General
The first and most important policy you need to remember is my policy towards my students. I care about each one of you and really enjoy watching you progress. Even after all these years of training singers I still get excited when a student improves dramatically in any area of vocal technique. I thank God for each and every one of you and have made it a priority in my life to do everything I can to be the best teacher I can be at every session.

Parking
Please avoid parking in front of any of my neighbor’s residences. You can park in front of my residence if you like, but the easiest place for parking is on Phoenix just before you get to Pegasus. There’s lots of room and it’s a breeze to turn around and head out of Coto. Please don’t park in the driveway. My wife needs to park her car in the one available spot.

Lesson Scheduling
If you need to cancel or reschedule a booked lesson you can phone me directly at 949-382-5911, text, or email. If you don't get a response via email within a few hours please text. Texting is the rock-solid, easiest way to insure I get the message. If you need to cancel or reschedule a lesson please give me a 24 hour notice.

I try to be on time for every lesson, and I’m sure you do too, but if I ever start late or if you arrive late I’ll always give you a full hour (if there’s no one after you) or make it up by giving you a longer session next time. If I accidentally double- schedule two students and have to send someone home and it was my fault, whoever goes home gets a free hour the next time.

Payment
You can pay with cash, Zelle, Venmo or charge cards. Zelle or Venmo are preferred. All packages require payment through Zelle or Venmo. Payment for lessons/recording sessions can be either in advance or at the session.

If I start producing music for you I keep a log of everything I do which you can see at any time. I charge to the nearest quarter hour and try to end sessions on a quarter, half, or full hour.

Phone Calls
To keep from disrupting lessons, I typically don’t answer the phone when teaching. If you have anything you need to talk with me about on the day of your lesson please understand that no matter how many times you call you will not be able to reach me directly until I have a break.

Referrals
I really appreciate it any time you refer me to someone, directly or indirectly (from a video post). If you personally recommend me to someone and the person you talked to decides to train with me, I’ll give you a half hour lesson credit.

Billing
Although voice training is where we start, my services can include music production, video production, song selection, songwriting, song arranging, video editing and anything to do with creating or maintaining your online presence (website, YouTube channel, etc.). If it takes my time and I’m working on your behalf, it’s billable. I often teach my students how to play the music I write for them on guitar or piano. I keep an accurate log of what I do and charge my standard hourly rate for any time I spend working on your behalf.

Miscellaneous
If you have a scheduled lesson, you don’t have to knock or ring the doorbell. I can’t hear it from the studio with the door closed when I’m teaching or producing. It’s okay to come in. Open the studio door so I know you’re here and if

I’m still with someone you can relax in the waiting room while I wrap things up with the client before you.

The door into the studio from the hallway is designed to be an airtight fit into the door frame and soundproof. To accomplish this, it’s a tight fit. To open the door you need to push (from the hallway) or pull (from inside the studio) against the rubber soundproofing strips into the door frame and then turn the door knob.

I recommend students under the age of 18 be accompanied by their parents. Parents can wait in the waiting area or are welcome to sit in and observe the lesson.

Try to bring a bottle of water to each session. Don’t bring soft drinks or any other liquid for you or anyone accompanying you. Water is the beverage of choice for singers.

Songwork
The first requirement for doing a song with me is that you pick a song that you love. I usually recommend students to give me three to four song options by well known artists they would like to start with. Out of the three, one will likely make a perfect song to start with. First songs should be challenging but attainable. I like to start with songs that are loaded with stylish vocal tricks that I can teach you. We use the singer as a model to copy. Even if you write your own material it’s still a good idea to start out with a cover because I will be teaching you soooo many cool things to do with your voice using the cover singer to learn from. It really helps when you’re trying to develop your own style to learn tricks from other singers then apply them in your own way.

I’ll be showing you how to analyze a song and pick out what the singer is doing to make it sound stylish. If needed we can note everything on handwritten vocal worksheets. We typically go through the song one line at a time and record as many takes as are needed to get that line sounding perfect. Then we go to the next line. When finished I assemble all of your best takes into a composite master and that’s what you practice with. This process is very effective at becoming a great live singer. The act of doing lots of takes to get the good ones drills great vocal technique into your DNA and most singers end up being able to sing their songs live very close to as good as the studio version because they’ve learned so much about how to sing in the process. The recording process is a great tool for learning how to get really cool stylistic development.

Songwriting/Producing
Songwriting and producing music is a big part of what I do for my clients. In many cases my students write the lyrics and I write and produce the music. I have more than four decades of experience writing and arranging music in all genres.

If you need music recorded this can be as simple as a single piano track or a full mix with drums, bass, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards and other instruments. Clients often ask, “How long does it take to record the music and how much does it cost?” The answer is that it varies depending on the complexity of the song and how good you want it to sound. A general rule of thumb is that the more time I spend tweaking a guitar or keyboard part, or vocal, the better it sounds. This is why I charge by the hour for producing music. A song with beautifully edited vocals, tons of lush harmonies, live drums that are exquisitely edited with tastefully recorded acoustic and electric guitars, piano and keyboards will take many hours of my time to produce compared to just a few hours of production time required for a single lead vocal and one acoustic guitar or piano track.

Many of my clients are pursuing recording careers and want their songs to sound as good as anything that’s out there. This takes longer. Just let me know what quality you want and I’ll be happy to take your music to that level. I charge my standard hourly rate for recording, editing, and all music production. The cool thing about working with me is that I’ve produced hundreds of songs and have the ability to make your song rival anything you’ve heard on the radio or online by a famous artist. My students often tell me the music I produce for them sounds sonically better than anything they’ve ever heard.

Lately music production for a piano track including me playing and creating the arrangement has been running about 4 hours. Acoustic guitar tracks typically need to be doubled to sound best which means I need to play everything twice and pick takes that time align perfectly, and even after that the takes will need some time aligning to match really good. This can be time consuming if the finished product needs to sound perfect, so acoustic guitar tracks can take anywhere from 4-8 hours depending on the complexity of the song.

Pop songs with electric guitars, live drums and bass take between 20 and 30 hours of my time if you want good quality, and more time if the song is really complex or if you want more instruments. This is just for the music production, not including the vocals. Adding many layers of background harmonies can sound great but it takes more time and adds to the cost.

I play keys and guitars at a pro level and usually play all of the instruments except drums. Unless you play an instrument! Then of course we’ll get you playing on your tune. My drummer charges $300 for a drum session (Standard) and $400 if we’re shooting a video of him while he records. I’ve produced hundreds of songs, many of which you can check out at my YouTube channel in the playlist, by clicking here.

Photography/Video
For promoting your singing nothing beats a music video and I’ve shot hundreds of music videos in many differentstyles. My YouTube playlist “Music Produced By Thomas Appell AKA TEA’ is a good place to check out a lot of videos I’ve produced/directed. I have top of the line Blackmagic and Canon video cameras and typically shoot at or above 4K resolution. I do all of my own editing as well. There's a pro photo studio downstairs from the recording studio set up to take photos, headshots, or promo shots at the highest level of quality. I've done lots of pro shoots with cool looks that work great for promoting new artists. If you need a photo or music video let me know and I’ll be happy to take care of it for you. I charge my standard hourly rate for photo shoots, drive time to location shoots, sorting through takes to find the best photos, and all digital photo editing.