stored on servers using state-of-the-art privacy protection methods.

Confidentiality Policy

Simply Music and/or its delegates” (”SM”) offers a unique “method of music instruction for students and teachers including specific approaches, ideas, techniques, musical compositions, written, electronic and audiovisual materials, Trade and Service Marks, and business or technical information (”The Program”). The Program is presented to you solely for your personal use. You will receive proprietary materials that, along with your lessons, ensure that you are being provided with the highest level of support that is possible. The Program has been developed as a result of the investment of significant time, effort and expense, and is a highly valuable, special and unique asset that provides SM with a distinct and significant competitive advantage. By signing this form you agree not to copy, alter, modify, reverse engineer, reproduce, replicate or create any imitation or abstraction of the Program, or attempt to derive the composition or underlying information of The Program. You declare that you will not use The Program for commercial application, nor use it to influence the development of any music educational program that is intended for commercial application. You acknowledge and agree that due to the unique nature of SM’s Program, there can be no adequate remedy at law for any breach of its obligations hereunder, that any such breach may allow you or third parties to unfairly compete with SM resulting in irreparable harm to SM and, therefore that upon any such breach or threat thereof, SM shall be entitled to injunctions and other appropriate equitable relief in addition to whatever remedies it may have at law. SM shall also be entitled to recover all of SM’s costs, disbursements and legal fees incurred in seeking or obtaining enforcement hereof.