Schwob School of Music Preparatory Division

The Music Preparatory Division provides high-level instruction through private lessons led by talented and experienced instructors. Lessons are available on all major instruments and voice including piano, guitar, violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, and percussion. Students from beginner to advanced of any age can reach their potential by benefiting from these programs.

Tuition and Registration

Tuition for private lessons is charged by the semester. It may be paid in full or in monthly installments.

Tuition rates:

• 30-minute lesson $30
• 45-minute lesson $45
• 60-minute lesson $60

Registration is accepted throughout the semester based on instructor availability. A $25 registration fee per student is applied to all programs. The fee is added to the first payment for new students, then annually for all students.

Thank you for choosing the Schwob Music Preparatory Program for music lessons!

Register for Group Lessons Here

Schwob Prep is thrilled to expand its Group Class offerings for 2025, including: Group Piano, Little Mozarts, Eurhythmics, Music Appreciation, Music Theory, and Conducting.

These 6-week sessions are intended to introduce music to complete beginners as well as supplement existing private lessons, beginner through advanced. We hope to build a community of curious young musicians, able to express themselves through music.

All classes will be held at the Schwob School of Music, located next to the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts at 900 Broadway, Columbus, GA 31901. Free parking is available in the parking garage across the street from the RiverCenter.

Each group class is broken into 6-week sessions, with classes occurring on Saturdays.

• Session 1: Saturdays 2/1, 2/15, 2/22, 3/1, 3/8, 3/15 (Note: no class on 2/8).
• Session 2: Saturdays 4/5, 4/12, 4/19, 4/26, 5/3, 5/10.

Below is a schedule for our classes offered Spring 2025:

Please see specific class descriptions and levels below for the scope of each class. Consult with your teacher about which classes to take, or feel free to reach out to us at musicprep@columbusstate.edu with any questions.

Tuition for Group Classes is the following for each 6-week session:

• $99 for students with immediate family affiliated with Columbus State University or Schwob (including current Schwob Prep students or children of CSU faculty/staff).
• $119 for students not affiliated with CSU or Schwob.

In Group Piano, students with no prior experience with the piano learn and gain confidence as their keyboard skills grow in a fun, relaxed environment. Each student will have their own piano that they’ll use to explore basic music and piano fundamentals with expert guidance. This program is great on its own or as an opportunity for students to sample the weekly structure of music lessons before beginning private lessons.

Instructor: Robert Wilson
Time: 10:00am
Room: 1712
Ages: 5-8
Level: Complete Beginner
Prerequisites: None
Activities:

• Learning notes on the keyboard and staff.
• Playing simple tunes with hands separate and together.
• Learning basic rhythms.

Designed for preschool-aged kids, this class offers an environment that stimulates musical growth. In a fun and relaxed setting, students will explore the basics of music and several instruments, giving your young ones a great introduction to the wonderful world of music.

Instructor: Alyssa Johnson
Time: 10:00am
Room: 2604
Ages: 3-5
Level: Complete Beginner
Prerequisites: None
Activities:

• Playing Orff instruments (e.g. xylophones, percussion).
• Utilizing body percussion.
• Potential for immersion into other instruments.

Eurhythmics (literally meaning “good rhythm”) is a class that teaches the connection between music and movement, and is designed to engage the mind, body, and spirit. Eurhythmics was developed by Swiss musician and educator Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, whose methods influenced 20th-century theatrical dance in Europe and America.

In a eurhythmics class, students use their whole bodies as instruments to match the rhythm of the music through movement, such as walking, running, skipping, jumping, and gestures (basic conducting patterns). Students may also sing, play instruments, improvise, and participate in games.

