Choosing a Teacher

Choosing and changing teachers


You are welcome to observe as many different teachers as you can during the registration process. If you have a strong preference for a specific teacher based on location, teaching style, or other considerations we will try to accommodate your request. Teacher availability depends on the number of openings for new students in a teacher’s schedule, so it may not always be possible to place you with your first choice of teacher.


All our teachers are highly qualified and have taken and registered SAA teacher training courses, so you will receive excellent instruction no matter which teacher you have your lessons with.


We value highly the long term relationship that is created between teacher and student, so we discourage changing teachers.

However, sometimes there are circumstances which make changing the only possible solution. (e.g. Change of parents work schedule, change of school, change in teacher's work schedule, circumstances,  or location, etc. )

In this case, the parent must approach FIRST their current teacher, and discuss the situation with her/him first. There may be options that can accommodate their requirements without having to change teachers, but they won't know if they exist if they don't ask first. If there are problems occurring outside of the lesson time, please inform your teacher, so that action can be taken during the lesson to address the issues. Our teachers can only help you with the problems that they know about. It is very seldom that lesson problems are caused by personality conflicts between student and teacher. Most often, they are a result of inadequate communication.


If the private teacher agrees that changing teachers is the best possible solution to the problem, the teacher will contact the music director to inform her about the situation. The music director has the master list of teachers and knows who is teaching what where and when, so she can immediately see what the available options are. She can also talk to the former teacher about the students needs and find out which teacher might be the best match for them. She can also, if  contacted soon enough before the spring studio allocation requests get submitted, see if we can acquire a studio at a mutually convenient time and location  for both them and their proposed new teacher.

All ESFRS policies adhere to the Suzuki Association of the Americas Code of Ethics