Let’s Get the Music Started!

Call or Text now to reserve a spot in-home or online!

 Out of area families, ask about a special rates for online-only lessons with our select teachers.

Benefits of your MW lessons include:

• Convenience – in-home lessons save an average of 30 minutes or drive time + 45 minutes of lesson wait time

• Performance opportunities: concerts, open mics and more!

• First access to new creative materials – used by music teachers across the globe

• Continued education for all teachers with our monthly workshops

• Our proven, step-beyond approach to customized music lessons

School Policy - Regular School Year

Our policy is in place to be able to consistently bring the best quality lessons, instructors and results to your home. We look forward to providing you with the best experience possible!

Tuition:
•  Tuition is charged monthly on the first of each month and will not change without notification. Call to find out what special rate we can offer you for lessons!

•  Driving Dollars are charged once a month at a flat rate of $25 that goes directly to your teachers. There is one charge for each teacher you work with that travels to your home.

• If you live outside of our regular teaching zone, there may be an additional $40 per month travel fee to cover your teacher’s additional in-home travel costs. Any families who fall into this category will be notified upon registration.

•  Lessons in our Ardmore Studio and online lessons will not incur these additional fees.

Fees for Materials:

 • Fees for materials that are purchased through Meridee Winters School of Music are payable to Meridee Winters School of Music and will be charged to your account via your usual authorized payment method.

• Fees for materials that are purchased by your teacher should be reimbursed directly to your teacher.

Billing:

• BY MONTH (automated billing by ACH or credit card only): Payment is due on the first of each month and will be automatically withdrawn from the account that you provided/authorized upon registration. If your lessons begin after the first week of the month, we will charge a one-time prorated tuition fee for that month and regular monthly payments will resume on the first of the following month.
(Payment by semester is also available and can be submitted by check, cash, ACH or credit card. Semesters run from September through January and February through June. Payment is due within 10 days of registration and by the first day of subsequent semesters, or a late fee of $15 will apply.)

• There is a $25 fee for non-sufficient funds (NSF), returned checks and declined credit cards.

NOTE: For families who choose to pay by semester, charges for materials or any other one-time charges/adjustments will be accumulated over the course of the semester and reconciled at the end of the semester. If you are owed any credits from teacher cancellations, we will apply them to your next tuition payment or send you a refund check (upon request).

Summer semester runs July through August and lessons during this time are handled differently. Please review the “Summer Policy” portion of this page.

Teacher Cancellations:

• As we strive to provide consistent lessons for our students, teachers are asked to limit their cancellations and, when possible, to reschedule lessons that they cancel at a mutually convenient time. 

• If your teacher cancels a lesson and you are not able to reschedule the lesson, your teacher will notify the office and a tuition credit will be applied. Credits for teacher cancellations will be applied to future tuition payments. If you do not have a tuition payment scheduled for the near future, a refund check may be disbursed upon request. 

• If you cancel a rescheduled lesson, the lesson is forfeited.

• If you are expecting a credit for a lesson canceled by your teacher and you have not received confirmation from the office, please contact the office to ensure that appropriate credit is applied.
 

Student Cancellations:

When registering for lessons, you are reserving a weekly space in your teacher’s schedule. As such, the school intends that both teachers and students will be present for weekly lessons. However we allow for limited makeups and vacation credits to accommodate vacations and other conflicts. See below for policy around makeups/credits and read on for the specific makeup and credit allowances for your type of lesson. 

Cancellation / Credit / Make-up Policy:

• Make-up lessons: The school offers 1-2 make-up lessons per semester, depending on lesson type (see below). Your make-up lesson must be scheduled at a mutually convenient time with your teacher and must be completed by the end of the school year. If a student cancels a make-up lesson, the lesson is forfeited. (Please note that if your teacher has made several fair attempts to schedule the make-up lesson and the make-up lesson is not successfully scheduled by the end of the year, the lesson is forfeited.) 

• Vacation credits: The school will also offer 1-2 vacation credits per year, depending on lesson type (see below). These credits are to be used for a lesson canceled in advance.  Families are asked to provide notice to the office and the teacher as soon as possible and ideally before the lesson to be canceled is charged on the 1st of the month. 

