California Music Studios

Our family could not be happier with Shayla — she is a wonderful piano teacher! My son is excited to play piano each week. I feel like we are giving him a gift that will last a lifetime. Thanks, California Music Studios!!!

I found my Son’s drum teacher through this school. His name is Randy. Randy is a great teacher and very patient and flexible on scheduling. We do Saturday lessons. I highly recommend him.

My daughter recently started singing lessons with the California music studio about 2 months ago. We love it! She loves her teacher and I do too! The president of the company is very attentive and accommodating. She made sure we had what we needed and were happy with our service. We will be with them long-​term. In addition, I can tell they are very picky about the teachers they choose. They are the best!

Please save your money. We paid for 3 months of piano/​vocal lessons for our daughter and all she learned was chopsticks and heart & soul, which is something her father taught her to play.
During our first month, the instructor was flighty and didn’t even show up to the second lesson! So, we asked for a new instructor. After a couple months of lessons with the new instructor, we were not seeing ANY progress in our daughter’s ability. I decided to stick around for a lesson to see what was going on.
The instructor DID NOT KNOW HOW TO PLAY the song she was trying to teach our daughter! She could not get through a simple Disney song without multiple wrong notes, and sometimes even stopping halfway through and starting over! I was so taken-​aback, I had to record it on my phone to show my husband. We were both stupefied as to how this woman could be a piano instructor. We found out that this was a first-​time job for the instructor, even though CMS told us she was highly qualified and experienced.
Frustrated by the waste of money and time, we pulled our daughter out and looked elsewhere for lessons. I was more than willing to show CMS the video I had of their instructor, but when they inquired as to why we cancelled our lessons, the second my husband started to explain the woman hung up on him!
We are extremely happy with the new instructor /​company we have found and it only took ONE LESSON for our daughter to pick up and learn something new. Goodbye chopsticks, Goodbye California Music Studios!

I signed up for singing lessons at this place and never even got to take them. I arrived at this place on time and when I arrived all of the lights were turned off and absolutely no one was in there. I sat there for 5 minutes in the dark until another client walked in and waited another 5 minutes until a teacher came in. That teacher told me that my teacher should be coming. Well another 10 minutes passed and my teacher was nowhere to be found and I had to be somewhere after and had decided that 15 minutes was long enough to wait since I had not received an email or a phone call saying that my teacher would not be present. I left and one of my family members called to see why the teacher was not there when she said she would be. The teacher told her that she was there the whole time but in a different suite, not the one she had told me to go to. But the teacher I met there said that she was in the suite that I was waiting patiently in. She lied to my family member. She also claims that her back was turned and if she would have simply turned around she would have seen me. Why wouldn’t she turn around if she knew that she had a client at that time? Extremely disappointed that I did not get to take my lesson. Just lost a customer and will be spreading the word.

My daughter has been getting lessons from Jasmine for several months now. We are very pleased! She has learned a lot and she loves Jasmine! The recitals are a good motivator for her as well as enjoyable and a source of pride for the whole family. I’d highly recommend CMS and Jasmine!

My daughter has taken lessons with them for many years. Alexis started out with piano lessons and had a wonderful teacher named Franny. The she went on to voice lessons and was unsure of her voice and what styles she liked. They helped me find the perfect teacher and she loves singing now. She has now gone off to college n LA and they have teachers there to. She never had to have a break in her lessons. Here teacher there is also phenomenal! Actually there were so many in that area it was hard to pick one.
About her getting in college:
The lessons she received from CMS and performing in front of people gave her an unmeasurable amount of confidence and due to that she nailed all of her college interviews and is now attending a great college. She also was able to get over her shyness and excel in High School all the way through even with lots of AP classes and oral presentations.
I am so glad I found this company and was able to stay with them so many years. I can’t wait until my grandson is old enough to start lessons with them!

Our cello teacher is phenomenal! Barbara is kind, patient, encouraging and positive. Always ontime and gives the lesson her all!

I wasn’t sure how to find a good voice coach for my daughter, but Jennifer matched us with the perfect teacher. Kimberly is enthusiastic, talented, knowledgeable, and shares my daughter’s love for musical theater. These two are like peas in a pod during lessons, and my daughter is thrilled to have found someone who is so perfectly matched.
Glad we found you!

I have been a contract teacher with California Music Studios now since 2004. I was stringently interviewed by Jennifer Paterson and was fortunate enough to join CMS as a teacher. I have been blessed with many students over the years, some of whom I taught from the age of ten or eleven until they went off to college. As a professional musician, I always believed the gift God had bestowed upon me was for writing and performing, but now I realize it was given to me to pass on to these children. Working for CMS has been an amazing experience for me. Jennifer and her team are professional, kind and a delight to work with. The many performance recitals for all of our students are professionally staged and excellent. In fact, instead of taking my word for it, you should attend one of the recitals at the Dove Library in La Costa and see for yourself. You will be amazed.
My thanks to Jennifer, Melissa, Rochelle, Noël and the rest of the staff at CMS who have helped me realize a passion by enabling me to give back to others that which was so freely given to me.

