EZPiano

I honestly and wholeheartedly REGRET ever taking my daughter here for piano lessons. For certain kids, she may be an effective teacher. But for my child, Sue just drilled and demanded to the point where she would cry during and after lessons and begged me not to bring her back there. Per Sue’s request, I had been open with my concerns and expressed them over emails about drilling my child over flash cards and timing her performances. My daughter knows the notes but the process of being drilled and being timed completely frightened her to death. She’d get so anxious and would clam up that it was completely painful for me to watch. Sue would also correct her over every note as she played them. Being overly corrected with the music pieces completely deflated her self-​confidence and heightened her anxiety. It was so sad to watch her being so afraid to make mistakes. When I brought this up to Sue, she said that she can’t help that my daughter has anxiety issues and that it is her job to correct her. Yes, to some degree, but my daughter is a young child, I would rather that she can find joy in music and be self-​confident than to be stressed and deflated over an extra curricular activity like piano.
IMO, find yourself a piano teacher that has study music pedagogy instead. They have studied how to teach music. Learning an instrument should be joyful and fun.
Trying to end our business relationship with Sue was a HORRENDOUS experience! Oh Boy! Did the NASTINESS come out!!! At first, «it’s okay, it is up to you to take a break or discontinue lessons.» Then it was: «I need 4 closure lessons before you can terminate not coming here anymore. It’s in the policy!» As we were the «floater» type, it states in her policy that there would be no questions asked if we do not come back. That is not true either. She was very upset with our decision. As a result, over 40 nasty emails came at us.
DO NOT PAY IN ADVANCE! It was almost impossible to get a refund. We were the «floater» type of student. I had prepaid for 6 lessons with a check in which Sue had CASHED already and somehow, she felt that it was justifiable that I needed to pay her more money in cash for the 4 lessons rendered so that she could write me a check back for 6 lessons in return. Which made no sense at all… why would I want to give her more cash? Crazier than this, she wanted to make me jump through hoops to get $ 84 dollars back from her. At first, I was about to just count my loses and move on but then a month later, she taunted me with, «what’s your address, I will send you a check for the unused lessons.» Then, it was, «you did not read my emails about needing 4 closure lessons. I need to see your daughter so that we can have closure. I changed my mind about sending you a check. you need to come in.» After, I refused to come back for my daughter to be tortured with lessons anymore, Sue made rude comments about me as an unfit parent. Then she wanted to see my daughter’s notebook where she had documented how many lessons were used, she would not accept the digital photos I emailed her. Then she said I could meet her at the bank so that I can cash her check there and then pay her the cash. NONE OF THIS MADE ANY SENSE to any logical and sane person. At the end, she somehow justified returning ~$ 33 to us which was minus the lesson that we had cancelled with 5 days notice (although as a floater, we were to pay when we show up for lesson), a money gram, and certified mail postage. Honestly, she has no legal rights of keeping any money for services not rendered. And morally at that, she just decided that she can change and modify her policy to her own advantages. Sue changes her policy to her liking at will. BEWARE!
THE KICKER: she had to send me numberous emails about how KIND, NICE, and COMPROMISING she has been to me. How kind she had been to my daughter for buying her a present. How kind she was to contact me to taunt me with refunding me (and then changed her mind). How kind that she did not enforced the 4 closure lesson policy on us. How kind she was for not charging me 50 cents for every minute she had spent to send me a partial refund. How kind she is to me for saving me money on a lawyer. Sue has told me over and over again how her kindness has gone unappreciated. Boy! Is she really good at playing the victim here? (ummm, sorry but I think I am the one who lost money).
The WORST is allowing my daughter to have contact with Sue for over 18 months of lessons before realizing her true character and questionable sanity. Take this type of mind games over $ 84 and the countless emails into consideration. Her true colors really came out over this matter. I would NEVER again let such an unethical and morally questionable person come in contact with my children or family again. If this is how business is conducted, I can only imagine the manipulation that is being done during lessons.

