Volo Academy of Music is the fastest growing online music academy in North America. Our award-winning instructors are from all over North and South America, teaching Piano, Voice, and Guitar. We offer in-person lessons at our 2 locations in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. Our instructors are screened and hand-picked for their qualifications, attitude, and experience, each bringing something different to the table. We match our students to the most suitable instructor based on their interests and goals! We offer lessons in piano, guitar, voice, bass guitar, violin, saxophone, drums, clarinet, and African Drums lessons. If you're interested in learning those instruments or others, just reach out to us and let us know which, whether you’re looking for online or in-person, and your time zone.

Our motto is: Music Takes Flight, Fueled by Fun! 😊That's why we make our lessons very engaging, to capture the student's imagination. It’s really important to us that they love the process of learning. Our students love their lessons, and learning is much easier when they’re having fun!

We teach Technique, songs, “fun” songs (any song that the student chooses, like pop songs, even if they don’t read music yet), ear training, Music Theory, memorization, performance, and improvisation skills. All of our students receive a well-rounded musical education according to their goals, whether it’s purely for enjoyment, getting into a program, taking Conservatory exams, or a combination of these!

Our teachers as well as many students are award-winning! We have done exceptionally well at music festivals and exams.

There are numerous benefits to music lessons in cognitive development.

Studies show an increase in cognition, including but not limited to: Memory, early language and math skills, split concentration, as well as confidence and mastery.

Medical imaging shows that playing music causes the whole brain to light up, showing that we use multiple parts of our brain simultaneously while playing an instrument.

We teach our students skills that benefit them for the rest of their lives in and outside of the realm of music!

As well, students learn ways to de-stress and enjoy themselves while building a new skill. Music is always a journey, no matter where you are with it. We always meet our students where they’re at, to nurture their passion.

Piano in particular requires so much in fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, sensitivity, and focus that it’s the ultimate foundation of all things musical. That’s why it’s our opinion that if your child will do it, this is the instrument to start with! But having said that, whether they’re ready for private half hour lessons depends on the child. We’ve had children who have started at age 4, and been very successful, and those who started at age 7 and weren’t ready. To help you navigate this loaded question, we’ve created THIS QUIZ! Take it, and see!

If it turns out that they’re not ready for private half hour lessons, we also offer mini-lessons, which offer the same types of benefits as half hour lessons, but delivered in a way that your youngster will have the attention span for, as they grow and mature!

The rates for Mini-Lessons are as follows:

15 min: $20
20 min: $25
25 min: $27.50

Reach out for more info!

We screen our instructors for education, attitude, personality, and experience, as well as reference checks for honesty and accountability. This is followed by a rigorous training process, before joining our team of teaching staff. In addition, we require a criminal record check for all client-facing (in-person) staff 18+.

At our in-person venues, we have no waiting area. We require parents to drop off the students right before their lesson and pick them up right after, minimizing waiting time at a public venue.

It is possible. Please contact us to chat about details and rates.

The school year term runs from typically the end of August until the end of June of the next year (eg. August 29, 2022 to June 30, 2023).

Having said that, you can start lessons any time of the year and go until the end of June.

Summer lessons are also offered, and not part of the school-year term.

To withdraw lessons during the school year term, we require 1 month’s notice before your last month of lessons. For example, if you want to quit May 1, we need notice before April 1. Otherwise, there is a midyear withdrawal fee of 2 lessons fee (eg. If you take half hour lessons, the fee is $60) in order to withdraw any time without 1 month’s notice.

It’s never too late to learn! Music lessons are supreme for cognitive development at all ages, and we teach our students skills that take them beyond musicality, into many areas throughout their lives.

We have students of all ages (currently age 4 - 80+), abilities (brand new beginner to advanced), and needs, playing for all different reasons (leisure, exams, or both).

We meet our students where they’re at!

Yes, if you’d like to change your time slot either temporarily or permanently, let your instructor know, and s/he will work with you to find a time that works for both of you.

If you’d like to change the duration of your lesson, let the office know (email kimberly@northpeacepiano.com), and we will set you up!

Each student may have 2 reschedulable lessons per school year (NOT including the 2 weeks that we take off for Christmas and New Years), although teachers may do more make ups in the interest of the student and out of their own goodwill.

We run lessons through stats, Fall Break, and Spring Break. If you need to reschedule a lesson, please let your instructor know by 9am the day before the absence at the latest.

There are no make ups for make ups. If your teacher needs to miss a lesson, then you will be offered a make up.

Make ups may be virtual (teacher’s discretion), and may be carried into the summer if it’s not made up within the school year.

If a student doesn’t answer or show up within 15 minutes of their lesson start time, that is considered a no-show (the teacher is not obligated to keep the rest of the time slot open). No make-up lesson or refund will be provided for no-shows or non-excused absences (less than 24 hours notice).

If the student is sick, in many cases, you may often choose to have your lesson virtually. Just give your instructor a heads up if this is the case!

Yes, routine practice is just as important for progression as the lesson itself, where students learn more things to master for the next week’s challenges.

Our head office is in Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada. Our instructors are located across North and South America.

Our in-person locations are all over Canada, and may do in-studio or travel to your home for lessons.

There is a once-per-school-year registration fee of $35. This is to help cover background admin expenses required for registration, recitals, and insurance.

Tuition does not cover materials, such as the instrument, notebooks / stationary / sheet music / books / apps that the student will need for steady progression. Depending on the level, goals, and interests of the individual student, the required materials will be different, and your instructor will advise you (and send you links) on what to purchase.

A good majority of our local students take online lessons because they get to skip the traffic, it works just as well (if not better in some ways), and you get a lesson recording of each lesson - which means that if you forget something, you can just look back on the lesson and have your question answered (instead of not knowing all week, then re-asking and relearning the same concept next week). Progress has been expedited this way, and on average, our online beginners learn to read music faster! Incredible! Also, more concepts get covered sooner with advanced students. We’ve definitely evolved this into a new way of learning rather than just a replacement for in-person lessons, regardless of the beginnings of online learning.

As a side note, the leading programs Royal Conservatory of Music and Conservatory Canada both offer online exams (and CC has been exclusively online for many years)!

Here’s our blog post about how parents can optimize online lessons for the young beginner.

You need your instrument and a device with a relatively large screen that can run video calls. A laptop is preferred, followed by an iPad / tablet. A phone usually has too small of a screen, but that’s the only thing you have, we’ll work with it!

The vast majority of our students (and teachers) use keyboards. Here’s our blog post about what kind of keyboard to get, and where to get it!