• Notice to teachers: If you need to cancel a lesson, please contact your teacher directly and provide as much notice as possible. More notice allows teachers to schedule make-up lessons for other students and avoids the possibility of your teacher unnecessarily traveling to your home for an in-home lesson or waiting to begin an online lesson. Our teachers are professionals and we must respect their time.

• No-shows: If your teacher shows up to a scheduled in-home/studio/online lesson and you are not present or send them away for any reason, this is not considered a cancellation as your teacher did reserve this time for you and showed up. This is not eligible for make-up and is charged as a normally scheduled lesson. Similarly, lessons canceled after their scheduled time has already begun are not considered a cancellation and will be forfeited. 

• Last minute cancellations: We require at least 4 hours notice for any cancellation to be eligible for credit/makeup. Any lessons cancelled with less than 4 hours notice will be forfeited.

• Additional cancellations: If you need to cancel lessons beyond what our policy accommodates we cannot guarantee any additional make-up lessons or credits. Due to busy schedules, we do not require our teachers to make-up more lessons than covered in the policy and thus additional cancellations will result in forfeited lessons. 

• Recurring conflicts: If you experience a change in your schedule that results in the need to cancel several lessons, consider discussing a change in your weekly lessons with your teacher or contacting our office to explore other possibilities for lessons at a different day and time.

• Illness: With in-home and studio lessons, if your child is sent home from school or is kept home sick on your lesson day, we ask that you cancel the lesson out of respect for the health of your teacher and their other students.

Make-up lesson and credit allowances by lesson type:

• Make-ups and credits for in-home lessons: 

• We guarantee one make-up lesson per semester for an in-home lesson cancellation.

• The school will also offer one vacation credit per year for our in-home families

• Make-ups and credits for online lessons: 

• We guarantee two make-up lessons per semester for our online-only lessons. 

• The school will also offer two vacation credits per year to our online-only families. 

• Make-ups and credits for studio lessons:

• we guarantee one online make-up lesson per semester for a studio lesson cancellation

• The school will also offer two vacation credits per year to our in-studio students

A NOTE ON CANCELLATIONS: We highly value the importance of consistent weekly lessons for you or your child’s progress. We therefore encourage you and your teachers to avoid canceling lessons as best as you can. We are aware that things do come up and therefore require our teachers to put forth their best effort to reschedule. If you are eligible for a make-up lesson and your teacher has not made an effort to reschedule, please contact the office.

School Holidays:

• School holidays are built-in days off for you and your teacher, and are listed below. Tuition will be adjusted for that month when a school holiday falls on your lesson day. If your teacher is available and you have an outstanding make-up lesson owed to you, these days can be a good opportunity for scheduling. If you do not have any outstanding make-ups, you may opt to take a lesson at an additional charge. 
 

Official School Holidays:

• Labor Day weekend
• Thanksgiving: Thursday and Friday
• Winter Break: December 23rd through January 1st
• Memorial Day weekend
• 4th of July
 

June Lessons (end of Spring Semester):

• Our regular school year concludes at the end of June and our summer semester takes place from July through August. Since we know that many families travel when school lets out, we allow flexibility for June and can prorate your June tuition if you wish to end the Spring semester early. If so, you must contact the office at least 10 days prior to the June 1st billing date to request a tuition adjustment for the last one to two weeks of June.  

• If you opt to take the entire month of June off, upon return for the Summer or Fall, you will need to contact the office for scheduling and may need to be scheduled with a new teacher.

Summer Lessons (July and August):

Summer lessons have their own policies and billing options. Read more about them below.

General Policies:

Extreme/Inclement Weather:

• Similar to the local school districts, our teachers will be offering a switch to online lessons at your regular lesson time in the event of extreme/inclement weather. Your teachers are excited to deliver results and musical growth, no matter the weather! Their virtual classrooms are set up to accommodate playful online lessons, and they will provide you with a link prior to their lesson.

*Please chat with your teacher if you're concerned a student may be too young or would not otherwise do well with an online lesson in order to make other accommodations.

Discontinuing Lessons/Taking a Break:

• You may discontinue lessons at any time, providing notice of cancellation to the school at least 10 days prior to the next billing date. You may opt to take or forfeit any remaining lessons. Tuition will not be refunded. This same policy applies to students who wish to “take a break.” Students who opt to do that cannot save their spot with their teacher, and may need to resume lessons with a different member of our talented teaching team.

