Dirk has been teaching my son for over 6 years now. He is fantastic - he has a great way of…read moreengaging the kids to learn and grow. He makes learning fun - quite often brings his guitar for jam sessions. Dirk's excellent teaching skills helped my son lead the drum line at his high school for two years. Lastly, he is a great role model for kids. Very genuine individual who will be a great teacher for your child.

My son has been taking private lessons from Dirk for years. Dirk relates and communicates very well…read morewith his students. He not only teaches, he is in a band as well. This makes him very relatable and current in the music scene. My son has done very well in marching band and band thanks to his continued guidance from Dirk. I also love that he comes to our house. So much easier than getting in a car to drive to lessons. Dirk is a great guy, very orgainized and trustworthy. I would highly recommend him.

My son has been taking guitar classes for a couple months in St. Charles. Originally we signed him…read moreup more for fun. Didn't realize how impressed I'd be with how much he's grown in his playing ability. He loves his teacher and looks forward to his lessons every week. Really cool to see his progress, can't recommend enough

Literally the most unprofessional business I have ever dealt with. Zero or actually negative…read morestars. While my oldest daughter worked with Kaitlyn for voice lessons for a few years and had a great experience with her, the business is so poorly run, and they will just take your money and run. About a year ago, we were informed that we owed over $2000 in back pay due to their lack of proper accounting. It took me hours to go over records and verify that what they were claiming was correct. And in the end, I still wasn't sure if there was some inflation of charges since it was over a year's worth of billing that I had no invoices to keep track of. After this blunder on their part, they changed their accounting and billing policy and actually started sending invoices monthly. But the invoices reflected payments for 2 months in advance. So essentially if you decide to quit, they have 2 months worth of your money. My daughter's voice teacher, Kaitlyn, decided to leave AMI, and we were only given 1 week's notice prior to her leaving. In fact Kaitlyn said she was instructed NOT to say anything up until one week before. And my daughter is about to go to college, so switching now to a new teacher made no sense. So now we are left with over $800 in credits that we will never use. I asked several times for them to reconsider and reimburse our money. In the medical field where I work, it is customary to give patients 90 days notice if you are leaving so they can find a new provider. And we have worked with other music related businesses and none of them were crooks like AMI. Look elsewhere.

My daughter recently performed in her first School of Rock "gig" since beginning to take guitar…read morelessons there. I had not seen the SOR bands perform before. Going in to the performance, I keptr my expectations in check for my daughter, both in terms of her comfort of being on stage and her playing ability. My expectations for the performances overall were tempered as well. I think I expected children to miss notes and to get off rhythm occasionally. I was so impressed with how polished the bands actually sounded. They were all playing music I really enjoy, and doing it really well. I'm even more excited to see how my daughter progresses going forward, and I'm legitimately looking forward to future performances, simply for the chance to listen to good music played well. Thank you to administrators and the instructors for making School of Rock fun for my daughter and for obviously doing such a good job teaching the children to play music.

The staff and teachers are all very personable and extremely friendly. They seem to really care…read moreabout the students and helping us succeed. Collin is also very fair at trying to make sure we are treated fairly when it comes to getting fair value for what we pay for by way of rescheduling lessons and/or crediting us to compensate when makeup lessons aren't an option. *Update as of 12/30/2017 I wrote my previous review based on my personal experience with the intention of returning to resume lessons after taking a short hiatus. I was informed 2 nights ago by a friend that School of Rock abruptly ended their adult program without giving the adult students any notice. I still stand by my positive praise for the teachers. They are great. However this sudden move to end a program that many of us enjoyed and looked forward to without warning is disappointing. This move applies to only 3 locations owned by the same owner. Perhaps there are other SOR facilities that are managed more effectively to accommodate the workload?? I will miss going there and miss the instructors. My experiences with the Elmhurst teachers are nothing less than great. My disappointment with the sudden abandonment of the adult program without any notice remains intact.

