Whether your interests are Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock, or American Folk & Roots music, traditional or experimental approaches, lessons with our faculty provide the means and the motivation for developing musical skills and understanding.  When you arrive, if not before, we match you with the desired resource-- a great teacher-- and pair you up in an inspiring setting.

Options include:

• piano lessons
• singing lessons
• guitar and bass lessons
• drum lessons
• lessons on a string instrument, including violin, viola, cello, and upright bass lessons
• lessons on a wind instruments, including flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and trombone lessons
• composition lessons 

GAP Students generally meet with their Studio Instructor weekly for 60-minute sessions to study the instrument of choice, vocal technique and performance, or composition & improv.  Many students share lessons with a partner on a secondary instrument of choice.  

The Studio Instructor serves as one the student's primary contacts with CMC Atlanta and provides the most direct, consistent feedback.  CMC faculty are not only practicing professional musicians themselves, but also educators who have the desire, the training, and the experience to cultivate music in others.

We have created playful, though comfortable Studios for students and teachers to meet.  CMC Atlanta facilities are equipped with either new upright studio or grand pianos, and a variety of other instruments and equipment, as needed.  During lessons, teachers and students have access to our wi-fi networks, and thus, a vast array of relevant on-line resources, including audio and video recordings of performances, drills and exercises, and information about music and performance.

CMC studios themselves are spacious and filled with natural light.  The walls of studios and corridors, even the grounds, at all locations are populated with unique works by local and regional visual artists, recruited for exhibition by the Music Center's own curators for the purpose of inspiring students, faculty, and visitors alike.

The Comprehensive Musicianship Program (or CMP) Courses and Workshops provide essential support for CMC Atlanta students. Time spent one-on-one or in small group classes taught by music theory, harmony, composition and improvisation specialists works in tandem with private lessons to foster musical understanding, skills, and ultimately, the framework for performance and creation. 

CMP Overview

For each of our CMC GAP students, we develop a unique curriculum that meets the students needs and interests.  

We cultivate genuine musicianship through CMP courses that first isolate individual musical parameters, and then put each new skill and concept back into a larger musical context.  Currently, we offer courses for students in each Division and Department in four distinct but overlapping areas of musicianship, each of which is critical to being a creative, skilled, and literate musician.  The four areas of focus are:

• Reading Music or Music Notation and Literacy
• Singing in time, in tune, and with sensitivity
• Harmony: understanding, feeling, hearing, and creating tonal relationships
• Rhythm:  understanding, feeling, hearing, and creating rhythmic patterns and relationships

Regardless of stylistic interests, we teach students to read music. While there are valuable oral/aural musical traditions in which reading music does not play as critical a role, we believe reading music is a gateway for experiencing and expressing music across wider historical periods and more cultural practices than otherwise possible.  We also encourage all students to sing, not necessarily like an operatic or rock star, but we think carrying a tune is a valuable and meaningful basic life skill.  Plus, any accoplished instrumentalist will tell you that making an instrument sing is an essential aspect of virtuosity in many musical styles.  Moving in control, and with direction and ease is another important skill in music and in life.  We also support all students in cultivating their understanding of rhythmic notation and developing the skill to move well in drumming courses.  At the CMC Atlanta, students learn the nuts and bolts of tonal relationships first in Notation class, then through Scale, Chord & Key, and finally through courses in Harmony, Improvisation, and Composition.

CMP Courses & Workshops

Most CMP Courses meet weekly for 12-14 week sessions during the Fall and Winter/Spring Terms.  Elementary Division Courses usually meet weekly for 30-minutes; courses in other Divisions vary from 30 to 60 minutes in length.  During the summer months, we synchronize courses for elementary students with our Day Camps for Kids, and courses meet more frequently for a shorter period of time (30 to 45 minute classes, daily for one or two weeks, for example).

