Frequently Asked Questions
This page answers many questions we have received, however, please contact us if your question is not answered below and we’ll update this page.
Do you accept beginners?
How often will I have a lesson?
What ages do you teach?
What days/hours do you teach?
What styles of music do you teach?
Where do the lessons take place?
What is the difference between taking lessons at a music store, a teacher’s house, and Pfluger-Rock?
What is a certified teacher and are your teachers certified?
Are instruments provided?
How much do lessons cost?
What forms of payment do you accept?
Is there a registration or enrollment fee?
Will I need a book?
How do I set up a lesson time?
What are the teacher qualifications?
What if my teacher misses a lesson?
What is your cancellation policy?
Can I teach myself lessons using Youtube?
What type of guitar do I need for guitar lessons?
I am left handed, do I need a left handed guitar?
Yes, we teach all levels from beginners to near professional musicians. Complete beginners are welcome.
Q How often will I come for a music lesson?
Most students come once a week for a 30-minute private lesson. 45-minute and 60-minute weekly lessons are also available for students who desire longer lessons. For most students, one 30-minute lesson per week is adequate if the student comes to his or her music lesson prepared.
Minimum age requirements are set by the individual teacher and also depends on the instrument. Most of our teachers accept students at 7 years of age and older. The minimum age for voice lessons is 9-10 years old.
Q What days/hours do you teach?
Most music lessons occur between the hours of 3:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. We are closed on Saturday and Sunday. Occasionally, a teacher may do make up lessons on a Saturday.
Q What styles of music do you teach?
Our teachers come from a wide variety of different musical backgrounds. If you are an intermediate-advanced student that desires to learn a specific style, please let us know. We can direct you to the teacher best suited to your style and musical preferences. All teachers are qualified to teach a well-rounded curriculum of basic music to beginners.
Q Where do the music lessons take place?
Lessons are taught in the studios at the Pfluger-Rock School Of Music or if requested, virtually. Our teachers do not travel to student’s homes to do lessons.
Pfluger-Rock is located at 100 West Pflugerville Parkway (formerly Pflugerville Loop) suite 102. We’re one block east of Heatherwilde Blvd. Next door to Pflugerville Animal Hospital at Wilke Ridge Lane, across the street from Parkway Bible Church. See map.
Q What is the difference between taking lessons at a music store, a teacher’s house, and Pfluger-Rock?
At Pfluger Rock School of Music, all of our attention and energy goes to ensuring that students get a high-quality music education. Unlike teachers at retail stores, our instructors do not waste lesson time trying to promote and up sell products to students. Our teachers are not music store sales people who teach lessons when they are not on the sales floor. Our teacher’s only job is to teach music.
We differ from at-home lessons in that we provide a safe and professional environment free from the many distractions commonplace in the home. Teaching is a professional occupation for our instructors, not a part-time hobby. At Pfluger-Rock, you know you will be taught by a competent music teacher who has been thoroughly background-checked. Home based teachers also typically do their own scheduling, phone calls, tuition collection, advertising, facility maintenance and so on. We have desk staff so that our teacher’s can focus only on teaching our students how to play music.
Taking lessons in a music school environment also allows students to enjoy the benefits of learning in a musical community where students can meet others who share their passion for music. We dedicate a lot of time, energy, and resources into providing students with regular opportunities to perform for friends and family in student showcase events. Home-based and web referral-type traveling music teachers do not have the resources, staff and facilities to put on the kind of student showcases that we do.
Pfluger Rock has 3 Kawai acoustic pianos, a Roland digital piano, 2 full acoustic drum sets, electric and acoustic guitars and amplifiers for use during lessons. We do not provide instruments for students to take home. Call us for recommendations of local retailers if you’re shopping for an instrument. Email us for our keyboard and piano buyer’s guide with recommendations on what to look for and where to go when getting started. See our “Beginner’s guide to choosing a guitar” in the video photos and video section of this website. Check out Rock n’ Roll Rentals if you don’t have an instrument yet and you’d like to rent one.
Tuition is as follows:
- $132 per month for 30-minute private lessons, taken once a week. (Most students take 30 minute lessons.)
- $198 per month for 45-minute private lessons, taken once a week.
- $264 per month for 60-minute private lessons, taken once a week.
- $264 per month for two family members, each taking weekly 30-minute private lessons.
We offer lessons on a month-to-month basis with no registration fee or annual material fees, no contracts and no semester minimums. Students may begin at anytime during the month. If your first lesson doesn’t fall on the first week of the month, we will prorate your tuition to reflect only the lessons you actually receive in your first month of lessons. After that, we charge a monthly flat rate and tuition remains the same each month. Students will have 4 lessons in most months. Occasionally, a student will receive only 3 lessons in a month due to the presence of a major holiday. However, all students will receive extra lessons throughout the year because some months have more than 4 weeks. Months with 5 lessons balance out the occasional months where a holiday causes a student to receive 3 lessons. Our school calendar is created so that there are 48 lessons over the course of the year giving students an average of 4 lessons per month once holidays and months with 5 lessons are factored in. When comparing tuition between schools, remember that some schools increase tuition or skip lessons for months that have an extra (5th) lesson. At our school, the 5th lesson is always included at no extra charge.
