When our son wanted to start learning piano, I knew he needed a place where the environment was supportive and fun. Dancing Keys is this place! Ms. Giana and her team teach using an approach that focuses on learning by playing and that means making music from day one. Our son was able to sing and play A Million Dreams and he loved the process of doing it! I wish I had learned piano this way and highly recommend the amazing Ms. Giana/Dancing Keys to anyone! read more

We love Ms. Giana and this studio! We have been coming here for a couple months now and really enjoy our music lessons with Ms. Giana. She is a great teacher with a gentle approach. You can tell she really enjoys what she does. It's always a pleasure watching her teach. My child starts off unsure but by the end of class is really confident in the piece of music she is playing and can't wait to get home and practice some more. She practices throughout the week so much that I have to remind her to log in through the app and utilize the tools that come with the lessons. Hoping to learn more through the coming years. Online lessons available too! See website for more details. read more

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Not sure how people start here when talking to an actual person is impossible. If you inquire for more information in person, you just told to go online. Submit an inquiry only, they ask you to sign up for a meeting. No one answers the phone either so no luck there either. read more

DKMS is the best piano studio in the OC! My daughter was previously at another piano studio nearby for about a year before we made the switch over to DKMS. Switching was the best thing that I did- my daughter's piano skills have grown exponentially under teacher Giana's musical guidance. She's patient, caring, and her passion for piano and music is contagious. I look forward to having my daughter attend here for as long as Giana is teaching! read more

I really don't have enough good things to say about this music studio! My son is 8 years old and plays piano, he has progressed so much and so quickly , it's so amazing to see! He loves his teachers Mr. Logan and Miss Gianna and enjoys learning all the new songs he gets to learn every week with the special teaching method they implement. This music studio genuinely cares about their students, and teaches with patience, care, love and joy! My son really looks forward to playing piano and he appreciates music so much more now. We are so blessed to have found this studio and I highly highly recommend it for anyone that may be looking to start piano lessons. read more

We enrolled our daughter in piano lessons at Dancing Keys when our daughter was seven - about 3 years now! We were intrigued by their unique "simply music" teaching method where they teach kids to play before they teach them how to read sheet music (like how we learn to talk and verbalize our thoughts before we learn to write). Our daughter has really blossomed and grown here under Ms. Giana and has learned so much. She truly loves her lessons and Ms. Giana. Ms. Giana is patient and encouraging, but firm and keeps the kids focused and on task. She's everything you could want in an instructor and makes music fun and engaging for the kids! read more

Ms. Giana and her team are beyond wonderful and professional to me and my daughter. We both have private lessons. Ms. Giana is the combination of soft melody voice , skillful singer, and professional piano teacher . To someone like me who likes contemporary music with some singing together , I found Ms. Giana is the coach to go ! She helps to teach and train me to a versatile student who can play and sing in real life . Meanwhile, beside Ms. Giana's sweet character, she is also a strict teacher who always pushes me to become better constantly ! Contrary to Ns. Giana, the other teacher, Mr. HP is my daughter's teacher . He is extremely patient and have a soft tone . For the students who want to take a steady and smoothing learning experience, Mr. HP is the nurturing teacher ! With diverse teacher characters focusing on core designed course lessons , my daughter and I are learning from level 0 with confidence. We learn different styles of music - blues, Jazz, classic, and even pop music at personalized preference . From my perspective, the right teacher may not be someone who has the highest skill of the state, but someone who owns combined skill of being the true teacher - good character, patience, right designed coursework, ancillary skillsets, and capacity to push your motivations. Please feel free to contact Ms. Giana for any questions you may have in terms of their teaching uniqueness and style. Plus, if you haven't tried to hear Ms. Giana's singing , please listen to her song - "Magic ". Her voice is angel , soothing, and simply magic. read more

Music has become such a big and positive part of our kids' life thanks to Ms. Giana and Dancing Keys, and their love and appreciation for music just keeps growing! That makes my husband and I especially happy as we both used to play piano when we were kids and couldn't wait to quit, which wouldn't have happened if we had Dancing Keys! read more

