Musical Surprise — Local services in Surprise

We took our daughter here last year for vocal lessons. We loved our teacher Debbie. Unfortunately, Debbie moved away, and Musical Surprise gave us one week's notice of her departure. We were surprised and disappointed to see Debbie go, as she was so great with our daughter. Musical Surprise offered to match us with another teacher, but our daughter did not want to take classes from any of the other teachers, so we requested to cancel our membership the day after we were notified of Debbie's departure. Musical Surprise informed us that we would have to pay for an additional month of classes because we failed to give them 30 days' notice of cancellation. We argued that they only gave us one week's notice of our teacher leaving; if they provided us with the same courtesy, we could have given them 30 days' notice. The owner was supposed to call us, but they never did, and we ended up paying for a whole month without taking any classes because we did not think it was worth a dispute, and we liked the establishment. Fast forward to today, one year later, we reached out to Musical Surprise because our daughter now wants to take guitar lessons. We were denied a membership because they flagged our account due to our request to cancel our vocal lessons without 30 days' notice! We cannot sign back up even after we paid for the 30 days we did not take classes. This is crazy, and I am sad to say this place has terrible policies and...

Musical Surprise is not just for children. My husband and I have been taking music lessons there for over 3 years. I have taken both guitar and voice lessons. He has been studying voice the entire time. Robyn and Lance, the owners, have created an environment for an adult that is comfortable, enjoyable and educational. And the teachers are excellent. We had planned to just take lessons for a year or so, but we have learned a tremendous amount and have had fun with it along the way. This past Spring, my husband's voice teacher, Tim, submitted an audition tape of him to the Spring Training facilities and he was selected to sing the National Anthem at one of the Spring training games as well as several ASU baseball games. 3 years ago, he never even thought about doing something like this. It all came about strictly because of our relationship with Musical Surprise. We have recommended the studio to a number of our friends. If you are an adult and have thought fleetingly about learning some kind of instrument or taking voice lessons, you should enroll at Musical Surprise and see how much fun...

Pros: My child has been taking lessons here for a couple of months now. Her instructor is patient with her and she enjoys her lessons. Emily was very friendly and welcoming, answered all of my questions when we saw her. The store seems to have a lot available and if they don’t have what you’re looking for a staff member can help you find whatever instrument etc by submitting an inquiry though their site from what he told us.

Cons: It only has one location and unless you live in the area you really have to think about whether or not you’re willing to make the long drive over. Some of the instructors don’t really say hi or interact with parents. I know it isn’t everyone’s experience but it’s been mine. Parents aren’t really given any reports or feedback on their child’s progress, and other than the book you buy from the store or the instructor gives homework you’ll just be basing everything out on...