WOW Membership Info & FAQ

Founded in 2005, students at WOW! Music Studios learn to play music based on a single revolutionary concept: Every person, without exception, is naturally musical. We need rhythm to walk, we hear pitch to know when someone's happy or sad. WOW's program focuses on tapping into our natural musicality and makes learning to play an instrument easy, fun, and accessible to anyone. This involves starting students with songs they like and developing solid technique as they learn.

The result: Students have more fun, are more inspired, and receive a fuller, more in-depth music education in less time 

Music is a formally taught school subject, like English, math, and science. A good music education is like studying algebra or Shakespeare: Few of us need to know the Pythagorean Theorem or “Macbeth” for our jobs; but, the learning makes us more well-rounded, educated people.

In fact, neuroscience research has shown that learning a musical instrument increases brain power! CLICK HERE to learn more.

There are three (3) main areas of WOW!’s curriculum: Technical, Performance, and Ensemble Playing 

1. Technical – Learn to master creating music through an instrument and/or their voice

   • Objectives: Help students cultivate a love of playing music; learn & experience the benefits of pursuing a long-term endeavor; seeing the direct relationship between work (practice) and positive results (improvement) through their weekly lessons and playing at home.

2. Performance - Learn to share music with a live audience in a safe, nurturing environment

   • Objective: Help students develop confidence performing on stage at WOW-a-Palooza - our Annual Spring Recital, and other live performance opportunities.

3. Ensemble Playing - Learn to play music with other musicians in small groups

   • Objective: Learn to collaborate, express & share ideas, and work as a team through 3 programs

     1. Band Incubator: Students in small ensembles learn to play, rehearse, and perform songs as a band at WOW events and local venues such as The Sweetwater, HopMonk and others.

     2. Rockapella: Small vocal choir groups learning to sing together, develop harmonies and perform as vocal ensembles, performing anything from pop, rock & broadway hits to challenging classical pieces.

     3. Leading Role: In this small musical theater-focused group, every student gains rare & valuable lead-role experience taking turns performing pieces as the lead role from a hit musical.

     4. WOW Teacher/Student jams: Planned collaborations between two or more classes to combine and play common songs with fellow students and teachers

WOW!’s educational curriculum goal is to give students the best possible education and to have music as a companion for the rest of their lives. It’s not necessarily about creating professional musicians, just well-educated citizens! 

This is reinforced by four key supporting goals for every student:

1. Self-Expression: Experience playing music as something easy and natural, like telling a story or drawing a picture. No “right” or “wrong” - just music.

2. Immersion: Build a large repertoire of songs to increase “fluency” in the language of music, which encourages improvisation and composition.

3. Self-Generation: The ability to generate results all on their own; not just read music, but how to figure it out, understand, and even write their own.

4. Positive Confidence: Build confidence through a constant cycle of positive experiences so that every student looks at music and says, “I can do this!” 

Membership at WOW not only includes the weekly lesson on your primary instrument, but also a host of extra free & discounted classes, programs, and activities. There are also discounts for additional family members and/or additional instrument of study.

WOW Membership Dues are as follows:

• Primary Member = $230/month

• Family Member or Instrument #2 & #3 = $207/month each (-10%)

• Family Member or Instrument #4+ = $195.50/month each (-15%)

• Students who join a weekly WOW Band AND take a weekly instrument lesson will receive a 20% discount on their primary instrument lessons.

  • Band Membership = $230/month; primary instrument lesson = $184

There is a one time $75 New Student Registration Fee, waived for Additional Family Members

Nearly all of WOW’s lessons are weekly, private, and 30 minutes. Some older children and adults may take longer lessons, 45 or 60 minutes. Band classes are in groups of 4 - 6 and are 60 minutes.

There is no “per lesson” rate. WOW Membership includes many additional benefits (see above) besides weekly lessons all wrapped up into the monthly membership dues.

You may choose to participate in as many or few of the extra Membership Benefits as you would like; however, the Membership is the same regardless of your chosen level of participation.

All WOW closure weeks have been computed into the Membership dues by simply adding up the 46 weeks we are open and dividing back over 12 months for an averaged monthly billing (CLICK HERE for a more detailed explanation). WOW follows the Mill Valley School District calendar and is closed a total of 6 weeks.

WOW is open and regularly scheduled lessons occur on all Mill Valley School District Teacher Work Days.

No, in the case of an “in-progress” start, your Membership dues will be prorated.

You can stop your enrollment at WOW at any time with 30 days’ or four (4) lessons notice, whichever finishes later.