Almaden School of Music Art & Dance

There are some really accomplished teachers in this school, talented and very experienced musicians. If you want your older child to learn music in a very serious and disciplined way, this school can definitely cater to that. The school’s hallways are peppered with art work and there are multiple rooms where teachers hold their classes, but the serious atmosphere is ever present. My child thrives in it though and perhaps because she is older, the environment does not seem as daunting in her perception. She enjoys her teacher’s friendly style and makes a serious daily attempt at meeting her teacher’s expectations. It’s pricey but in a convenient location.

After a little more than 2 years with these people, not sure if I want to keep having my girl coming here. Today (6÷22÷15), I was shocked didn’t know what to make of the situation as my little girl and I got out of the bathroom stall, there was a maintenance guy inside the bathroom with us already and I didn’t even know about it. Apparently, one of the staff okay him to be inside while customers like my little girl and I were still inside. Wth? And honestly, I do not like any of the music staff at this school from even my own daughter’s violin instructor to the front desk receptionists, they all look like they work at the mortuary or something. Wth, I thought working in a musical environment like this school should bring them happiness and greet students and other customers with enthusiasm but that’s not the case. Something is majorly wrong here with this music school. Gotta see about another music school. I do not recommend any of you all out there to enroll your child at almaden school of music.

First step through the door and you are welcomed by the amazing artwork displayed on the walls. It’s so incredible to see all of the talented artists! I love how their artwork gets acknowledge and recognized by their teachers.
This place is amazing! It makes me want to be a kid and take art and music lessons. The front desk receptionists are so nice and easy to talk to. They went out of their way to help me find the right class for my nieces!
There are so many amazing and gifted teachers at this school. All with a passion to teach and inspire youngs to love music. What a great mission and vision this school has!
Definitely come by with your little ones and check it out. They offer different art classes from ages 4+ and music and singing classes as well. Those tends to vary based on teachers and schedules but don’t worry there are plenty to choose from!

Our daughter wanted to learn Drums & this being the closest to our home we brought our 5yr old here. We were all excited to meet the instructor who almost scorned at her. kept saying. a girl interested in drums, usually i don’t come across girls its boys who are keen on drums. girls are mostly into piano. OK can we give a try out. so we paid $ 45 for the intro class next week.
he absolutely did not know how to interact with kids, came across to us like he was not interested in teaching her. My daughter came home & said I will never go back there again. That teacher is very rude,
what ever happened to customer service in this music place. Like you don’t care.

I took my two children (almost 7 and almost 6) to this music school for a trial class yesterday. It was the first time my daughter was playing the violin and my son the guitar.
My daughter has been waiting to start violin lessons for three years and she had her class first. The instructor she got (Sevil) was terrible; She spoke to my daughter like she was supposed to know everything, «Why you hold it like that? No. No. No. Never like that. That is wrong… Don’t put your finger there like that, why you do that… (Sigh, sigh). Only play ONE time. I said ONE time! (She had not said that)… You must do better. No. No. No. No.» She didn’t explain to my daughter what the different parts of the violin are called. She wouldn’t let her play with the bow which is what my daughter was so looking forward to doing. My daughter of course wasn’t holding the violin right, but she was trying and it’s not like she was holding it like a guitar or a clarinet. She had a general idea of how to hold it.
My son had his guitar lesson next and the teacher (Ashot) was friendlier than my daughter’s but he was unprepared. He didn’t have the book my son needed and wasted 1 minutes of the 30-​minute class looking for it. He ended up writing some notes on a piece of paper for my son. He was also impatient but had some comic relief which made the very short class a little more enjoyable for my son.
I didn’t enroll my children in the school and I would not recommend it at all.

My 7-​year-​old son has been having piano lessons here for a year now. Having been musically educated in the past (primarily in classical music), I had specific requirements for my son’s education, including a good balance between classical and modern music, and an expressive teaching style.
Our first teacher was good (4 out of 5 stars), sort of reminds me of a teacher I had when I was a kid. Then we switched to another teacher, Ms. Luara Tsarya. What a change! Ms. Luara reminds me of a teacher I wish I had back in the day (you know, the best one in school, who had the strongest students performing at recitals!)
The switch took place at the end of summer, just two months ago, but my son made more progress than in months with a prior teacher. First thing Ms. Luara did was she completely changed the repertoire from the «cookie cutter» Alfred’s Basic Piano, to a set of separate materials, including Jazz, Blues, popular music. To keep emphasis on technical skills, every lesson also includes scales and the associated exercises. Recently, the «obligatory» classical études were also introduced for improving technique.
During lessons, Ms. Luara is very expressive and articulate. She would not rush a kid through new stuff and would prioritize her efforts for a kid to try to understand the «logic» first, rather than «mechanical drills». For example, early in learning a new scale, my son would try to play it blind. Then, after practicing a chord progression, a simple tune would be used to reinforce the new chords («can you play Twinkle-​twinkle in B-​flat major?» followed by a few other scale variations).
«How to perform» aspects are also covered in every lesson. All in all, a very well-​rounded, high-​quality lesson plan and execution, every time! At this point I can’t ask for more (other than a better tuned piano ;-)
My son (and I) feel more motivated now and appropriately challenged. After having had a large number of make-​up lessons from the first teacher, we have now switched from once-​a-​week to twice-​a-​week 45-​min schedule (which helps keep the learning momentum going plus that’s what I was used to when I was a kid).
The school has two locations, which offer flexibility in scheduling the classes (or make-​ups).

