Music Tuition Terms & Conditions
Current version: September 2026 · in effect from
These Terms & Conditions apply to adult music tuition provided by James McDonald Music ("we", "us" or "our").
They set out how lesson blocks, scheduling, cancellations, payments and the ending of tuition work.
By enrolling, you accept the Terms & Conditions that apply to your tuition at that time.
1. Scope of Tuition
These Terms cover music tuition we provide: private lessons, group tuition and online tuition, where those services are offered.
Not every form of tuition mentioned here is available at all times.
2. Lesson Blocks
Private tuition runs in 10-week lesson blocks.
Weekly students receive 10 lessons in a block. Fortnightly students receive 5.
Teaching dates and planned breaks are sent separately. They are not part of these Terms and can differ from block to block.
If you start partway through a block, you may begin as soon as a suitable lesson time is free. You pay in advance for the lessons between your start date and the beginning of the next block.
3. Continuing Tuition and Regular Lesson Times
Each block is a separate commitment. Buying one block does not oblige you to buy the next.
If you continue from one block to the next, you are normally given priority in retaining your regular day and time, provided payment is received by the stated deadline. Section 5 covers what happens if it is not.
Regular lesson times are not held for students taking a break. If you take a block off, or a longer period away, your time may go to another student, and we cannot promise the same day or time on your return.
4. Communication
We send information about lessons, blocks, invoices and schedule changes by email.
Please keep your contact details up to date and read these emails.
If you cannot attend a lesson, email us as soon as possible.
What happens next depends on how much notice you give — see section 8.
5. Fees and Payment
Fees are paid in advance.
Fees for a new block are due by the deadline we give you.
If you are already a student, we tell you about the next block in advance and give you the chance to keep your regular time.
If payment has not arrived by the final deadline, your regular lesson time is no longer held and may be offered to someone else.
Paying for the current block does not reserve a place in the next one.
We do not provide lessons on credit, and you cannot build up a balance for lessons already taught.
You can pay by any method we offer, which may include card payment through an invoice, bank transfer, Revolut or cash.
6. Instalments
Five-lesson blocks are paid in full in advance. They are not available in instalments.
A weekly 10-lesson block may be split into two equal instalments, if agreed in advance.
The first instalment is due before the first lesson. The second is due before the sixth.
Each instalment pays in advance for the lessons it covers.
If an instalment is late, lessons stop until it is paid, and we are not required to hold your regular lesson time in the meantime.
7. Changes to Tuition Fees
Fees may change from time to time.
We tell you about any change before you commit to the block it applies to.
A fee change never alters the price of a block you have already bought.
8. Private Lesson Cancellations and Rescheduling
A weekly or fortnightly lesson time is reserved specifically for you. By reserving a regular lesson time, you are committing to attend those lessons. Because that time is kept exclusively for you, there is a limit on the number of lessons that can be rescheduled.
Please give as much notice as possible if you cannot attend.
A cancelled lesson qualifies for a reschedule if you give at least 48 hours' notice and you have not already used your rescheduling allowance.
Weekly students get two reschedules per 10-week block. Fortnightly students get one.
Reschedules depend on availability. We will make a reasonable effort to find another time, but we cannot promise a particular day or time.
Unused reschedules do not carry over to the next block.
If you give less than 48 hours' notice, 50% of the lesson fee is charged.
Once your rescheduling allowance has been used, any further cancelled lesson is subject to the same 50% charge, regardless of how much notice you give.
The remaining 50% is credited towards future tuition. If you are ending tuition and have no future fees to put it against, it is refunded.
The cancellation policy applies regardless of the reason for the cancellation, so you do not need to explain or provide evidence of personal circumstances.
9. Ending Private Tuition During a Lesson Block
You may end tuition mid-block by giving at least two weeks' written notice, by email. The notice period begins when we receive that notice.
Lessons continue as normal during those two weeks, and the usual cancellation rules apply.
We refund fees you have already paid for lessons scheduled after your final date.
Not attending during the notice period does not shorten it.
10. Extended Absence and Exceptional Circumstances
If exceptional circumstances prevent you from attending lessons for an extended period, we may — as an exception to the normal cancellation policy in section 8 — offer alternative arrangements, credit or a refund at our discretion.
We cannot hold a regular lesson time during a long absence unless the lessons continue to be paid for in full.
Once a lesson time is released, we cannot promise the same day or time on your return.
11. Group Tuition
Group tuition works differently, because the class goes ahead for everyone else when one student is absent.
A missed group lesson does not qualify for a catch-up lesson, reschedule, credit or refund. One student's absence does not change the group's scheduled dates.
Once a group block or programme has started, fees are non-refundable if you withdraw.
If we cannot teach a group session, we will reschedule it where reasonably possible. Where we cannot, that lesson's value is credited or refunded.
We give you any arrangements specific to a particular group course before enrolment, where they differ from these Terms.
12. Late Arrival
If you arrive late, the lesson will still finish at its scheduled time.
If we are late, you will still receive the full lesson time you booked — made up within that lesson where practical, or at another agreed time.
13. Cancellations by Us
If we cannot provide a scheduled private lesson, you do not lose its value.
We will reschedule the lesson, make up the time, or credit or refund its full value.
A cancellation by us does not use up any of your own reschedules.
For group lessons, section 11 applies.
14. Online Lessons
If you attend online, you are responsible for your own internet connection, device and any other equipment the lesson reasonably needs.
If an online lesson is badly disrupted by a problem at your end, it counts as having taken place.
If the problem is at our end, that lesson time is made up, rescheduled or credited in full.
15. Events Outside Our Control
Some things outside our reasonable control can stop a lesson going ahead as planned — severe weather, no access to the teaching premises, major utility or transport disruption, public-health restrictions and similar events.
Where that happens, we will make reasonable efforts to offer an appropriate alternative, which may include moving the lesson online, rescheduling it, or providing a credit or refund.
16. Ending Tuition by Us
We may end your tuition where we reasonably consider the arrangement is no longer working.
That includes, but is not limited to:
- repeated cancellations or non-attendance;
- persistent payment problems;
- inappropriate, threatening or abusive behaviour; or
- other serious or repeated issues that make continuing unreasonable.
We will tell you if your tuition is being ended.
If we end the tuition arrangement, we refund any prepaid fees for lessons scheduled after the tuition ends.
Any fees or charges already due under these Terms remain payable.
In serious cases, tuition may end immediately.
17. Photography, Video and Student Recordings
Taking part in promotional photography or filming is never a condition of tuition.
Where filming is planned as part of an adult group activity, you can decline to appear in promotional material.
We may ask for separate consent before using identifiable photographs or video on the website, on social media, in advertising or elsewhere.
Recordings, photographs or videos you send us for tuition, feedback or assessment are not permission to publish them. We will ask separately before using any student-provided material publicly.
18. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time.
Where we make a material change, we tell you before the new Terms apply to a future block.
Changes do not normally apply retrospectively to a block you have already bought.
We publish the current version and its effective date on our website, and we keep previous versions so the Terms that applied on an earlier date can be identified.
You may be required to accept the updated Terms before beginning a future lesson block.
19. Contact
You can send questions about these Terms or about tuition through the contact form on our website.