Eurhythmics classes can help students:

• Develop a natural sense of rhythm.
• Coordinate their mind and body.
• Enhance their musical abilities.
• Prepare for beginning instrumental instruction.
• Develop a deeper understanding of music's energy
• Heighten their listening skills and intuition

Eurhythmics 1

Instructor: Magdalena Nikolajuk
Time: 12:00pm
Room: 2604
Ages: 5-7
Level: Beginner
Prerequisites: None – beginners are welcome! Students who have taken Little Mozarts will also find this class as a natural progression.
Activities:

• Learning songs and singing them together
• Creating dance routines to music
• Moving in time with the music
• Movement games that involve rhythm (e.g., a specific sound tells children to move or stop)
• Games requiring children to make sounds
• Music quizzes like "What’s the melody?"
• Learning through playing simple percussion instruments
• Learning basic music theory (rhythm values, meter, measure, tempo, dynamics, note names)

Eurhythmics 2

Instructor: Justyna Baranska
Time: 11:00am
Room: 2604
Ages: 8-10
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Prerequisites: Basic understanding of music theory (rhythm, meter, measure, tempo, dynamics, note names). You do not need to have taken Eurhythmics 1 to take this class!
Activities:

• Reinforcement of basic music theory concepts (e.g., rhythm values, meter, time signatures, tempo, dynamics, and note names) and introducing more advanced ideas
• Games reinforcing musical understanding of harmony, form, phrase structures
• More focused theoretical education including rhythmic dictation and solfege singing
• Learning simple conducting patterns
• Group choreographies
• Learning basic ensemble skills through playing together using percussion instruments

Music Theory consists of developing tools and skills to explain all the wondrous feelings in music and eventually connect directly with the pieces they’re playing. This semester, Schwob Prep will be offering several levels of beginner level theory (1, 2, and 3) to enhance private lessons and help young students more easily learn and play their pieces.

In Theory 1, 2, and 3, students will learn to read notes, rhythmics values, time signatures, key signatures, accidentals, and articulations. Students will develop their ears through introductory aural training.

The Music Theory and Performance Seminar will be a higher-level class, intended for intermediate and advanced students, to begin connecting musical observations of the printed score to performing practice.

Music Theory 1

Instructor: Elizabeth Bergmann
Time: 11:00am
Room: 2610
Ages: Any (please see Prerequisites and Activities to determine if this class is appropriate)
Level: Early Beginner
Prerequisites: Basic reading skills. Please see below for skills and topics covered.
Activities:

• Rhythms: Whole note, half note, dotted quarter notes, quarter note, eighth notes (including rests).
• Notes and Staff: musical alphabet, treble clef, bass clef, staff, measures, notes on the staff, melodic contour, time signature.
• Intervals: half step, whole step
• Other topics: sharps/flats, dynamics.
• A main goal will be to strengthen understanding of the staff and the relationship between notes on the staff.

Music Theory 2

Instructor: Ty Gable
Time: 12:00pm
Room: 2610
Ages: Any (please see Prerequisites and Activities to determine if this class is appropriate)
Level: Beginner
Prerequisites: Basic reading skills in treble and bass clef, through the topics outlined in Music Theory 1. You do not need to have taken Music Theory 1 to take this class. Please see below for skills and topics covered in Music Theory 2.
Activities:

• Rhythms: Reinforce whole note, half note, dotted quarter notes, quarter note, eighth notes (including rests).
• Intervals: 2nds and 3rds.
• Key Signatures: CM, GM, FM
• Other topics: Major scale pattern, articulations, tempo markings, dynamic markings, accidentals.
• Students will begin short melodic and rhythmic dictations, play matching games with different terminology, and receive various handouts outlining and reinforcing class material.

Music Theory 3

Instructor: Cher Liu
Time: 10:00am
Room: 2610
Ages: Any (please see Prerequisites and Activities to determine if this class is appropriate)
Level: Late Beginner
Prerequisites: Basic reading skills in treble and bass clef, including understanding of whole/half steps and rhythmic notation, through the topics outlined in Music Theory 2. You do not need to have taken Music Theory 2 to take this class. Please see below for skills and topics covered in Music Theory 3.
Activities:

• Rhythms: Reinforce whole note, half note, dotted quarter notes, quarter note, eighth notes (including rests).
• Intervals: All intervals without quality
• Key Signatures: order of sharps, major key signatures up to 4 sharps and 1 flat.
• Other topics: Major scale pattern, Italian terms
• Aural skills: singing tonicization exercises, melodic dictation, rhythmic dictation.

