Better World School of Music

My daughter began taking piano lessons when she was about 5 years old. Our instructor is Ms. Krystina, and she is great. She is very patient and relates to her students very well. We have enjoyed the past 3 – 4 years with the school and we highly recommend Better World School of Music

My daughter and I are both students of Better World School of Music and we love the instructors, staff and their commitment to excellence. We had a disapointing experience before and were justifiably concerned. To our delight, it was so great, my daughter came out of her first lesson smiling and asking for more time. We highly recommend this music school!

My daughter has been taking lessons now for about 1 ½ years. She enjoys the lessons and loves her teacher Wendy. She is amazing me on how well she is playing and I attributed this to her enjoyment of playing the piano as well as her teacher. Recently she participated in the recital and all the children did well. Loved the intimate setting. If I get some time in the future I plan to take singing lessons there.

Nearly a year ago, my wife and I were exploring options to put our 5 y.o. daughter in some kind of activity that she may enjoy. We had put her in Ballet and swimming previously only to see our daughter’s interest dwindle. Then we decided that we would give music a try …
Using Unilocal reviews, we explored Better World School of Music and explained our situation. We were advised by Janice that Piano would be the best to start for our daughter to see how she would do. Because of our availability, we were assigned to Ms. Christina. As luck would have it, Ms. Christina was the most wonderful person we could have asked for. She is very children-​friendly, very easy to talk to and very caring toward the children. My daughter always look forward to her lessons every week. Aside from being so personable, Ms. Christina is a great teacher as evidenced by my daughter’s growth in her piano abilities.
Neither my wife nor myself are musically in tuned … but just seeing how enthusiastic my daughter was to play piano on her own at home was a testament to how she was taught to «love» music. After one year of piano lessons, my daughter can learn to play piano just by listening to some music. My daughter is far from being «the professional» but seeing her enjoy playing piano is a wonderful sight to us.
6 months ago, we relocated to Fairfield. But because our daughter enjoyed learning piano lessons from Ms. Christina, we make an effort to travel to Hayward (45 — 50 min away) on Saturday each week for her lessons.
I would highly recommend Ms. Christina as a teacher and Better World School of Music as the facility for their professional service and wonderful teachers.

Despite the fact that I’d been singing nearly 20 years, taking lessons here changed my life!
After so many years of singing karaōke and performing with live bands you’d think when it came to singing that I knew what I was doing, but I didn’t. I didn’t understand why after some live shows I’d lose my voice and after other shows my voice was fine. There were great inconsistencies in my abilities as a vocalist that were becoming more noticeable. So about 2 years ago I reached out to Better World School of Music for help. I explained in an email that I was an adult self taught singer but that I desperately needed to learn how to sing correctly. Within a day I got a call back from the director, Kathy. She’d listened to a few of my Youtube cover videos and said she was definitely interested in working with me! Kathy made my vocal lessons so much fun! She’s passionate, and funny, and present during lesson time. One of my biggest concerns about taking lessons was the embarrassment I’d have to go through in exposing my vocal weaknesses. Kathy was incredibly kind and supportive in such a way that she made it OK for me to share my vocal struggles with her. I had many bad vocal habits to unlearn before I could increase my vocal consistency. She helped me to hear my voice differently. She constantly encouraged me and assured me that I could get better. Kathy is an amazing vocal instructor! Hands down taking vocal lessons with Kathy was one of the best decisions of my life.
I practiced my singing 4 – 7 days a week and eventually my high notes became easy and consistent… no more unexpected cracking! I got more power in my low notes and better pitch as I learned to lift the soft palate to keep from sounding just «a hair flat». I feel it’s also important to note that Kathy encouraged me to continue with the signature color and style I had already created for myself and not try to sound like every other singer.
At the end of my first year I was invited to perform at the Better World School of Music Adult Lounge Night along with other hand selected talent.
It was then that I got a chance to meet other instructors and other students both young and old. Some performers had been learning their instrument for months while others had been studying for years. Everyone was so nice. It wasn’t about attitude or egos, instead just a genuine sense of all around good will and sharing of each person’s talent.
Hear for yourself…
In 2011, three years before I took vocal lessons I recorded Glycerine (Bush) cover song …
I started vocal lessons with Kathy in 2014 and after about a year of training I recorded that same song, Glycerine (Bush) cover song in 2015. Hear the difference…

Excellent customer service. The front desk lady, Janice, is super nice, friendly and very accommodating. My mom enrolled me for a trial session before putting me in the actual voice lessons because she wants to see how it is. I cant wait and I’m so excited!

