Music Lab Granite Bay, Granite Bay | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

We signed up for a free guitar lesson with Alex. After receiving two confirmation emails, both of which stated they were “confirming” the lesson, and neither of which asked for a response, and one specifically stated no response was necessary, we drove the half hour from our home to the music studio. The teacher was in a lesson with another student, having cancelled our lesson without notice because we didn’t respond to the emails.

We re-scheduled the make up lesson and it went smoothly so we signed up for regular lessons. At our first regular lesson, another student appeared thinking he had a lesson with Alex at the same time my son did. Alex told him the slot was no longer available.

After two lessons with no incident, Alex apparently had a problem with my son’s behavior. He told my husband after the lesson that he had to repeat himself “more than was appropriate.” And told my son “I’m the teacher and you need to do what I tell you.” He then said that if my son didn’t improve over the next two lessons, he would refuse to teach him any longer.

My son is easily distracted and can have a hard time focusing, so I do not doubt that he had a difficult half hour. However, my husband was not given any more specifics and was told that there was no time to discuss the problem because there was another student waiting. Mind you, my husband was in the waiting room for the entire lesson and could have been brought in at any point if there was a problem.

I emailed Alex to try and find out what happened and tell him that I was upset at how the situation was handled. His response failed to acknowledge that he handled the situation anything less than appropriately, stating that he gave my husband specifics that my husband had not heard previously. He invited me to call, which I did, leaving a voicemail stating that I still felt he handled the situation poorly and asked for an apology while also suggesting a solution to avoid this miscommunication (and any behavior problems) in the future: one parent or the other sits in the room while the lesson is occurring.

While Alex did call me back later in the evening on a Friday, I was unable to call him back until Tuesday. By that time, he had issued a refund and decided, without further discussion, to stop teaching my son.

Throughout this process, I was surprised and made uncomfortable by the lack of professionalism exhibited. Alex has since told me that he had never had a problem with a student in five years. Apparently he has been lucky. This is most definitely not the place to go if you think communication and professionalism are important.

Music lab has been beyond amazing! I have been studying guitar with Alex for over a year now and he has been truly helping me shape into the Musician I want to be. He creates the best environment for his students and really does care about them. Alex is a role model and genuinely one of the best music teachers I’ve ever had. He is dialed in every lesson and the lessons shape around what is best for YOU- and he will always make sure to do that. Overall, if you get the pleasure of meeting Alex or taking lessons with him you will know why he runs such a positive and successful business.