When my 6 yr old grandson took some piano lessons and showed no interest, we were disappointed, but decided not to pressure him. When he came to stay with us last summer, we decided to give Dancing Keys a chance to restart. When he heard Giana play "Fur Elise" he was sold! He loved the lessons. Giana made it fun and he was motivated to keep playing the piano. At the end of the summer when he was returning to Northern California, Giana suggested that we continue his lessons on Zoom. It's been over a year since he started. He is excited to learn new music, really proud of what he can do and most importantly he is having fun. Thanks Giana, our miracle teacher! The Ari Family read more

When my family first moved to Irvine, we decided to put our son into piano lessons. After looking around at many studios and reading review after review, we decided to try out Dancing keys, with Giana as his teacher. Since then he loves playing the piano! Giana has been such a great teacher, ensuring that the students keep progressing, while still enjoying the music they learn. I highly recommend anyone looking to start their child in piano lessons to come here! read more

I wanted to share how much of a difference Giana has made in my life. My mother has very severe dementia and one of the very few times that she experiences joy is when I am playing the piano and singing. I never used to sing and play because I was very self conscious and hated my singing voice. However, Giana brought such joy and love to the lessons, encouraging me to sing such songs as Amazing Grace, Honey Dew, This Little Light of Mine and many more. Now I sing without the self criticism and judgment I used to have. This has brought LOVE and CONNECTION to both me and my mother. THANK YOU so much Giana for the knowledge you bring in teaching me piano but more importantly for the love and joy and sweetness that comes through in you sharing your gift. I will never forget this very special time in my life. I highly recommend Giana and her team! read more

We love Dancing Keys and Ms. Victoria. Victoria has been teaching my 7 year old daughter how to play piano for the past year, and my daughter responds so well to Victoria's kind yet firm instruction. The curriculum and technique DKMS uses, the Simply Music curriculum, also produces amazing results. The curriculum gets kids to start playing right away by stressing musical patterns instead of note reading (that comes a little later in the curriculum). As a result, beginners can focus on making music and feel empowered by that early on. It's a great motivator. I rarely need to remind my daughter to practice; she loves the music and her progress so much that she does it herself. It helps that the music covers a wide variety of genres. It's not all classical. They also learn to accompany themselves while they sing, which kind of blows my mind because I never learned to do that. We are sad that we'll be moving away soon. We will miss everyone at the studio! read more

I can honestly say Dancing Keys Music Studio has changed our son's life. Our son is 10 now, and started taking lessons with Dancing Keys in 2015. He had tried two other piano teachers before, and while there was some interest, it didn't really inspire him. We went to our son's elementary school's open house tonight, and in his profile he was asked to write was his "Big Dream" is. He wrote that he wants to be a Pianist (and then went on to explain that's a professional piano player...lol). Prior to working with Giana at Dancing Keys, piano was just another activity for him. Giana worked with our son and got him to cross the chasm from piano being an activity to a PASSION. That's all Giana and the genius method that they use at Dancing Keys. Whatever happens with my son, my heart is overjoyed that he has passion and joy in his life for music. Thanks Giana and everyone at Dancing Keys! read more

Dancing Keys Music Studio - Open House "About Me" - Musical Instruments & Teachers Near Me - Irvine, California

If you have a love for music or want your kids to fall in love with music, this is the place to go! Giana has been such an inspirational teacher that helped me to rekindle my love for piano playing, song writing, and singing. She is a skillful teacher who is always so positive and encourages me to keep growing in my piano, song writing, and singing skills. It made picking up piano again after childhood (as an adult) none-stressful and so much fun! Thank you, Giana, for being such a wonderful teacher and a huge blessing in my life! read more

The owner and all of the teachers are incredible at Dancing Keys. They teach the Simply Music method, which focuses on playing music and songs right away instead of forcing students to read music at the same time. My kid was SO proud of herself when she learned a song almost immediately. They allow students to learn at their own pace and it is clear that Dancing Keys really cares about their students and community. We have had our lessons almost entirely via Zoom since we started post-COVID and it's been perfect. We visited the studio once and it's clean and bright, and we hope to start going in person someday. In the meantime, Dancing Keys has created a strong sense of community and connection and we will be clients for a long time. read more

