Individual Lessons   Group Improvisation    Group Ensemble
   Instrument Hire   Concerts   Books  

Individual Lessons

IMA offers individual lessons to teach you to play Guitar, Voice, Keyboard, Bass Guitar, Drums, Sax, Flute, Clarinet, Trumpet, Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass. Not all instruments are available at all locations. Your first free lesson is essentially an interview where we take half an hour to get to know you, what music you like to listen to, what sort of music you would like to learn to play and where you would like to play it.

We'll also discuss what topics we'll cover in the coming weeks lessons and give you an idea of how much practise you'll need to do to learn to play the music you love. Your lessons can cover a variety of topics, including learning physical technique, mental technique, improvising, writing, transcription and of course, playing music that you love.

If you'd like to book your first free lesson click here.

Group Improvisation

Improvisation can be a bit of a scary concept. Standing in front of an audience with no idea of what you're going to play can be intimidating... even for professional musicians.

Luckily improvisation is actually simple when you learn what to do first.

Learning improvisation in a group situation is a cost effective way to learn the tips and tricks of improvisation.

Lessons are 2 hours long and conducted with other players at your level of improvisation ability. They are provided to current IMA clients as an addition to regular individual lessons. You do need to be able to play your instrument to a basic level to take part in these lessons but just ask your Mentor if you're ready... you might be ready to learn improvisation sooner than you thought.

If you're interested in group improvisation classes click here.

Group Ensemble

Group Ensemble lessons will be introduced in 2008.

One of the great joys of playing music is to learn to play with other people.

The Group Ensemble lessons aim to join you up with other clients at IMA who share your musical tastes and your level of ability to learn to play music together.

The lessons are essentially a facilitated band rehearsal. A member of IMA staff will help you choose appropriate material to play, then keep your rehearsals on track with their years of bandroom experience.

You can of course rehearse and play as a band as much as you want outside of class time, and when you're ready you can play at one of our biannual concerts.

Group Ensemble lessons tie in with your Individual lessons (your Mentor can help you to learn your parts) and they are a great way to stay inspired and excited about learning to play music.

If you're interested in Group Ensemble classes click here.

Instrument Hire

Instrument Hire is available for some instruments for lessons at our Bowen Hills store. This is to help clients where transport of instruments is a problem, but they still want to learn to play. (Instrument Hire is free for piano and drum lessons and amplifiers/P.A. systems are provided for appropriate lessons for free).

If you're interested in Instrument Hire click here.

Concerts

IMA holds 2 biannual concerts for under and over 18 year old clients.

At the concert you play with members of IMA staff as your band. The concerts aren't open to the general public so you know that your audience (the other clients who are playing and your family and friends) will be supportive!

You and your Mentor choose a piece to play that you can learn in your lesson and have some fun learning to play. The rest of the band learns their parts and off you go! The concerts are held (where possible) at real venues (licensed for the over 18s) and rehearsal opportunities are available.

The concerts are a great opportunity to get up in front of a sympathetic audience with a great band and get a feel for playing live music.

You'll learn more in 5 minutes on stage than you will in weeks of lessons!

If you're interested in IMA's Concerts click here.

Books

Over the years, we've come across a number of books that have helped our own playing and have taught us invaluable lessons which then influenced the philosophies of IMA.

We're very pleased to be able to make these books easily available to clients of IMA so they can learn from them too.

Have a browse of the titles and subjects below and click on covers for more information.