Safety/Liability for In-Home Lessons:

• All Meridee Winters Teachers complete three background checks required to teach with the school. These are the Department of Human Services Child Abuse History Clearance, Pennsylvania State Police Request for Criminal Records Check and Federal Criminal History Record Information check.

• Your teacher is only at your house to teach music lessons. Teachers are not babysitters and are not responsible for the welfare or transportation of your child under any circumstances.

• Teachers are not to be left home alone with your child without a designated guardian. 

• Lesson Location: Lessons must take place in common areas such as living rooms or family rooms where a caregiver is withing eyeshot/earshot (preferably both). No lessons are to be conducted in bedrooms, behind closed doors, etc.

• There is no longer a vaccination requirement to teach, however, families are welcome to speak to the office or their teacher directly about any concerns or preferences. 

• Pets: In consideration of possible allergies and distractions, please keep pets restrained from teachers upon entering your home and away from the teaching area during lesson times.

Referrals:

• We are happy to share our love of music with your friends or neighbors. Please have any referrals call the school directly to request a teacher that you have recommended. 

Teacher Contracts:

• All teachers have signed a non-compete contract with the school. It is unethical for them to independently teach students of the school or referrals from students of the school, even after leaving the school. It is equally unethical for parents to encourage a young professional to risk their long term reputation. Considerable expense and effort has gone into training your teacher in our unique method (which took 20 years to develop) and supplying your teacher with our materials. Please notify the school immediately if this occurs. 

Studio Lessons: Lessons held in our Ardmore music studio have their own rules and etiquette, which can be viewed here.

Switching Teachers:

• If you would like to try another teacher for any reason, please contact the office. We are always happy to speak with you.

Feedback:

• Our goal is to continually improve the quality of your lessons. We welcome all feedback and will do our best to address any concerns within one business day. 
Click here to go to our feedback link.

For our summer semester (July and August), we have more flexible scheduling options. Regular school year policy applies with these additions:

• Students who take our Full Summer Session of weekly lessons may receive credit for up to three vacation dates during the summer semester (July 1st through Aug 31st only).

• Students taking our Half Summer Session are committing to just one summer month of lessons (July only or Aug only) and therefore not eligible for vacation credits or make-ups.

• For students taking Flex Summer Sessions, your teacher is already working with you to flexibly schedule lessons. For that reason, once a lesson is scheduled and confirmed, canceling it will result in forfeiting that lesson.

• Because the summer semester is so short, we are not able to offer any make-ups for student cancellations during the Summer Semester.

As always, if you need to cancel a lesson, please contact your teacher directly and provide as much notice as possible. 

Materials

Lessons at MW are A Step Beyond

Our locally made, internationally loved method is part of what takes your lessons to the next level. As a Meridee Winters Student, you benefit from an expert teacher trained in our exclusive method - and the materials in your beginner kit empower your teacher to plan the best, most engaging lessons.

The Best part? Convenience!

We’ve taken the guess work out of a well-rounded, engaging experience. Your teacher will bring your beginner kit right to your door, saving you valuable time and energy.

Already have music books at home? Talk to your teacher!

While grandma's piano books may work for lessons (and we can prorate kits to remove the equivalent), a holistic piano lesson is made up of more than just a lesson book. In addition to a traditional lesson book, our beginner piano kits contain materials to explore powerful patterns that help your kids sound great right away, repertoire that the whole family will know and love, a homework journal to ensure light speed progress, and even fun stimulus variation materials to make your lessons fun.

Other Instruments:

Talk to your teacher about the materials they would like you to have on hand for lessons, and rest assured that our fun and playful method is flexible and your teacher will be able to adapt it to your instrument.

Lead Teachers:

We firmly believe in the talent and quality of all Meridee Winters instructors. (Less than ten percent of applicants get an interview, with even fewer being invited to join our faculty.) We hire based on musical skill, creativity, enthusiasm, and so much more. You can be confident in any teacher on our roster.

For the serious student, however, we do offer lessons with teachers who have proven themselves on several levels – through experience, performance results, additional education and more. Many of these teachers specialize in certain areas, from songwriting to learning challenges. Lessons with these teachers are offered at our Lead Teacher rates. Please call the office for information on these rates.