Q What forms of payment do you accept?
Tuition is drafted electronically, on the 3rd of each month through your checking account or through Visa/Master card. There is no contract using this method, and you are free to discontinue lessons at any time. However, when you wish to stop lessons, be sure to notify us by the 15th of the final month to discontinue future charges. Please call our school at 512-989-2425 if you have any questions about our payment methods. We’ll be happy to talk to you about how we collect tuition.
Q Is there a registration or enrollment fee?
No, we do not charge an registration/enrollment fee, administration fee, or office fee.
Some teachers prepare material for students while others use method books. Your teacher will let you know at your lesson. For your convenience, Pfluger-Rock School of Music is a Hal Leonard Dealer and we do stock many of the most popular books that our teachers use such as the Faber Piano Adventures series. The cost of books are not included in tuition but the cost for books is minimal.
Q How do I set up a lesson time?
The best way to set up lessons, is to go to contact tab located on the red menu bar at the far right, then fill out the contact form. Or you may call 512-989-2425 or email lessons@pfluger-rock.com. If you get our voice mail, please leave a message and your call will be returned promptly. Please let us know which instrument you want to learn how to play, the age of the student if the student is a child and whether or not you have an instrument yet. You’re welcome to call anytime of the day. We try to answer calls before our normal lesson hours (3:00-8:00 pm Mon-Thur, 3:00-6:30 Fri) and on weekends whenever possible.
Q What are the teacher qualifications?
Each of the teachers that work at Pfluger-Rock School of Music was selected based on education, performance credentials and teaching experience. Our teachers come from diverse musical backgrounds. Whenever possible, we try to match new students to the teacher who will be most appropriate for their needs. Check the Teachers page for individual teacher bio’s.
Q What is a certified teacher and are your teachers certified?
One large chain music store advertises “certified” teachers. Since there is no widely accepted certification process for private music teachers, we wondered the same thing. As far as we can tell, it’s just an arbitrary, made-up term some music stores and schools use to make it sound like their teachers are more qualified than others.
Music education, teaching experience, love for teaching and natural teaching ability are important qualities in a good teacher. Being an accomplished musician or a well known player doesn’t necessarily make someone a great teacher. Pfluger-Rock instructors are university graduates and working professionals with many years of performing, recording, and teaching experience.
Q What if my teacher misses a lesson?
Occasionally, a teacher will miss a lesson due to an illness, family emergency or other schedule conflict. Whenever this happens, the school office will try to arrange for one of our other teachers or one of our guest teachers to substitute. If that isn’t possible, we will arrange for a make up lesson. We have found that many students actually enjoy an occasional lesson with another teacher. It benefits the student by seeing another instructor’s perspective.
Q What is your cancellation policy?
Recognize that your lesson time is reserved specifically for you. This means that your lesson slot is unavailable to other students and the teacher has made a commitment to instruct you at that time. Please make every effort to come to your lesson and avoid scheduling other activities during your lesson time. Consistent attendance helps ensure good progress.
Recognize that many of our teachers have full class schedules and most don’t teach at our location every day. Therefore, it can be difficult to schedule make up lessons if you cancel lessons frequently.
If you must cancel or reschedule a lesson, a minimum of 24 hours notice is needed if you would like to receive a make-up lesson. Make-up lessons must be scheduled through the school office. Please limit cancellations to no more than one per quarter.
The tuition fees for lessons that are cancelled with less than 24 hours notice are forfeited. Your teacher is not obligated to provide a make-up lesson for “no shows” or “late cancellations”. Students may not use “credit” from a missed lesson to reduce the tuition for a subsequent month. The tuition remains the same; there are NO REFUNDS for missed and cancelled lessons, unless caused by the teacher’s unavailability.
Never cancel a lesson because you have not had time to practice. It is better to come in and review the material so progress is not halted yet another week.
Q Can I teach myself using Youtube?
We do not recommend using online sources as your primary means of instruction. Self-taught players are often painfully easy to spot by their poor technique and lack of basic music knowledge. We believe that after you have the basics down, learning songs from online sources like a tablature site or YouTube can be a fun supplement to private lessons.
One of the problems with online sources is that most of the information out there is presented by amateurs. You simply will not know if the material is accurate or appropriate for your skill level. Even if the material you are studying is correct, you probably will not know if YOU are playing the songs correctly and you certainly cannot ask a YouTube video or tablature website why something you are playing does not sound right. The choice of fingering while playing a scale, lick or song, has a huge impact on the way it will sound and how easy it will be to play. If you play it right, and it’s a piece of cake. Play it wrong and you can struggle for weeks and it still will not sound right. Without an instructor, you don’t get critical feedback about your playing, direction about where to go next and analysis about the theory behind the song.
