John Fraley Piano Lessons

My base price is $72 for an hour-long lesson in your home. Forty-minute sessions are available for $48; 80 minutes cost $96. The math is easy enough.

In my home, I offer an hour of instruction for $60. 

I charge by the term, however, and not by the lesson. My fall term is 16 lessons long, spread over an 18-week period, from late August to Christmas, to allow for some flexibility on both ends. Stuff happens!

My winter term is 12 weeks long (covering January to early April) and my spring term lasts another 12 weeks (early April through June). These are spread over 13 weeks each, again, to give us some wiggle room but also to limit absenteeism. I can't take on students who miss a lesson every month, that's not a good situation for them or for me.

You can pay by the term, or in monthly installments.

We can also arrange for lessons of varying lengths; anything up to 120 minutes is doable. If you wish to sign two or more family members up for lessons but are concerned about the total cost, rest easy: After the amount of instruction you purchase exceeds 90 minutes, I start applying discounts that make lessons more affordable.

Absolutely. The same base price applies, so a 60-minute lesson runs you $60 and a 30-minute one would be $30, multiplied by the number of weeks in the term. I live near Inglemoor High School.

My borders are essentially the north Eastside: Highway 520 at the south, Avondale Road at the east, Bothell at the north, and Lake Forest Park at the west. If you live outside this area I will consider lessons at your place depending on the demands of my current schedule. Let's make it work for both of us. I'd much rather find a way to say yes to you than a reason to say no, and I do presently visit three families outside those borders.

Not yet. I prefer to focus my efforts on 1-on-1 teaching, which is where I believe the student thrives and where I excel professionally.

See, now that's a really good question. In my opinion, I've taken all the negatives out of piano lessons while keeping the positives. Instruction in your home is vastly more convenient for the parent and far more comfortable for the student. Kids will focus better, stress less, and perform better on their own piano in their own living room, and Mom and Dad often save an hour or more of driving each week. Then (and this is the heart of the matter), I don't teach "by the book." I plan lessons based on student-teacher collaboration, heavy use of positive reinforcement and student empowerment WHILE demanding high levels of practice and ensuring all students receive thorough music theory training. My educational materials are guides, not rigid textbooks to be followed line by line, page by page.

I'm adaptable, flexible, and easy to work with but I also expect a lot from my students. I'm young and energetic, but I also have plenty of experience. I'm 49, I love the Seattle area, I'm settled here, so you won't have me retire on you or move away suddenly. Visit my teaching strategies page here or my background page here for more reasons you should choose me.

I can craft lesson plans for children of any age. A five-year-old with rudimentary reading skills and a good attention span will learn quite a bit in my loosely structured system. However, I strongly suggest waiting until second grade to begin lessons, for two reasons: their literacy skills matter, and it's better if they have already learned receptiveness to adult authority figures outside the home. 

If you have any questions about your child's readiness I will gladly come to your home at no charge to help you make that evaluation. If we decide at that point that your child is not yet ready for lessons, I can give you some ideas of activities which will boost her or his preparedness. 

The youngest kids' lessons do tend to focus more on music exploration, general music appreciation, and fun activities than actually learning pieces to perform.

No way. There is no "it's too late for you to learn piano" age. Some of my highest-performing students began when they were 9 or 10 or even 11. You have NOT missed the boat if your child is in fourth grade and hasn't started piano yet! I routinely begin with kids as old as 13. Now if you want a classical concert pianist in your home, you're probably best off starting your son or daughter on piano in kindergarten,  and you'll get better results if you DON'T enroll them simultaneously in soccer, scouting, T-ball, basketball, swimming, trumpet, ice skating and underwater competitive full-contact synchronized embroidery. But if your child's going to be good or very good at piano, it really doesn't matter at what age they begin, they're still going to be good at it.

All the time. I have four adult students at this time; all ages are welcome. In fact, I enjoy the change of pace an adult lesson brings after an afternoon and evening full of nine-year-olds. As it is, I frequently teach a parent and child from the same family.