While courses meet weekly, CMP Workshops are typically designed to be one to three days in duration, and they typically provide a targeted group of students and/or parents an opportunity to focus on a particular set of skills and/or concepts. Center faculty and guest instructors often share the teaching responsibilities in CMP Workshops.  Workshops are scheduled on a rolling basis by individual faculty. Invitations and announcements are forwarded to Center students and the general public as events are planned.

Performance Program  

While some students study music with no performances in mind, most people take lessons and classes with the goal of developing the skills and confidence to play for others, either friends and family members or an appreciative audience, small or large.  After all, who wants to be alone hour after hour in a practice room, taking lessons week after week, with no end, no purpose, no clear goals in sight?

Drawing on Studio Lesson and CMP Course & Workshop training, CMC Atlanta students form small ensembles of all kinds--  Chamber Ensembles, Jazz Combos, Rock Bands, Bluegrass, Folk, and Old-Time Bands, small vocal ensembles, and music theater troupes.  Through our ensemble program, we help aspiring musicians cultivate a stylistically and developmentally sensitive authentic performance practice.

We don't force students to perform, but we're serious about creating formal and informal performance opportunities that meet two goals: supporting the student's development and furthering the cause of living musical traditions.  For more invested students, in particular, this often involves performance off-site in community venues, as well as local galleries, coffee shops, and theaters.  We also arrange for students to perform at festivals (for example, on the Main Stage at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival) and in professional venues like the Variety Playhouse and 7Stages.  The concomitant benefits for the student include added motivation (a snow-balling of interest and skill development) and the simple pleasure of playing music with friends.

Through Performance Programs, we also host a number of Performance Events by professionals for the benefit and enjoyment of students.  Center faculty, guests, local and regional professional musicians visit the Center or a procured off-site venue to perform .  Guest performers often pair their performance with a CMP Workshop.

Details and Logistics

When a student enrolls in GAP, department coordinators and Studio Lesson faculty assess the student's readiness and when appropriate, match the student with an accompanist or place them in a small ensemble or band based on skills and stylistic interests.  Students who already play in a band or with one or more friends independently may request for their group to rehearse at the Center and/or receive Center coaching once enrolled.

Center faculty coach students to help them prepare to perform on any number of informal and formal, on- and off-site performances held each term.  We create performance events that fit well with each style of music and meet the educational and developmental needs of our student ensembles.  Recitals, Salons, Shows, Concerts, Festivals, Jams.

CMC Atlanta students perform on the Main Stage @ the Atlanta Dogwood Festival

Featured Video :: CMC Atlanta students at Variety Playhouse in Little 5 Points

GAP students are encouraged to work with CMC Atlanta faculty and administrators to take on an internship or externship.  These arrangements are designed to meet the student's short and long term goals, and they can be either administrative or instructional in nature.  

Internships are sometimes, but not always, available as an element of GAP enrollment.  There are limited number of paid internships. The most common paid internships are working as a camp counselor, facilities manager, teaching assistant, or an afternoon desk receptionist or book keeper.  In-house paid opportunities will be directly affected by CMC Atlanta staffing needs at the time of enrollment and also by the student's background and preparation for paid work.   

Students who demonstrate a preprofessional or professional level of mastery on their primary instrument are afforded the opportunity to enroll in the paid Studio Internship Program.  Under close supervision and guidance of CMC administrators and faculty, Studio Interns serve as a teaching assistant, and then, when fully prepared, start teaching small group classes and private lessons using CMC curricula and resources.  Over the years, our Studio Interns have gone on to other areas of the country, fully equipped to start their own private, musical practice as a studio instructor.

In addition to CMC internships, we are also prepared to use our contacts and network of contacts to help students find exterrnal opportunities in the metro area.  Over the years, we have provided no or low cost lessons and training to under served communities through collaborative efforts.  Our community partners have included the Center for Pan-Asian Community Services (or CPACS), the Global Village School, and Grady High School.  We have also used direct outreach to under resourced families to match eager students with intern and extern faculty.  Many GAP students find this type of music outreach particularly appealing.