Scheduling in TuneKey

Beginning in August 2023, I will be using the TuneKey app to manage my teaching schedule.  That app makes it very simple for students and their parents to confirm and manage their own calendars at any time—even rescheduling or cancelling lessons if illness or other conflicts arise.

Regular scheduling

For regular students, lessons are scheduled at the same time each week (e.g., every Wednesday at 6:00pm) year-round, except for holidays and instructor cancellations (see below).  Once we’ve established a weekly lesson schedule, your appointments will be added to my calendar with an indefinite end date, and you will be able to view and modify these appointments in the TuneKey app.

Instructor-initiated schedule adjustments

Holidays & instructor cancellations

I do not schedule lessons on seven national holidays: New Year’s Eve➝Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Eve➝Day.  In addition, I generally serve as a poll worker during primary and general elections (usually the third Tuesday in May and the Tuesday following the first Monday in November), and do not teach on those dates.  And of course life provides the occasional personal, family, or professional conflict that requires me to cancel lessons.  I will communicate teacher absences as early as possible, and will coordinate with students to reschedule missed lessons.

Inclement weather

If weather conditions warrant it—if the roads are unsafe, for example, or if the parking area at my teaching location is snow-covered—I may opt to hold scheduled lessons online instead of in person.  (See this page for more information about online lessons.)  In these cases I will send email and text notifications to all affected students as soon as the decision is made.

Appointment reminders

If you would like your phone to remind you of upcoming lessons, you may do that in your TuneKey settings—tap the Profile icon at the bottom right, then scroll down and turn on Lesson Reminder, and turn on as many reminders as you need!

Student-initiated schedule adjustments

Student & household illness

If you or a member of your household are experiencing fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, chills, body aches, diarrhea, or vomiting in the days preceding your lesson, I ask that you choose one of three options:

  1. At any point up to 24 hours in advance of your lesson, you may choose to reschedule your lesson to a later date.  This is usually the best option, as it allows you to recover and meet with me in person when you’re functioning at closer to 100%.
  2. If the 24-hour rescheduling window has passed, or if you have time-sensitive goals and don’t want to lose the scheduled appointment time, you may wish to switch your in-person lesson to an online lesson.
  3. If you or a member of your household are ill and neither of the above options is possible, please cancel your lesson.

Rescheduling lessons

To reschedule a lesson:

  1. Tap on the lesson you’d like to reschedule in the Lessons tab of TuneKey.  As long as more than 24 hours remain before the scheduled start of the lesson, you’ll see links to “Cancel Lesson” or “Reschedule.”
  2. Tap “Reschedule.”
  3. Use the calendar that appears to navigate to the date to which you’d like to reschedule the lesson and tap that day number.
  4. You will probably need to scroll down a bit to see the “Convenient Times” that are available on your selected date.
  5. Tap on the time slot to which you’d like to reschedule.
  6. Tap the green “Send Request” button.  I’ll be back in touch to confirm the change within 24 hours.

Switching a session to online

If you would like to switch an in-person lesson to an online lesson, please contact me directly as far in advance of the lesson as possible, so that I have time to prepare any needed resources for the online format.  I will make the change in your TuneKey calendar and confirm with you.

Canceling lessons

If you discover that you will be unable to attend a scheduled session, and we are unable to reschedule or hold the lesson online, please Cancel the lesson in TuneKey so that I know not to expect you.  To do that:

  1. Tap on the lesson you’d like to reschedule in the Lessons tab of TuneKey.  As long as more than 24 hours remain before the scheduled start of the lesson, you’ll see links to “Cancel Lesson” or “Reschedule.”
  2. Tap “Cancel Lesson.”
  3. Tap “I’m sure.”

If a student is more than 5 minutes late in arriving (or logging in for an online lesson) and has not contacted me (preferably by text or instant message) to indicate that they expect to be late and/or are en route, I will assume the student has cancelled the lesson and forgotten to notify me.

Regardless of the reason for the cancellation, I do not offer discounts or refunds for lessons cancelled by students—or, put another way, regular students pay for 52 weekly lessons per year regardless of cancelled or rescheduled lessons. This policy helps avoid inconsistencies in the monthly income on which my family and I depend.

Scheduling extra lessons

If you would like to schedule an extra session outside of your regular weekly lesson time—if your regular lesson fell on a holiday and you have a make-up credit available, for instance, or if you would simply like additional assistance in the weeks leading up to an audition or performance—please contact me directly so that I can add you to the schedule.

Students (and parents) will be able to initiate extra lessons themselves in the TuneKey app by late 2023. In the meantime, you may continue to use My Music Staff to schedule extra lessons; I will add them manually to TuneKey from my end.