My kids have been taking piano here for about 6 months as I write this review. The teachers are great and they are very encouraging. The school gives the kids an option to perform their work at recitals. Note: If you do need to miss a class make sure to let them know early so you won’t be billed.

My 7 year old daughter takes piano lessons and the group song-​and-​dance class and has had great benefit from working with the teachers. The director, Kathy, and the office manager, Janice, are wonderful to work with also. I highly recommend this school for children’s musical development. I know they have advanced instruction available also but I have no experience with that.

Parents if you are looking for quality instruction for music and voice, this is the place to go. The staff is great. They work very patiently with their students helping them succeed in their musical activity. My grand daughter loves going to her voice lessons. She is blossoming! Thank you to the wonderful instructors at Better World School of Music! Keep up the great work!

My (two) sons both took music lessons at the school for about two years and I have been taking lessons as well for the past year. The administrators are fantastic (Janice and Kathy); very committed to the learner’s experience, flexible, professional, talented and a delight to be around. The teachers are accomplished, passionate and reliable; amazingly talented yet humble. To give you a sense of how pleased we are with the school, even after we moved nearly an hour away a year ago, I still make the trip every week because it’s worth it. The school really is a gem and I am so glad we found it.

My daughter has been taking voice lessons for about a year now, and she really enjoys them. I’m pleased with how all the teachers/​staff/​owner interact with everyone there. My daughter performed in her first recital and it was a positive experience for a shy singer. :) I love how the recitals are broken up into hour blocks so that the recital is small and intimate.

My 8 year old daughter has been studying trumpet at BWSM with Steve for about 2 years. She LOVES learning trumpet and loves learning from Steve. She is motivated to learn, and is willing to practice every night for 45 minutes because she knows that’s what she needs to do to keep going to lessons. :-) And, all that practicing and good teaching is paying off — we’re very pleased with her progress so far. All the staff at the school are so encouraging and professional; it’s a lot of fun just to go there each week and hear all the students playing and learning. And, the recitals are wonderful — 3 times a year at no extra charge, students have a chance to perform and families can listen to all levels of hard-​working students giving it their best. Prices are reasonable, as are make-​up and vacation policies. So glad we found BWSM, we’ll be there for a long time.

Both my young boys take piano lessons here with Ms. Kristina and we have been pleased from day one. She works on their level and both are excited with the pieces she puts together for them. I am also pleased with the recitals. They run in one hour increments and then another group starts, so you do not have to sit around all evening waiting for your turn.
The entire staff is naturally welcoming and warm spirited and love music! The owner has so much passion for her art and also works well with children. They love her :)
We were recommended by friends who spoke highly of BWS and I would recommend them as well based on our experience.
Lee

Littlest M has the music in her. She sings all the time, and I love to listen to it.
While Mr. M had many years of piano as a youth, I have absolutely no musical training or talents. I’m the person who lip-​syncs Happy Birthday because I’m embarrassed at my inability to carry a tune.
So when Littlest M wanted to learn piano, we asked around and brought her here based on friends’ recommendations. Under Emily’s tutelage, she progressed quite nicely. We liked the facility, and Janice at the front desk is a ray of sunshine.
Eventually, M decided to take a break from piano, which is pretty normal for her. She flits from one passion to the next, none lasting too long (except swimming). But then the following year, she wanted to get some voice training, to gain confidence in singing «Let it Go» in a talent show.
M has some natural talent and showmanship, and she started working with Wendy. I like the way Wendy works with M, engaging her interests in pop music as well as teaching the fundamentals. M did perform «Let it Go» in a small talent show, to an enthusiastic audience. She continues to do well and just had her first voice recital, singing the Dumbo lullaby «Baby of Mine». It was a simple little recital, but I enjoyed hearing the range of training from beginners to advanced. This particular recital included piano, voice and drum students, which made for a nice variety.
Overall, Better World is a great place in Downtown Hayward to study music.