I was excited to get started and was even provided with profiles of two teachers so I could learn more about them. This was via an email exchange on Thumbtack. When I called to move forward with setting it up, they renigged on the quote that they gave me, by 10%. We own a business and know better than to do stuff like that. So I am going elsewhere.

I am extremely happy with my experience with California Music Studios. My daughter has been coming to CMS weekly for the past 10 months. My daughter loves her teacher (Krystle Cruz) she is amazing, talented, patient and a wonderful teacher. I have seen my daughter gain confidence and her vocal ability has increased dramatically. I would recommend CMS to any one who needs or wants music lessons. I have had nothing but positive experiences with CMS. My daughter has performed twice with CMS.
The customer service and billing is exceptional as well. I will have my daughter stay with CMS as long as I can. They are the best I have had the joy of dealing with.

Take your lesson somewhere else.
Overpriced rate and they keep charging wrong amount of money (this happened twice already). If I didn’t check my bank bill, I wouldn’t have noticed it. They also have 30 day cancellation policy which is extremely inconvenient for music lesson. You don’t want to wait 30 days before you quit once you decide that the lesson isn’t for you.

The staff at CMS has been so helpful in finding just the right intructors for my son. We had piano lessons for him at home, and the instructor was way cool. The teacher would go out of his way to find music my son wants to play.
When he wanted to switch to sax, they found another amazing teacher for him. The staff will even wait around so that we can come back later to pick up his sax when we need to.
I have referred lots of friends to them, and all are very happy with the service and teachers. Very professional!

I don’t know why there is such a hostile review of this place because
I have had nothing but positive experiences. First off I LOVE my
teacher. She is so patient and really knows her stuff. Plus she laughs
at my jokes so who wouldn’t love that! As for the company, when I
called they were very kind and encouraging since I was a little
nervous about taking music lessons for the first time as an adult.
(It’s not too scary guys. Hard work? Yes. Scary? Nah!) I didn’t find
their follow ups to be an annoyance at all and in fact, they were
great about calling me when I asked them to. I happen to be very clear
in my communication when I call companies, so maybe it helped that I
told them when I am available to be reached and when I prefer to be
called. I also wasn’t bombarded like the other Unilocaler here so I don’t
know if their business practices have changed or if that was a unique
case or what have you, but I’ve been very pleased with them thus far.
I have now been taking lessons for 4 months and the only follow ups I
have received since were one after my first lessons seeing how it went
and if the teacher was a good fit and one again around the 3 month
mark seeing how I was doing. Call me crazy, but I like the fact that
they don’t just sign you up and leave you hanging. Maybe I’m just old
fashioned like that.

After having bad experiences with referral type online companies, I started to look for private instructors when I was told about this place. What I like about them is they actually interview their teachers and only hire qualified teachers. I was told if I didn’t like my instructor for whatever reason, I just had to call and they would handle everything for me!
I personally took lessons from them in both violin and voice at the Encinitas studio. Both instructors were extremely well qualified to teach and they hit the nail on the head when they matched me up personality wise. The office staff was very friendly and didn’t mind my 1001 questions.
My friend’s son and daughter also took piano lessons from them and had a bit different story. Her son is ADD and needed a different type of teacher than their daughter, which they didn’t notice until they began lessons. She called and was able to get two different teachers for her children and they both came to their home.
I know they also hold free recitals for students too.
I was sorry I had to move.