Music Theory and Performance Seminar

Instructor: Dr. Allen Yueh
Time: 1:00pm
Room: 2610
Ages: Any (please see Prerequisites and Activities to determine if this class is appropriate)
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Prerequisites: Anyone with a passion for performing and an intrigue of music theory is welcome. Students must be comfortable reading treble/bass clefs, have basic harmony knowledge (triads, seventh chords), have fluency in rhythmic and meter values, and show growing awareness of performing styles and practices.
Activities:

• In this unique seminar, Dr. Allen Yueh will blend his experiences performing piano concerts across the United States and as music theory faculty to discuss how music theory can inform interpretively compelling performances.
• Students will discover the power of motives and their transformations, motivic parallelism across broader harmonic structures, and understand how rhythmic and metric perception can influence one’s feel of the music.
• Students will listen to a variety of recordings and analyze a select few case study pieces, ultimately finding a balance between theoretical observations and interpretive implications in a real-life performative setting.

Orchestral conducting is an art of expression and leadership in which the conductor physically and aurally guides, convinces, and unifies an ensemble of musicians toward realizing music. This involves physical cues, aural skills, theory, and historical knowledge. Synthesizing all of these in real time makes it a very fun and unique challenge.

The objective of this class is to improve the understanding of music through the general knowledge of form, research, and somatic work that leads to open and free physical communication.

Conducting 1

Instructor: Enluis Montes Olivar
Time: 11:00am
Room: 1712
Ages: 8-12
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Prerequisites: Any musical experience, such as starting to learn an instrument, as well as comfort reading at least one clef. Otherwise, all skills will be addressed through the class.
Activities:

• Simple musical learning: experimenting with the sound (melody and rhythms), all clefs, orchestral instruments, basic history of music, beginning to read the conductor’s score.
• Physical delivery: beat patterns in right and left hands; foundations that focus on balance, posture, and openness; breath and its ability to help us connect with the sound.

Conducting 2

Instructor: Enluis Montes Olivar
Time: 12:00pm
Room: 1712
Ages: 13+
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Prerequisites: Play an instrument, ability to read music in treble/bass clefs. Otherwise, all skills will be addressed through the class.
Activities:

• Simple musical analysis: form and how to see motives, melody and basic musical sentence structure, rhythms, clefs and transpositions, introduction to basic harmony, how to read the conductor’s score.
• Physical delivery: beat patterns in right and left hands; foundations that focus on balance, posture, and openness; introduction to right/left hand separation through basic exercises; breath and its ability to help us connect with the sound.
• Psychology of working with ensembles: individual vs. group dynamics, organization fundamentals, introduction to rehearsal strategies.

Music Appreciation classes are a highly nurturing environment for all interested in expanding their musical horizons. In these fun and interactive classes, students will learn how to listen, comprehend, and describe the music around them. Essentially, Music Appreciation is the understanding and enjoyment of music!

Music Appreciation 1

Instructor: Rachel Ward
Time: 1:00pm
Room: 2604
Ages: 5-7
Level: Early Beginner
Prerequisites: None – students in their first couple years of music study or having taken Little Mozarts will find this class engaging and fun!
Activities:

• Highly interactive, small musical performances and hands-on activities.
• Listening and reacting to various sounds and styles.
• Learn about the various styles of music from early to present day, with the goal to learn basic foundations of each time period over time.
• Every performance will have provided materials.

Music Appreciation 2

Instructor: Ty Gable
Time: 1:00pm
Room: 1712
Ages: 8-12
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Prerequisites: Any musical experience, such as existing private lessons and some reading/musical knowledge, will be helpful. Students having taken Music Appreciation 1 will find this class to cover topics more in depth. However, students do not need to have taken Music Appreciation 1 to take this class.
Activities:

• Students will explore the major periods in classical music, study compositions and composers from each era, identify musical instruments, gain insight into performance and composition, and develop an appreciation for various genres of music.
• Listening: melodies from famous pieces, identifying instruments.
• Matching games: instruments, composers, musical eras.
• Students will receive handouts from each era of music outlining and reinforcing what is discussed in class.