Giana is an amazing teacher who has been working with my son for over a year. She makes learning piano fun and has taken the time to understand my son's unique way of learning. Even though we live in Orange, we drive to Irvine for lessons because we can't imagine ever finding a better teacher for our son! The studio is well organized, too and communicates clearly. Highly recommend. read more

I highly recommend DKMS! My 4th and 5th grade kids have been taking lessons for several years now, and the experience has been wonderful. In fact, I recently started with my own lessons as an adult, and that's been great too. Ms. Victoria is our teacher- she's awesome! She's very patient and encouraging with the kids (and me!) as well as being an excellent musician and singer. Everything is low pressure, but the kids learn fast and play a wide variety of songs right away, before even learning to read music. Scheduling has always been easy and flexible with a seamless transition to virtual during the pandemic. Since I started recently, all my lessons have been virtual and that's worked fine. DKMS holds "piano parties" a couple time each year that are fun, low-stress versions of a recital. DKMS is has built a vibrant community around piano music, and we're so glad to be a part of it. read more

We love Dancing Keys! Giana is an amazing piano teacher! She makes it fun and exciting to learn to play piano. My son is 8 years old and is so excited to go to piano lessons every week. We have so much fun there! I grew up with traditional piano lessons. Before we started I wondered how it could work with more than one student in the class. I quickly found out that a group piano class is in fact a better way to go... The kids learn from each other. They have fun singing along while one student plays. They even write their own songs and teach each other!! My son has only been playing for a couple months and he can already play the accompaniment to Let It Be! It makes my heart happy!!!!! read more

We've graduated our son from the Rhapsody class to the Play-A-Story class and he is doing splendidly under the careful instruction and positive attention of Miss Stephanie. Not only is he learning to play the piano in an organic way, he's learning concepts and vocabulary like "pentatonic" and "crescendo" each week to reinforce his practice. Music theory is woven into the class in a very natural way for our three-year-old. My eight-year-old daughter continues to develop her piano skills and her musical intelligence and confidence. The teachers/owners of DKMS provide opportunities for students to perform in diverse venues which really helps my daughter develop her confidence in front of different audiences. Mr. Alex is also developing/pioneering a digital playlist app which has made practice SO MUCH EASIER for me as coach and engaging for my daughter as student! I continue to be very happy with learning Simply Music at Dancing Keys Music Studio and want to thank Giana, Stephanie, and Alex for giving my family a space to be musical together. read more

Oh we love it here. My 6 year old started these classes in July, just because he showed a teensy bit interest in keyboards. Just after a couple of sessions, he seemed to be really enjoying them. As for us, we love the fact that they don't follow the traditional piano teaching method (not that there is anything wrong with it). He's very happy that he could play songs from the day 1. He even can sing now...to the tunes . They gotta practice everyday which he loves too. It's satisfactory for a parent to see their 6 year old's dedication. What's more, he says he wants to keep doing it. Highly recommend them, especially his teachers- Ms Tara & Ms Giana. read more

We found DKMS through a friend's introduction. We love the Studio's approach to teaching the piano by getting students to enjoy playing while learning techniques. My daughter has been taking lessons from Giana for nearly six years. Giana is a dedicated and patient, yet firm, instructor. Somehow, she manages to make the lessons both fun and challenging. My son has been studying with Victoria for a little over two years. It is a testament to her that a hyper kid like him would willingly sit at the piano and practice everyday. All in all, we are really grateful to have such devoted and passionate music instructors for our children. read more

