How music helps young minds 

Music Squad delivers fun and exciting piano lessons to primary school students - or Squaddies! We offer two formats - individual piano lessons during the school day and a small group, after-school club, called Keyboard Squad. Both high-quality, fun, feel-good learning, just in different ways. All of our lessons take place in school. Happy days.

Keyboard Squad is a unique way for children to learn to play the keyboard (or piano, same thing!) in a relaxed, group setting. We welcome children of any age and any ability to come along and discover the joy of making music with others. The sessions are one hour long and have up to 10 children max. Children have their own keyboard, headphone and book (all equipment provided) and will learn to read music and receive individual feedback every week. As well as learning to read music, there's lots of musical games, activities, performances and most excitingly - full group ensemble playing! Every half term the group will learn to play a pop song together (chosen by them) and get to enjoy the absolute joy and magic that is playing in a group. It's super fun, silly, informal and boosts confidence from a young age.

Please get in touch with Hannah (hannah@musicsquad.co.uk) to find out which day we deliver after-school clubs at your school.

Individual piano lessons are 20 minutes long, once a week, and take place at school, during the school day. We think this is the perfect length of time for young learners. Keyboard Squad (our after-school club) is one hour long and will take place after school at the end of the school day. You won't need to pick up your child to take them to the club, just pick them up an hour later - we'll let you know when and where.

At your school! All of our lessons take place in primary schools, meaning no extra school night commitments for you - bosh. Individual lessons will be on the same day every week, all you need to do is make sure your child takes their piano book and practice diary and they'll be collected from class when it's time for their lesson. Our after-school club will be in a classroom.

Our individual lessons cost £15.90 per week and our after-school club costs £10.30. Music Squad exists to share the joy, friendship and adventure that music can bring to all children and so we want music to be accessible to as many children as possible. Additional support may be available for tuition costs so please get in touch for details. Please be aware, lesson cost may vary between branches, please get in touch with your Branch Owner for more information.

Nope! When you register online, the final step will be to set up your payment details via a safe and secure platform, GoCardless. Which means that once you've signed up, you won't ever need to do anything else - we'll do the rest! At the start of every term, and when you join, we'll send you an invoice for lessons for the whole of that term. We'll then set up a direct debit to spread the cost of that termly invoice across even monthly payments, which means the cost per month may vary slightly from term to term.

If you'd prefer to pay in one go, or have a specific day that payments would work best for you, that's no problem at all, just let us know - we can set up whatever arrangement works best for you. Our team will let you know every term what payments you have coming up but you can also manage your account and see all your scheduled payments in our handy online Customer Portal too.

Music Squad has its own unique series of tuition books for all our Squaddies to learn with. The Squad Stars series is a set of 2x specifically written tuition books designed to guide young learners from day one through to their first exam - the ABRSM Initial Grade. The books are at the centre of everything we do and underpin our approach of fun, silly and joyful learning - whilst also learning to read music properly! It blows our mind when we see six year olds reading music. The books are crammed full of 100% original tunes, silly lyrics, exciting puzzle pages, tonnes of duets and positive reinforcement at every step.

You'll also get one of our Squad Star Practice Notebooks too, where your piano teacher will record every week what they've got up to in lessons. Your child's piano teacher will bring their new books along to their first lesson. New starters will receive a Beginners Bundle (Squad Stars: Piano Book One and a Squad Stars Practice Notebook) for £15.99.

No! To really make the most of your lessons, it would be beneficial for your child to have access to a keyboard or piano to practise on between lessons. But we see many children making amazing progress without this. If you don't have a piano or a keyboard to start with, perhaps you could give lessons a go for a term and consider buying a small keyboard once you know your child enjoys it, if that is an option for you. If you do want to secure something for at home, even a small or very old keyboard will do the trick to get going. Let us know when you're thinking about investing in an instrument, and we'll send over some recommendations!

This is the question we love answering the most. Because it's so important! If you're shelling out all this money it's absolutely key that you know how you child is getting on. And especially as lessons are taking place in school, you will probably never meet your child's teacher! We totally get this and are proud to say it's something we take super seriously.

At Music Squad we use an online parent sharing platform called Seesaw to provide weekly pictures and video progress updates directly from your child's lesson to you at home. You'll be able to see, like and comment on exactly what has happened in the lesson and through Seesaw you'll also have direct communication your child's teacher too, where you can message them for feedback directly at any time. We also write down progress and practice notes in your child's practice diary each week, as well as publishing end of term reports. Keeping you updated is our priority.

At Music Squad we think exams are a great way to encourage focus and to recognise and celebrate development. But there's no pressure from us. It's really up to you, your child and your child's teacher. But we'll support you either way.

The Squad Star books are designed to guide Squaddies from day one to their first exam - the ABRSM Initial Grade. The ABRSM Initial Grade is a relaxed introduction to the experience of taking an exam and is an informal 'grade 0.5' on the journey to grade one (which can be a really big journey for a little person, or even a big person!). Our Squad Star books are the perfect foundation and introduction to learning the piano whether you go on to take exams or not, but we're all for it if you are!

The dreaded P word. There's no escaping it. But practice doesn't have to be a chore! Practicing is a really important part of everybody's development when learning a musical instrument and so it's really helpful if your child can get stuck in at home too. Your teacher will help you and your child understand what to practice, and how to make it fun, but 10 minutes a day a few times a week should do the trick. Bosh. You don't need to be musical to help at home either - just encouraging and listening to your child will make the world of difference.

We understand that learning an instrument can be daunting to non-musicians and at Music Squad we're here to change that. We don't want children of musicians to be the only children learning an instrument, we are passionate about getting rid of all the stuffy, and making your Music Squad experience as accessible and as inclusive as we possibly can. If there's anything else that springs to mind or you're not sure about, drop us an email, a text, or give us a call, we'd love to chat... ask us anything!

At Music Squad we are literally obsessed with the benefits of learning a musical instrument. We've made it our full time mission to help your child to fall in love with music and to feel really GOOD about themselves while doing so. We are so confident that your child will love our lessons, that we are happy for you to cancel them at any time. Although we book everyone in for a full term, if you want to leave at any point throughout the term, that's no problem - you're never locked in. We know that trying out a new activity can be a leap of faith and so we want to do everything we can to encourage you to take it. Since launching Music Squad in September 2021, we are proud to have maintained a 95% retention rate since then. But if you try it and it's not for you, that's OK too. Happy days!

Creating a fun, safe and inclusive space for children to thrive is our top priority and is something that we're really proud of at Music Squad. All of our safeguarding policies and procedures have been developed in conjunction with the NSPCC and reflect our commitment to creating a culture of safeguarding. All of our teachers undergo yearly, relevant safe-guarding training and we hold regular team meetings to discuss new, positive ways to keep our Squaddies safe. Whilst we advocate for silliness everywhere else, safeguarding is something we take really seriously. You can read about our practices in our Safeguarding Policy and Procedures document, here.