Lesson With You

What Lesson With You is

Lesson With You is an online music school that runs weekly, live, one-on-one lessons over Zoom. A student works with the same teacher every week, and the company sets the prices, recruits the teachers and handles scheduling and payment. It is a tutoring service for learners, adults and children alike, not a course library and not an open marketplace where teachers set their own rates. The FAQ names Marc Levesque and Yeeun Rose Park as its co-founders and says most of its students are based in the USA.

The homepage gives its scale as 60+ instructors, 70,000+ lessons taught and an average lesson rating of 4.9 out of 5. Its pitch is consistency: "Work 1-on-1 with the same teacher each week for real progress and lasting musical skill."

Instruments, styles and teachers

The most popular instruments are piano, voice and singing, violin, guitar and drums. Beyond those the menu covers strings (violin, viola, cello), woodwinds (saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe) and brass (trumpet, trombone, French horn), and guitar lessons include acoustic, electric, bass, ukulele and extended range guitar. Style pages range across classical, pop, jazz, gospel and Broadway piano, musical theater, classical, rock, country and pop singing, and classical, jazz, rock and R&B guitar.

Teacher selection is the company's main selling point. The FAQ says it looks for instructors who hold a Bachelor's degree in the instrument they teach and have a minimum of 2 years of teaching experience, and that teachers are qualified to teach only the instrument for which they hold a college degree. The homepage adds that instructors are "carefully selected from top music schools," and its comparison table lists them as background checked, with Master's and Doctorate degrees. The company says it personally meets each instructor and chooses them for teaching skill, professionalism and an encouraging personality. Teachers' profiles can be filtered by instrument, day and time, student age and skill level.

How lessons work

Getting started takes three steps. A student either picks a teacher from the profiles and books a trial directly, or fills out the signup form and lets the client service team match them with a teacher. The first lesson is a free 30-minute trial, and no credit card is required. After booking, the student receives a Zoom link. After the trial the client service team follows up, and a student who wants to continue subscribes: they set up a payment profile, accept the cancellation and rescheduling policies, and choose a weekly time slot from the teacher's availability.

From then on the weekly time is reserved for as long as the subscription is active. Students can take more than one lesson a week, and can study several instruments with different teachers. Biweekly lessons exist only in limited cases: the FAQ says an analysis of attendance data and instructor feedback in early 2022 found that biweekly students made slower progress and missed more lessons, so they are not offered to new students, require 4 weekly sessions first, must be 45 or 60 minutes, and are not available at peak hours. Monthly lessons are not offered at all.

Lessons cover technique, warm-up drills, practice exercises, music theory, sight-reading and improvisation, with the plan personalized to each student's level and goals. Students need a stable, high speed internet connection, a computer, laptop or tablet, and their instrument; an external microphone is optional, and the FAQ says phones are not good enough for voice lessons. The company runs a free Summer and Winter Virtual Concert Series for active students.

Prices, payments and policies

Prices are fixed across every instrument and every teacher. For US students a lesson costs $35 for 30 minutes, $50 for 45 minutes and $65 for 60 minutes, and the pricing page says prices in other countries will generally be equivalent, with separate pricing pages for Canada and the UK. Payment is per lesson and recurring lessons are prepaid one week at a time through Stripe. The site accepts all major credit and debit cards plus PayPal and AmazonPay. There are no contracts: a student can pause, cancel or resume through the Account page or the support desk.

There are two ways to save. If several students in one family take lessons with the same teacher, the second lesson in a week is $5 cheaper, so two half-hour lessons cost $35 and $30. The referral program gives the referrer and the friend $50 in lesson credit each once the friend completes a free trial and subscribes. Lessons can also be bought as gifts.

The cancellation policy is strict but clear. A student who gives the teacher or support team at least 24 hours' notice gets a full refund or a reschedule. Later cancellations are not refunded, and teachers wait on Zoom for half the lesson before marking a no-show. After four paid lessons each client receives one waiver a year, which covers a late cancellation or no-show. The FAQ also reserves the right to end subscriptions for repeated missed lessons and to release a weekly slot if a student pauses for three or more weeks in a row.

The drum lessons page compares the price with the market: it says the average half-hour drum lesson costs $38, that online lessons typically charge $37 for half an hour, and that local in-person lessons range from $30 to $50. The support desk answers by phone, text and email from Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern time.

Children and adult learners

The company welcomes students from age 6 for piano, violin and ukulele; for other instruments the teacher decides during the trial whether a child is ready, and voice students must be at least 10. The FAQ suggests parents sit in on lessons for children under 10, and recommends about 10 minutes of daily practice for children under 10 and 15 to 20 minutes for those aged 10 to 13. For younger children, teachers use rhythm games, ear training and improvisation. Adults are welcome as beginners, and the FAQ notes that many adult students take lessons on weekends or in the afternoon.

The reviews on the site reflect both groups. One parent writes that both daughters "love piano after the first free lesson and want to practice all the time." Another, on cello, says "My son has his love of cello back!"

Who it suits

Lesson With You suits a learner or family who wants a real weekly teacher without travel or a contract: a child starting piano or violin, an adult beginner who wants accountability, a singer or wind player who needs live correction, or a household with several children who can use the family discount. The free trial and the option to choose a teacher yourself lower the risk of a poor match.

It suits learners less well if they want a self-paced course or occasional lessons, because the model is built around a fixed weekly slot, and biweekly lessons are tightly restricted. Students who travel often should also weigh the 24-hour cancellation rule and the one annual waiver before subscribing.