I am not a customer, but just a fan and a partner of theirs from another school. This is a small, solid team following a unique small group, playing-based curriculum - and grown-ups, they're here for you, too. As a musician, I appreciate the overall live musicianship skills they develop, theory in practice. They get to literacy too, don't worry, but Giana and Alex both are passionate about piano, this is something they pursued, not just fell into. They're sharing a love. I'm most familiar with the co-owners Giana and Alex, but Cathy is another highly regarded local Simply Music teacher that they've been lucky to add. I remember when they first talked about this amazing woman with huge recitals and wonderful experience with special education, too. Of course, they've kept growing, carefully and conscientiously. I watched them research the best ways to expand and interview countless additional instructors before they settled on the right ones. This business is their baby, and their students are their kids, and they want it done right. They worked with one of their students on an app to encourage healthy practice habits and an easy reference and resource that was fun. They partner with the Irvine Company and Boomers and high-end piano stores to give their students unique recitals, with rehearsal nights and even an extra studio band practice for those ready to play along with drums, guitar, and base! Great people, great school - and great students, too. read more

Giana is a terrific teacher and motivator. Our young daughter was trained classically . At about 10yo she had lost her interest in piano and practice was drudgery . Dancing Keys enlivened her love of music during the tough teenage years . Her singing and playing is now expressive . Our schedules have too busy lately but we hope to return soon. I highly recommend Dancing Keys ! .. Our family is very grateful to Giana. Paul read more

This is an overdue review. I have going been here for piano lessons since March 2016. I came here with previous classical piano training. Life got in the way so I had to stop those lessons. I found this studio after searching for piano studios in the area that cater to adult learners. More than a year of lessons and now I can play some pieces during my spare time from my busy work schedule. The teachers are very knowledgeable. As an adult learner, I had challenges coming from a traditional way of learning to play the piano. However, I am still going here and attending lessons so I guess that is one good sign for anyone who wants to learn to play the piano even later in life. read more

The facility, the staff, the learning material - every aspect of this piano lesson studio is delightful. I had learned piano as a child, stupidly abandoned it in my teens, and with this new learning style, I'm quickly getting back on the horse. Instructors Cathy and Alex are amazing, friendly, approachable, and knowledgeable. read more

My two daughters love taking piano lessons with Giana. It's only been 4 months since they have started but I'm surprised at their progress. My girls have a tendency to be bored very easily but they always enjoy and look forward to their lessons at DKMS. Highly recommend this studio if you want to learn piano through a new approach. read more

We had tried to convince our son about taking piano lessons for a long time but had failed every time. He never showed any interest in it. One day, we heard about Dancing Keys Music Studio and thought we would him one last try. To our surprise, he loves it so much that he decided to play at the Christmas party. We couldn't believe that our son was actually performing after 5 lessons. Thanks to his teacher, Ms Giana, for her patience and encouragement. In less than 6 months, my son has learned and is now able to play more than 20 songs fluently. Our 3 year old daughter is also in Ms Stephanie's Simply Music Rhapsody. Her lessons combine music and playtime has gotten the kids so engaged. Our daughter has been able to recognize a lot of the rhythm and move or dance accordingly. Simply Music is the way to learn. If you are serious about playing piano or wanting to get your little ones ready for piano, check out Dancing Keys Music Studio. Results speak for themselves. You would be so glad that you never not want to go anywhere else. read more

We love Dancing Keys studio and all three teachers at the studio Giana, Alex and Stephanie. I am the mom to 7 year old triplet boys. I wanted to introduce my boys to music and Dancing Keys has been the perfect place. Ms Giana is our teacher and she is incredible! She makes the piano lessons fun and entertaining for the boys so that they enjoy coming to class. My boys enjoy practicing the piano at home and performing for friends and family when they visit. We have been going to Dancing Keys for 6 months now and my boys know well over 30 songs already. Our family and friends have all commented at how impressed they are with the boys piano playing and are surprised that they have been only playing for a few short months. After only three months of piano lessons my three boys were able to get up in front of an audience and play the piano at a piano party. This was such a proud mom moment! The group lessons have been great! I think that the group lessons have not only helped them learn but have also helped contributed to their success as they are learning to play and sing together. The boys love their lessons. Also from a practical perspective it allows all three of my sons to be able to take lessons at the same time. We also attend piano as a family with my husband and I both able to attend class with the boys. Dancing Keys has been a great experience for our family and we would highly recommend them to anyone who is considering piano/music lessons. read more

I have not taken piano lessons in years and forgot how to read music. I remember how as a child, I dreaded going to piano lessons. When we heard about the techniques Dancing Keys use, we were intrigued. Our 5 year old son, Aidan,started taking lessons with Ms. Stephanie at the beginning of the year. After one lesson, he was already able to play his own song on the piano. It brought tears to my eyes. Stephanie is a wonderful and patient teacher. Even when Aidan doesn't want to play, she always manages to get him to learn with her creative and fun teaching techniques. Siince the lessons require parent participation, I have been slowly learning how to play again. It has been fun discovering the joy of playing the piano with my son. Thank you Dancing Keys. read more

The facility is awesome and provides a great learning environment! The staff are all great thank you Dancing Keys Music Studio!!