As a young child, I was envious of other children who learned to play the piano. I yearned for the opportunity, but my parents didn’t have the resources. I was a classroom teacher for 37 years and a single mom who had no time to take lessons. When I retired, I saw a Living Social for EZ Piano. Some friends tried to discourage me by telling me I was too old to take lessons. Imagine my joy, when after only a few weeks, I had learned to read music. I have been playing ever since.
Sue is a wonderful teacher. She is knowledgeable, patient, skilled, and encouraging. I may never been the best piano player, but I can sit down at my keyboard, open a book, and play most things independently. I have been taking lessons with Sue for three years, and I highly encourage everyone (parents, adults, seniors, children) who wish to learn to play piano to sign up with EZ Piano.
In addition, one of the best parts about taking lessons is flexibility. I travel a great deal, so I use the «pay as you go» option. This enables me to schedule lessons on-​line when it is convenient, and I am ready. No pressure is involved. I can go in for a single lesson without worry about a future commitment.

I am big fan of Ms. Sue. She is very dedicated, helpful, and expert in Piano. My daughter is kind of lazy and with poor concentration, but the way she was teaching her helped her a lot improving concentration. She is very frank and fair about your kids progress in piano. I love the way she teaches Piano.
Thanks Ms. sue for being my daughter’s best piano teacher.

We came here from a Living Social deal. It was a very uncomfortable experience and was so glad when it was over. My daughter was so scared when Sue was teaching her. Heck, I was scared when she yelled at me for trying to help my daughter practice. I told her I didn’t know anything about pianos and did my best to help my daughter practice but she still yelled at me for interfering with her instructions. Yes, right in front of my daughter, she yelled at me. Not to mention I was 8 months pregnant at the time.
I told her this was purely temporary and I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the lessons once the baby was born. She disregarded everything I said and tried to make us sign an all money down 1 year contract. Talk about how bad can it get? All cash? 1 year contract? Ridiculous! The price was over $ 1000 for a year’s worth of piano lesson, all up front. No money back.
Also the studio was extremely hot over the summer and no air conditioning was available in the room. The lessons are given in a small stuffy room. I was thrilled when the lessons were over and so was my daughter. She was so happy that we weren’t going back. She didn’t want to give up on piano but wanted a different teacher.
I don’t give negative reviews much on Unilocal but this is something I can’t stand not warning others about. I’m not saying not to go here. The technique she uses is quite unique and it does make learning piano easier. However, I do not like how we were treated and hence this negative review. As this is Unilocal,I am giving my honest-​to-​Yelp feedback. Come what may.
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Update on what has happened since my review (7÷20÷2015):
As expected, I knew I was going to receive negative emails from Sue. The summary of the emails were that it’s my fault she treated me rudely. Then she requested that I remove my posting since she has clarified that it’s my fault I was mistreated. O. o
Then she goes and checks LivingSocial and wonders why I gave her a thumbs up on her LivingSocial deal. LivingSocial is not Unilocal.LivingSocial is a deal, did the deal work? Yes, the deal worked. Hence the thumbs up. Would I recommend it the deal? No.
Also why didn’t I leave a negative review right after my LivingSocial deal? Because there was no Unilocal entry for EZPiano back then. Now there is, hence my review.
She also added now there’s AC in her office. That’s great. There’s AC now.
She has also offered to redo the piano lessons because she doesn’t want unhappy customers. That’s really nice, but I never said there was anything wrong with the technique she offers. It’s the way the student and parent were treated that I have an issue with.
Lastly, she’s now asking all her current parents of her students to suddenly leave 5-​star reviews on Unilocal.Suspicious? You decide.
Anyhow, my review stands and hopefully Sue will realize she can’t justify being rude & disrespectful to a parent in front of their own kid. In addition, to scare a kid so she’s sweating through a lesson because she’s afraid she’ll be talked down to next … that’s just not appropriate.

We first started lessons with Teacher Sue back in 2007 when my daughter was just 3 years old and EZPiano studio was still in Alton, Irvine California. She is my daughter’s first ever piano teacher. We’ve moved to other piano teacher because of personal reasons but nothing really beats the dedication, the motivation, the skills, the passion and the fun Teacher Sue puts into learning piano with her.
Over the years, Teacher Sue have improved a lot for the better of EZPiano and her beloved students. She is always open to suggestions and will embrace any negative or positive criticism with a smile and an eagerness to improve her style as a teacher and as a mentor to the many young musicians that learn from her.
My daughter is currently on Level 5 piano and with our hard work and commitment and together with Teacher Sue’s expert guidance, my daughter will not have accomplished such great success.
The best things I love about EZPiano is that Teacher Sue makes it fun for my daughter, the flexibility in rescheduling makeup classes and of course, TEACHER SUE.

Great piano teacher! Very patient with kids and the most important she knows how to teach. Compared to other teachers, my kid learns a lot in 30 minutes, which make my money worth it.