CU Music Lessons

For beginning piano and guitar students, I use a graded lesson series such as those published by Alfred or Hal Leonard. For voice students, I will typically select songs from various genres (music theater, popular music, classical arias, etc.), depending on the student's skill level and interests, and work on technical aspects such as support and breath control as well as more interpretive aspects such as dynamics and phrasing. For ukulele students, we'll work on learning chords and how to finger them along with learning various strumming patterns.

Please arrive at your lesson exactly on time. Since I schedule back-to-back lessons, It is not possible for you to come earlier than your scheduled lesson time as you would be interrupting the previous student's lesson. Likewise, you cannot arrive late to your lesson and expect to get the full amount of time as there may be another student who comes directly after you.

Each of these plans offers students an opportunity to save money. If you want to pay for just a single lesson then the tuition for a 30-minute lesson is $30.00 and a 60-minute lesson is $60.00. Payment is due before or at the time of the lesson. With this plan, students pay for only three weeks of lessons in a month and they get the remaining weeks for free! In most months you will get one free lesson and in some months you will even get two free lessons (when there are five lesson days in the month).

You can pay your tuition online by selecting from the options below. Payment can be made using any credit/debit card or with a PayPal account. See the TUITION/PAYMENT POLICY page for more information on these rates.

I am everywhere! Since I am now teaching all of my music lessons online, I can teach you regardless of where you live! All you need is a computer, tablet or smartphone and we can connect using any video conferencing app such as Zoom, Skype or FaceTime.

My name is Ryan Neaveill (last name rhymes with level), and I have been teaching kids and adults of all ages for over twenty years.

After receiving my bachelors degree in music composition and theory in 1989 from Illinois Wesleyan University where I majored in piano and minored in voice, I taught for five years at the Morton Academy of Music in Morton, Illinois.

I moved to Champaign in 1994 and began composing and teaching in this wonderful community. I have adjudicated state music contests for Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA), conducted and directed numerous church music programs and, in recent years, have done masters level work at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, in the area of music ministry.

I am a published and award-winning composer, having been a recipient of the ASCAPlus Award for the past five straight years from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

By teaching lessons out of my own private studio, I can offer rates considerably more affordable than you will find at some of our local music stores and academies.