Sunset Academy of Music

Called them this morning asking questions about selling my musical instruments. The woman that answered the phone barely spoke English and was no help when I asked her if anyone else in the city buys musical instruments.

I have known and been taking lessons from Roger for several years (with a few breaks). Roger is a conservatory trained teacher. He can help you to learn ergonomic ways to play that will help to limit the strains of playing that can be a problem in long time players. If you really want to learn a holistic method of playing, theory and technique he is the best teacher I have had in 20 years of playing and a nice person as well. I have also taken voice lessons from his school and would love to explore more instruments in the future. Try this school and have fun!

I took some guitar lessons with Roger and am really happy with his method. I progressed very fast just in two months. I highly recommend you give it a try if you are serious about learning the instrument!

I wanted to learn guitar as an adult. I bought a guitar and tried to learn a bit by myself but it became apparent I needed some lessons. By schedule is too hectic for group lessons so I thought I’d try private lessons at the Sunset Academy of Music. Roger the owner hooked me up with Vince. In the two years I have been taking lessons from Vince my guitar playing has come a long way. Vince is an excellent musician and instructor. He gives helpful feedback and is very supportive. I look forward to my lessons at the Academy. The autopay option my debit card is very handy.

I started bringing my 10 yr old for piano lessons and my 8 yr old for guitar lessons about 3 months ago. Roger was really great in working out a schedule that accomodated both of my kids at the same time with two different teachers. The autobilling is also super convenient, and the couple of times we’ve had to miss a class we have never been accidentally charged.
Andrew is our piano teacher, and he is excellent. He’s a credentialed teacher and has truly been exceptional in knowing just how much to push and how much to expect. He’s also a great communicator with me and keeps me well updated on my son’s progress. Vince is my other son’s guitar teacher, and he’s also fantastic. He makes learning fun, but continues to move along with reasonable expectations for an 8 yr old.
The only reason I don’t give a full five stars is due to the small space, but I’m sure the small space is a big part of why you can get such excellent teachers for such a good value.

.I’ve been a student at SAM for about 1year now, first with Shannon (who’s since left) and now Carmen, for voice lesson. Carmen is great – I’m a total beginner with NO musical background and she’s incredibly patient, creative in finding ways to overcome my musical obstacles, and a versatile musician herself (which matters when your students are practicing everything from jazz to pop to soul!) Carmen is experienced working with both adults and children, and I have no doubt she could handle students much more advanced than I am. She’s also a practicing musician herself.
More generally, the school is easily accessible by MUNI, their rates are *very* reasonable, and they are open for lessons 7 days a week, though not all teachers are there every day.
The negatives? They have a *small* space – only 3 classrooms – so that can make scheduling a bit tricky, if all the rooms are booked. Minus one star for that.
And yes, Roger (the owner) will ask you to sign up for their autopay program if you agree to come in regularly. I was resistant to that at first but it’s much easier than remembering to hand him a check after every lesson. The drawback is that if you have to cancel or reschedule a lesson with advance notice, you should check that you were not autobilled for that week anyway. That’s happened to me twice since I started, when I cancelled a lesson, but Roger always gave me a credit as soon as I alerted him of the problem.
Looking at the other reviews here, I have a hard time taking Jingee M’s review seriously. First, she’s got her facts wrong – lessons are $ 25 per 30 min class, not $ 50. Second, if she didn’t realize how long the class was, who’s fault is that? Read the details of what you buy, people!
Have fun learning how to make music! It’s a great experience, and the teachers at SAM will help you along the way.

I had voice lessons in this place, only had 2 lessons because I got a deal from groupon. I didn’t realized that the class was only 30 minutes long. The full price btw fis $ 50 for 30 minutes worth of class. Anywho, my first time there I arrived 10 minutes early because I didn’t want to waste my money and wanted to get the full 30 minutes of lesson. My voice coach was Carmen. She was late and we didn’t start until 5 minutes after my lesson was suppose to start. The time went by so fast it seemed like I didn’t even learn anything. And What made me upset the most is that she finished way 3 minutes earlier so I loss 8 minutes of my lesson because she ended the class 3 minutes early and was 5 minutes late. Is it because I have a coupon? Another thing I want to mention, before I went to my vocal class I had to make an appointment first and I called the owner, i forgot his name but I think henry or bob. I mentioned the coupon and then he goes on saying I need to get your credit card number just in case you want to continue your vocal lessons and $ 50 will automatically will be deducted to you account. I told him, not right now because I haven’t tried the lesson yet. And he goes on saying he is hard to reach and a very busy man and I might have a hard time cotacting him if I decide to continue. And he kept on insisting to get my credit card number. Btw I called him twice after and he picked up the phone and was easy to be reached. Therefore, he lied and just wants my money and doesn’t really care about his customers. The other day, they were selling the same deal again just like groupon and I didn’t even bother purchasing another one because it’s just not that worth it. There are other places you can go that will actually use all the time that you have and wont be late and much cheaper and better customer service. With that said, you’ve been warned!

After much practicing, ok, I have to be honest and admit that I practice about 2 hrs a week… meh, but anyhoo, I have to reiterate that Sunset Academy of Music is a great place thus I give it an extra special big ups and a full count of 5 stars. Roger is actually the guitar instructor and if I took guitar, I’d be damn good but he is filling in for the actual ukelele instructor who is out until June of this year. Roger is still AWESOME enough to squeeze me in his full schedule to go over the Ukelele basics, perhaps I will try the guitar after I get the hang of bending my fingers correctly over the strings, I just hope I don’t get arthritis…(oh the excuses).

I took guitar lessons with Roger at Sunset Acad. of Music for a little over a year and I improved tremendously! Roger is a really great teacher and very flexible in terms of scheduling — this was important for me as my work schedule can be erratic. He’s very passionate about making you a better player and designing a program that fits your goals. Roger helped improve my rhythm, solos, fingerpicking, and above all my ear. After a couple months I was able to pick out songs and solos by ear without tab or sheet music — this was a huge breakthrough for me. I also became much more confident charting out songs and playing with other people. Highly recommended!