Wow! want to talk about high pressure!
CMS is more like a referral service than a location — the music version of 1800-​DENTIST perhaps.
I was interested in taking some voice lessons and called CMS because they were listed on the GSDBA website. Decided not to, not because the teacher was bad, uninformed or unknowledgeable, but because of the literally creepy high pressure sales tactics of the CMS referral service. They must have learned their biz practices from the shadiest of telemarketers and/​or bill collectors.
Since my original call, in just a few weeks I have received:
— 7+ phone calls ‘following up’ from CMS (not the instructor. from the referral service/​CMS — most times they just call and don’t leave a message)
— 5 or so followup emails
— Major No No to me: They added me to their ‘email announcement list’ (aka SPAM) and there’s no link remove yourself.
Technically, since I’ve taken the Boulder Pledge and they spammed me then I cannot ever do biz with them. If that weren’t the case, I’d still avoid them like a habitually recurring nightmare or herpes.
Such a shame… the instructor they hooked me up with was ULTRA cool (the only reason I didn’t give them a «1»). I will not take lessons from her because of CMS.
I’ve had to configure my phone to send their calls directly to voicemail (they don’t leave messages anyway) and their emails go directly to the bin bucket, with a snazzy autoresponder that tells them how much their biz ethics are a blight on the arts community.
UPDATE 5÷23÷11:
Received a response from CMS
oooh…exciting
They deny they called me 7+ times. I have phone records… it’s cell phone. Fail
Cute how they try to make it sound like SPAM and telephone harrassment is praised by others. If that’s your shtick, go for it.
I love how she worded the comment, tho. Very antagonistic in that cutesy pseudo-​professional sort of way.
let’s go with a play-​by-​play:
«I would like to apologize for any negative experience you had with our company, as it is never our intention and we are truly sorry we did not exceed your expectations.»
It was not their intention to call me and email me repeatedly? So, just because you make contact with them they decide to send MANY emails without ever asking if you want to do biz with them… they just snag your email addy and add it to their SPAM list. That is bad biz practice. It’s common, but bad. And as a consumer, I have an opinion that this shoudl stop. You are not ‘sorry’ for my experience, because you have no intention of changing it. Your intention IS to spam and is evidenced by the _​fact_​that you immediately add email addresses to your rather prolific announcement list regardless of the fact of anyone doing any real biz with you.
So the ‘sorry’ is fully fake and just damage control misdirection. Cute, but still fail.
«Our goal is not to overwhelm the customer, but rather work with students to find a qualified teacher who matches their needs and who can help make learning music a positive endeavor…»
If the goal is to not overwhelm the customer, why add them to your announcement list BEFORE they even sign up for any services?!? Once again, damage control propaganda and nothing truly that addresses the issue. Sort of like when you use a racial epithet in public and then issue a ‘sorry if anyone was offended’ statement. LOL… more fail.
«In regard to the number of calls, it is possible that our staff called and hung up to take another call as we do not show 7+ calls on your fil…»
…it’s my cell phone. I have the records. Calling me a liar isn’t a message of concern… it’s trying to cover your butt in the face of an authentic complaint… one that you obviously do not take seriously.
«We understand the busy lifestyles of our students, …»
A harrassing number of calls & emails indicates you do NOT understand busy lifestyles. Once again, I have proof that CMS does NOT understand at all.
«Many people have praised our communication techniques, and your experience is not common»
I must not be the lucky one, then. But then again, this is an opinon website and forewarned is forearmed. When I post this, consumers can understand what they are getting into.
Further, those who can read in between the lines will be able to see this farce of a followup message from CMS.
«I am sorry that you did not have a chance to work with us and receive the personalized service that we offer all of our students.»
…in the same way that stalking or harrassment are considered personalized services.
«We don’t want to bother you, but if you see fit we would like to follow up with you further on the phone and offer you an apology for your experience. Please let us know if you approve this, and the founder of California Music Studios will be happy to contact you. Thank you for your time and reconsideration. «
If CMS did not want to bother me, what’s with all the phone calls and SPAM? Fail again.
updated my review to 1 star because of their followup

I have no idea who wrote all of the poor reviews, but obviously it was the same person! Check out the poor spelling and grammar, consistent with each negative review. I, personally, have had a pretty good experience with California Music Studios. I have been teaching privately and in the classroom setting for going on ten years now. I, too, have multiple degrees in music and carry a large load of students (50 – 75 at any given time).
It is true that CMS takes part of your fees, as a teacher, for administrative purposes. However, they reward GOOD teachers. You are rewarded for retention, referrals and higher education. Are they expected to do this for free? There is a reason they have been in business so long. CMS keep teachers booked, and that is worth the chuck of the tuition they take. Some teachers may think they are worth more, but my response is, are you staying booked?! I do!
As far as students coming out with terrible posture (buy the way, that’s how you spell that word). I have never had that experience. I have inherited a few students from different teachers and have ALWAYS had a satisfactory evaluation of their skills. Rarely do teachers enjoy inheriting a student’s bad habits, but that is part of the business… no matter where you get them from. Not to mention, that may have NOTHING to do with the previous teacher.
The bottom line is this, CMS is professional. They deal with PROFESSIONALS. The more seriously you take your lessons, whether you be a teacher, student, or parent, the more you will get out of your experience. The staff is courteous and intelligent (that is a rarity). They are well organized and efficient. The vast majority of teachers are EXCELLENT!
If you have question about the student’s skills or abilities, I would recommend you read the newsletters filled with their accomplishments or attend a recital to see for yourself! I, for one, would be proud to let anyone observe one of my students in action. You’ll be sold within the first five minutes, that’s not fluff, that’s FACT.