And, remember what they say about bad habits. Once you have taught yourself something the wrong way, it’s very difficult to unlearn. A good instructor will develop a music curriculum tailored to your specific needs and interests and will be available to answer questions, address frustrations, and demonstrate correct technique.
Additionally, when you take lessons in a music school environment, you open yourself up to a community of other musicians. Those relationships make for a more enjoyable learning experience and an opportunity to network with other music students. We offer recital/student showcase opportunities where students can perform. Self taught students don’t get that opportunity.
So why not learn much faster, have the knowledge that you are doing things correctly and have more FUN by taking lessons than trying to do it alone?
Q What type of guitar do I need for guitar lessons?
There are three common types of guitars, watch our video Choosing a Guitar Video
First is the steel string acoustic guitar. This type of guitar does not require an amplifier and can be easily transported from your house to guitar lessons, a jam session, a gig or any other venue where you may wish to play your guitar. You can play almost any style of music on an acoustic steel string guitar such as pop, rock, folk, country, blues and even jazz. As you may have guessed, the steel string acoustic guitar has strings made of steel and a few other metals. Some of the pros of this type of guitar are: modest starting prices, no amplifier is needed, and you can play many different styles of music on a steel string acoustic guitar. Potential cons are: a poor quality guitar can been hard to play and making adjustments to improve playability requires a skilled repairman. Playing a poorly setup steel string acoustic guitar with high action can cause unnecessary finger soreness and hand fatigue. This type of guitar is more sensitive to temperature and humidity changes than an electric guitar.
The second type of guitar is the nylon string acoustic guitar or classical guitar. Like the steel string acoustic, a nylon string guitar does not require an amplifier. Two important differences between a steel string acoustic and a nylon string acoustic guitar are that the nylon string guitar has a wider neck and uses strings made from different material. The first 3 treble strings are made of a nylon material that looks like fishing line. The three bass strings are made of made of a core of fine plastic threads wound with bronze wire or silver plated copper wire and feel softer to the touch than the bass strings of a steel string acoustic guitar. Classical guitars have a deeper more mellow tone than steel strings. Pros are: no amplifier is needed, softer string material typically causes less soreness to a beginners finger tips than a steel string acoustic. Cons are: this type of guitar is typically used only for classical music. The wider neck can be cumbersome for someone with small hands. Replacing strings on a classical guitar takes more time and take a lot longer to stretch out (requiring a lot of tuning and re-tuning initially) than do the strings on an acoustic or an electric guitar. Making adjustments to a classical guitar requires a skilled repair person. By the way, do not put steel strings on a classical guitar. The classical guitar is not designed to take the additional stress placed on it by higher tension steel strings.
The third type of guitar is the electric guitar. This type of guitar is usually made of a solid piece of wood and is typically more compact and heavy than acoustic guitars. Electric guitars are usually played through an amplifier to be loud enough to be heard in all but the quietest environments. Pros are; electric guitars are usually much easier on the left hand finger tips of the players hands due to the smaller gauge strings typically used on electric guitars. Most electrics are more compact and easier to hold than an acoustic guitar. Electrics are very versatile in that you can play almost any style of music on them except for traditional classical and bluegrass music. Electrics are much easier to make minor adjustments to than acoustics. For example, a savvy teacher can make adjustments that will make your guitar easier to play by adjusting the bridge with a set of small Allen wrenches or screw drivers. Cons are; you will probably want to buy an amplifier to play through and an instrument cable to connect the guitar to the amp. Electronic controls (switches, knobs and input jacks) can break if the guitar is not taken care of. By the way, many small practice amps have headphone jacks so you can play your electric guitar without disturbing other family members or roommates. Most music stores have starter packages that bundle an inexpensive guitar, cord and amplifier together at a modest cost.
In conclusion, you can really learn to play guitar on any of the three guitars discussed above. For most students, Pfluger-Rock suggests either a steel string acoustic guitar or an electric guitar. Some classical guitar teachers in town may prefer or even require that you have a nylon string guitar. Although some of our teachers have strong backgrounds in classical guitar, none of the teachers at Pfluger-Rock requires that you have a classical guitar. We recommend you avoid learning to play on a 12-string guitar because they require a great deal of hand strength to play and are much more cumbersome to play than a standard 6-string guitar. 7-string guitars are typically used by advanced players that have in interest is specific types of heavy rock and jazz music. Flying V guitars are difficult to play sitting down. We do not recommend those types of guitars for beginning lessons.
I am left handed, do I need a left handed guitar?
No, unless you have already been playing a left handed guitar for a while, we recommend a standard right hand guitar for left handed students.
Pfluger Rock School of Music for superior music lessons by University trained instructors for guitar lessons, piano lessons, voice lessons and more in Round Rock and Pflugerville, Texas.