My daughter took lessons here and loved it. She has challenges with reading and traditional sheet music would have been a deal breaker for her. The instructors are awesome, patient and very talented and she was able to play a song after her very first lesson. I didn't have to fight her to practice and she felt a sense of accomplishment after every lesson. I highly recommend this studio for children or adults! read more

This is such a great way to learn piano! My daughter has enjoyed learning here and has stuck with it so much longer than she would have with any lesser school or method of learning. The system allows for students to play a variety of music and at times pick their own. The teachers are fantastic and the piano parties are super fun! I cannot recommend this school enough! read more

The trio of owners are great. My 2 year old daughter loves the Parent & Me Class. She loves MS. Stephanie. This is great place for families and I highly recommend it for young kids as well as the piano lessons. read more

We love all the teachers & their teaching method. One of my daughter was very shy, Stephanie was able to let her open up & enjoy the music. The other girl actually likes to practice at home. Thanks to Giana for realizing & developing her potential. I am very excited they are actually enjoying music. read more

If you're an adult wanting to learn piano the quick and right ways, Dancing Keys have awesome instructors to get you up playing on the first lesson. Don't waste your money with instructional videos. read more

Love this place!! My daughter could play a song after her very first lesson! Her teacher Giana is awesome!! We look forward to our class every week. We all get to sit in on the lesson and enjoy the music together. Would definitely recommend it to friends!!! read more

My 12 year old daughter had been taking challenging, traditional piano and theory lessons for many years before transitioning to Dancing Keys. She memorized many classical pieces but couldn't remember them after the recital. After taking lessons with Giana for 6 months she is so much happier to be learning so many new genres of songs and singing along with them. Recently she went to a birthday party with 10 active girls and she went right to the Keyboard and played a new pop piece and a Jazzy Holiday song and her friends came over to sing with her. I was thrilled that she was so comfortable to perform in front of friends without being asked. She also enjoys daily practicing and seeing her progress with the tracking app on the iPod. Her classically trained and talented teacher keeps her challenged and motivated to improve each week. I also really like that they encourage parents to watch the lessons and be involved with your child. I would encourage anyone to try this method of piano as my child enjoys ALL types of music so much more now. read more

I went to this place based on the reviews. I was told we were going in for an intro session where I thought they would talk to my child and evaluate her. Instead we sat down watch a DVD from the 80's, the material seems so outdated and it's so hard to watch. I don't agree with their method of teaching. I am not saying its wrong but its not what I want for my daughter. I rather her learn what she is doing then just learning a song. Not to mention I feel they are overpriced. I was really disappointed after I left. read more

My son started with Giana at Dancing Keys a little over 2 years ago when he was 7. For Christmas this year he wrote his Daddy a song, and I don't just mean a little song. It was AMAZING! Not just the way he plays the piano, but the way he understands the music and how sounds should go together. After 2 years, I can put ANY song in front of him, and he can play it! (bonus for me, as I'm a singer! Now I have my own accompanist!!) This is not your average type of Piano class. They teach how to play chords first, which is brilliant, because you can play songs right away instead of getting frustrated with only repeating scales. My son loves it and is so proud of himself. Try them out, you won't be sorry! read more

Can't say enough good things about this studio. Their method is incredible compared to the traditional teaching method. I would highly recommend you check out this studio if you want your child or yourself to succeed at piano and have fun while doing it. My daughter is only 7 and plays beautiful songs. The teachers are wonderful and it has been a great experience. I am so thankful to have found this studio. read more