I think we get what we paid, my daughter gets a dedicated and courageous teacher. She’s very nice and very supportive teacher. My daughter likes her so much. She takes a vocal lesson here almost 2 year and i can see her voice improves a lot. The teacher sometimes has a recital and competition for students as well. Very good…

This is an update to my post from 7÷13÷2013.
The school called me back after I sent an email with my feedback and immediately apologized and offered me a free trial with a different teacher. Since this was the appropriate response, I agreed. My daughter immediately liked her new teacher, Bill Colvert, who you can tell is much more experienced with beginner, younger students. We have now been going for 3 – 4 classes now and it’s been working out.
I still feel like I’m getting dirty stares from the previous teacher, but I’m sure it’s just me :)

This review is for Dennis who has been giving our son guitar lessons for the past year. He’s a great teacher with plenty of patience. Our son likes the one on one sessions a lot and he doesn’t overload him with music homework. We absolutely recommend him to our friends.

This school deserves more than 5 stars! Our children have been attending this school for the last eight years, so this review is from our actual experience. Simply put, we would not send our children anywhere else.
The instructors at the Almaden School are classically trained with life long experiences in teaching and performing at prestigious institutions all around the world. Our children’s violin instructor, Boris Mesh, was a faculty member of the Conservatory of Music in Lithuania where he taught and served as Chamber Orchestra Director. Both of my kids strive to impress him!
Our piano teacher, Ms. Marina Menyaylenko introduces students to different styles and periods of classical music, and ensures that most if not all participate in CM exams (Certificate of Merit) at Santa Clara University. Thanks to her, our daughter got all 5’s in her CM exams two years in a row and got invited to the branch honor recital.
Ms. Mariya Sheynman is super patience and taught our children not only French, but also good European manner, etiquette and good study habits.
We refer our closest and dearest friends to the Almaden and their experiences have been every bit as good as ours. If you or your children have aspirations in Music or the Art, you owe it to yourself to pay this school a visit.

Is this a place to have lessons? Maybe… it all depends on the chemistry between teacher and student.
But it’s definitely not a place for special, individualized attention…

Well is this is a review was for the time I went to this place a decade ago, (but I stopped a few years back)
I took piano and I was forced, so I was a bratty little girl, but no matter what the my piano teacher was so patience and I learned a lot from her even though I was a brat.
⁵⁄₅ piano lessons
I took violin lessons, something I wanted to learn, I had two different teachers because of my schedule. They were patience. also know what they were doing, knew how to tune the violin by ear (without those little meters, it’s not as easy as tuning a guitar: P, I once had a teacher, not from ASoMA&d that was… just horrible)
Violin lessons ⁵⁄₅
I also took hip hop class from Debbie ^_​_​^ she was nice, but I guessed I complained a lot so she pressed me to my limits. Like when we were stretching and I was doing the splits and I couldn’t do it all the way she would push me down LOL. Most of the class was about stretching and then practicing, and last 10 mins was the dance routine.
⁴⁄₅ hip hop class (i’d say ⁴⁄₅ because I took YMCA lessons and that sucked xD)
I also took an art class, which wasn’t really creative… I know it was the kid’s art class… but all we did was do our own thing and didn’t learn anything. I was in the 7^th grade and I had art class in middle school and I took those Ideas into the art class and then everyone started to do that –_​_​_​_​– how creative.
¹⁄₅ kid’s art class (younging-​16?)
LOL Okay I also took French. (I didn’t take french before, I just took lessons here, some ppl used these lessons for tutoring) but I have to say I learned a lot, even though we used middle school aged learning books (when I finally did take French in highschool the book we used was harder) I stilled learned a lot because it was so much easier than high school book. The teacher is extremely nice, forgiving, and understanding and easily amazed ^_​_​^ Now that I took a few languages in college… I think this french lesson lacked oral/​conversations stuff .
⁴⁄₅ French
I think the dance class cost way to much now that I think about it (at least 90 bucks for month for at least 1 hour session). Violin and piano prices were at least $ 130 for 30mins (that’s the average price I’ve seen) and it was $ 80+ for useless art lessons

My sister and I went here for a year in 1999 to take jazz dancing. Perhaps things have changed in a decade, which is entirely possible, but I can only write about what I know.
I didn’t learn any technique whatsoever. There was a mother and daughter who taught all the dance classes and even though it was fun, it wasn’t about learning real jazz technique. It was like watered-​down hip-​hop I guess.
We also had a show that year which I think we spent most of the year practicing. The entire studio was involved and I had 3 «roles» which was like 6 dances. Though this sounds great, I had to buy 3 costumes: customized dance outfits are NOT cheap. I remember my family couldn’t afford all of them so they were going to take one of my «roles» away. I don’t remember how it was settled but after a while I was allowed to participate in all the dances. The actual show– we have a video– was awful. I watched it randomly a bit ago and was just like «uhm wow… there are maybe 5 people in the show that can DANCE.»
A couple years later we joined Dance Attack on Blossom Hill Road.