How does our assessment process work?
When you call our school to inquire about our lessons and programs, we will schedule an appointment for you to come in for your assessment.
The assessment process takes between 20-30 minutes.
The process consists of an interview with the student and/or family as well as musical aptitude testing (don’t worry, you don’t need to study!).
Our musical aptitude testing is specific to age and ability. We have a different protocol for very young children (pre-reading), new beginners as well as more advanced students. Our testing is developed in accordance with pedagogical principles to evaluate key musical skills (i.e. listening skills, rhythmic skills, and musicality). The process is modified for more advanced students to allow us to evaluate their current skill level. If you are currently learning music, please bring all of your books and materials with you to your assessment.
During the interview, we also show potential students and their families our facilities and discuss our program options.
Parents sometimes ask if their child is ready to start lessons. An important part of the assessment process is also determining whether a child is cognitively prepared to begin formal lessons. During our assessment, we will give you an honest assessment of your child’s suitability for beginning music lessons. We may also recommend group classes to very young beginners or look at modified programs for children that are not quite ready to begin traditional lessons.
If there are some unique concerns or adaptations that are needed, we will also be able to discuss these during our initial meeting. Heritage Music Academy offers both traditional (RCM oriented programming) and other lesson options (for example, lessons for students wishing to study outside of the RCM program). In addition, we offer group classes for young children (ages 3-6).
With over 18 faculty teaching at our school, it is very important that we match you to the right teacher for your learning needs. Every teacher will have a unique approach, personality, and experience working with different levels and ages of students. The success of our students is very important to us and we realize that much of this is reliant upon finding the right teacher for you.
If you have any questions about our assessment process, please contact us. We are also happy to answer any questions about our school and its programs.