My daughter has been with Brittany for over 4 years now. I'm so surprised no one has added her…read morebusiness here on Yelp. Brittany teaches Suzuki harp and piano and has been a musician since she was a child. She is an effective and empathetic teacher and knows how to motivate the different personalities of the harpists she teaches. She is kind and has a great balance of keeping the kids feeling engaged, but also staying firm with them to keep their form strong. She typically hosts 2 recitals a year and it's great to hear her students playing together. We have been pleased with our daughter's experience and how she has just loved playing the harp and growing in her music theory and playing skills. If you're not familiar with Suzuki method, essentially a parent comes along for the lessons and leans alongside the student, so that at home the parent can be involved and part of the practicing. It's been great to learn new pieces with my daughter, though at this point I am unable to keep up. My talent peaked at Twinkle, Twinkle. The studio itself is a calm and open space with several full-size harps and a beginner one without pedals. It's a relaxing space and perfect for instruction. If you or someone you love is interested in the harp, you should give Brittany a call. She can make recommendations about renting and buying harps and all the equipment needed to keep your harpist at the top of their craft. The cost of the lessons is reasonable and Brittany works hard to find a schedule that meets your needs.

My second grader takes piano and voice lessons. She started in the Fall of 2024. I am amazed how…read moreconfident she has become. The teaching style, patience and encouragement that is bestowed upon each child, is such a wonderful thing to observe. Yes, she is playing with both hands now, her voice projects, she has improved expotentially.... but it is more than that. She has blossomed under the care and support that Mrs. Hoke and Mr. Russell have given to her. I personally sang and played piano for over a decade. My instructors never cared for me and supported me the way my daughter has been supported. I cannot say enough good things about Fox Valley.

Mrs. Hoke is wonderful! My 9 year old daughter has been taking singing lessons with her for almost…read morea year now. She has already shown tremendous improvement and loves every minute. She also participated in a FVFA summer production of Beauty and the Beast and had a blast. We definitely recommend Fox Valley Fine Arts.

I studied piano when I was younger for almost 15 years. It has been about as long that I have gone…read morewithout. After deciding to get back into regular lessons, I tried a couple of teachers. With Jessica, upon the first time meeting her, I was comfortable and it was easy! We have consistently talked about musical elements, skills, and technique. We have also started to slowly dissect some new pieces by Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven. Within a short amount of time, my confidence, because of Jessica's thorough instruction and encouragement, has dramatically increased. I am very proud and excited to have now committed to one year of lessons with Jessica. I know I have much to learn and I completely trust in her knowledge, professionalism, passion, and patience.

My 9 year old son has been taking piano lessons with Jessica since 2021 via Zoom. Although the…read morelessons have been online, they have not prevented him from learning. In fact, he started out from not knowing anything to being able to read music and now LOVES making up his own compositions. Jessica is very professional and extremely patient. She tries to make the lessons fun. We are very happy with how she interacts with our son and appreciate everything she does.

We have been taking lessons for a while now, and John is great to work with. Flexible scheduling,…read morelessons at the right pace for the student, and very COVID conscious

Awesome services. Not only do they teach guitars and other instruments, and voice lessons, but they…read morealso have student workstations set up to teach producing your tracks using iMacs and Apple's Logic Pro X music editing software - which by the way is both known as the software to have, because it's great with medium and pros, but with a little learning curve, also with beginners. It's a great value for parents to get their kids someday, it won't break the bank, and Logic was wisely chosen as the program to teach at this place. They're a great value financially, but the main reason why you'd want to take lessons is because of their very talented teachers. They're all 20s and 30s, so they don't teach the old school Led Zeppelin school of rock oldies. They are more in this day and age of music like hip hop, pop, and electronic EDM. Their sound booths are super large, and their production studios are also very large, loaded with multiple instruments, and super cool. Again, it's cool that they know how to record and produce your music, and that they can add other instruments to your tracks, but in my opinion, what I think is the coolest, is that they have a dozen computers with affordable software parents could buy so that their kids could produce their music on their own. They're really good at showing off, but what got my kid really excited was that she could do things, like copy and paste harmonies of her voice, and as piano and drums, etc herself to her own music (which was great as her vocals and her guitar, but it's truly professional and sellable by electronically/programmatically adding much much more to her basic songs. Excitement in your kid - that's where they really Excel. But holy cow, these guys will take your semi-talented teenager and turn them into the next Taylor Swift or Calvin Harris or Beyonce. Absolute Music Academy is way better than any other place we've been, and we've been to 3 vocal coaches, a guitar coach, and SoR. There's no comparison if your kid wants to play today's music and honestly, quite possibly, turn pro. Good luck. Very affordable. Have fun!

My son took a one day DJ class at Absolute Music Academy and it was extermely helpful. As a novice…read more/ aspiring DJ, my son really appreciated the individual time they provided to him, even in a class with a few other students. Also, the time spent on the "theory" of music (mix on the 8, 16, etc beats) was invaluable. Thank you!