I started taking piano lessons again after being away for too long. Cheyenne is a great piano teacher, and the staff are wonderful to work with. It is great to have such a fine music school so close to home.
David

I must begin by quantifying that I have not actually studied with the school, because I chose not to work with them, for the following reasons…
On the positive side, a very nice young woman was happy to give me a tour of the school and the it is clearly well loved by the staff and owners. Each room is well appointed and lovingly decorated. That said, the building feels much like a maze with classrooms leading to more classrooms and hallways branching off in random directions. I was walked through a rehearsal on my tour, and I would be very uncomfortable having people walk through my rehearsal or class time.
When the tour was finished, we began to talk terms and I was very dissatisfied with the school’s business policies. I told them that I wanted to pay in advance for one month of weekly classes before deciding whether I would like to continue. They told me that was impossible. My choices were to either pay for a single class in cash, or to set up automatic monthly withdrawals. The woman told me a single month was not an option and I was surprised by how ridiculous she thought it sounded. I tried to schedule a single class, and was prepared to hand them cash, but then the woman said I would need to meet with a specific teacher who was not available during my hours of availability. Still, I was willing to try to make it work and told her I would see when I could make that schedule work and call to book my appointment. The woman told me I could not book over the phone as I would need to pay cash for the class. She honestly expected me to hand her cash, then leave the building without having scheduled any class. This baffled me, since they were perfectly willing to take my card for a monthly withdrawal, and how would I know they would honor my payment? In the end, I decided NOT to hand the woman cash on the spot without scheduling the class, and I walked out of the school with a foul taste in my mouth.
Again, I cannot speak to the teaching abilities of the instructors, but the business practices hardly seem convenient to their clientele.

Started my kids at Hayward Music Center a while ago, which I also reviewed, and after some disappointments with them almost pulled the plug on the boys’ music. I ran into this place on Unilocal,and decided to give it a shot and so far so good. It seems like a solidly run business, admistratively at least, and the instructors that my kids have had have done a good job of tailoring lessons to my kids’ strengths and needs– throttling the pace up for my gifted son, and keeping it interesting and manageable for my other little guy who is not as focused. The customer service here is lightyears ahead of Hayward Music Center, and the place has a genuinely inviting environment. Its clearly apparent that the owners have invested a lot of their money on building a quality place to learn music. The décor is personal, artsy and makes you want to sip tea and eat crumpets. lol. Some of the music rooms remind me of that directTV commercial where the Russian guy with a miniature giraffe says: «Opulence? I has it.» The lessons here are money well spent.

Ms Kathy is very sweet and talnted and great with the kids. The performance choir, which is some singing and some dancing is a very good start for kids interested in performing. Also the class is very affordable. We have been very happy here.

I agree with Michelle R. Mrs. Kathy (the school director) is amazing. Her teachers are great. My daughter, 10 years old, has been taking piano for 5 years and my son, 6 years old, has been learning for about 5 months. I just can’t believe my ears every time my daughter plays piano.
My son, who was not able to concentrate when he first started learning w/​Mrs. Kathy, is now able to play a short song and already reading notes. I almost cried of joy when I saw him practiced piano with the love to play and the patience. Thank you SO SO SO MUCH Mrs. Kathy. Your teaching has been making a big improvement in him.

Better World School of Music has been an amazing addition to the Hayward area.
Both of my children have taken music and dance classes with Ms. Kathy (the school Director). She was fantastic! The energy and patients that she shows with the children is outstanding (mind you this was a class of children ranging from 5 to 9… talk about short attention spans!)
Ms. Kathy provided a wide range of songs and dances from songs from Africa to show tunes.
It was truly a class that my kids couldn’t wait to go to each week.
I would HIGHLY recommended this school for anyone who is looking to expand their musical or dance horizons!