The Music Department offers individual music lessons taught by its staff of professional instructors. 

How lessons are structured
Image
Junko Watanabe making a gesture of precision to a student

Lessons meet once a week for twelve 50-minute meetings per semester. Students are expected to practice at least five hours a week in addition to the lesson time.

Lessons count as a half course. You may repeat lesson courses and take lessons every semester. Note the college's policy for half courses at the link below, particularly how half courses contribute to degree completion. 

To make arrangements for lessons

Registering for music lessons requires a few steps.

  1.  Students new to the program should complete the questionnaire at the following link.
      
    NEW STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE
  2. All students, returning and new, must request instructor permission in Workday. Janice Murphy, Music Lessons Coordinator, serves as roster manager for all MUSL courses and will respond promptly to your permission request. 
  3. If your request is approved, you must then log back into Workday to register, as you would for any course. 

If you have any questions, contact Ms. Murphy.

ENROLLMENT PRIORITY

Priority for music lesson courses is given to students continuing lessons in the same course from the preceding semester, to those who are pre-registered, and to those who have taken or are currently taking a MUSI course. First-year students in their first semester must have previous experience in their chosen area of study.

Seats will be held for continuing students through the first round of early registration only. Students continuing lessons from the preceding semester are required to register during the first round. New requests for lessons will be considered during the second round of early registration (after Enrollment Management Week). 

Corequisite MUSI Course (SUSPENDED)

At this time, students are not required to take an MUSI course as a co-requisite to an MUSL course. The Music Department faculty encourages students in MUSL courses to explore other music courses in the curriculum, including those in analysis, ethnography, composition, and historical studies. As noted above, priority is given to students with experience in MUSI courses.

AUDITING the lesson (Fee Charged to student account)

If you register for credit, your MUSL course is paid for by the college. If you choose to audit the course, it does not bear credit, it will not be recorded on your transcript, and you do not qualify for the funding subsidy. In this case, a semester of lessons bears a fee of $775. The fee is not refundable for any reason after the end of Add/Drop. Contact Ms. Murphy to arrange to audit a course. 

REGISTRATION LIMITS

Students should plan to take no more than one MUSL course per semester. In rare instances, students may receive permission from the faculty to take multiple simultaneous MUSL courses. Requests for multiple MUSL courses should be sent via email to Ms. Murphy with a justification for the exception to policy. 

Instrument rentals
A limited number of rental instruments are available to students enrolled in MUSL courses. The college provides funds up to one school year for instrument rentals. Contact Jan Murphy for more information.
Five College Lessons
You may take lessons at one of the other colleges through the Five College interchange. See the link below for information on Five College course requests. 

Image above of Voice Instructor Junko Watanabe working with a student. Photo credit: Jon Crispin