Online Registration
- Register for Studio Lessons, the Afterschool Music Program, Saturday Music School or the Performance Workshop (August-May) here
- Register for Day Camps (K-5 grade) here
- Register for Atlanta Music High School here
- Register for 2024 Summer Performance Workshops (CMP Workshop, Studio 5, Strings Now, Piano 101 & more) here
- Register for CMC Atlanta GAP here
The Comprehensive Musicianship Program (or CMP) Courses and Workshops provide essential support for CMC Atlanta students. Time spent one-on-one or in small group classes taught by music theory, harmony, composition and improvisation specialists works in tandem with private lessons to foster musical understanding, skills, and ultimately, the framework for performance and creation.
CMP Overview
For each of our AMHS and GAP students, we develop a unique curriculum that meets the students needs and interests.
We cultivate genuine musicianship through CMP courses that first isolate individual musical parameters, and then put each new skill and concept back into a larger musical context. Currently, we offer courses for students in each Division and Department in four distinct but overlapping areas of musicianship, each of which is critical to being a creative, skilled, and literate musician. The four areas of focus are:
- Reading Music or Music Notation and Literacy
- Singing in time, in tune, and with sensitivity
- Harmony: understanding, feeling, hearing, and creating tonal relationships
- Rhythm: understanding, feeling, hearing, and creating rhythmic patterns and relationships
Regardless of stylistic interests, we teach students to read music. While there are valuable oral/aural musical traditions in which reading music does not play as critical a role, we believe reading music is a gateway for experiencing and expressing music across wider historical periods and more cultural practices than otherwise possible. We also encourage all students to sing, not necessarily like an operatic or rock star, but we think carrying a tune is a valuable and meaningful basic life skill. Plus, any accoplished instrumentalist will tell you that making an instrument sing is an essential aspect of virtuosity in many musical styles. Moving in control, and with direction and ease is another important skill in music and in life. We also support all students in cultivating their understanding of rhythmic notation and developing the skill to move well in drumming courses. At the CMC Atlanta, students learn the nuts and bolts of tonal relationships first in Notation class, then through Scale, Chord & Key, and finally through courses in Harmony, Improvisation, and Composition.
CMP Courses & Workshops
Most CMP Courses meet weekly for 12-14 week sessions during the Fall and Winter/Spring Terms. Elementary Division Courses usually meet weekly for 30-minutes; courses in other Divisions vary from 30 to 60 minutes in length. During the summer months, we synchronize courses for elementary students with our Day Camps for Kids, and courses meet more frequently for a shorter period of time (30 to 45 minute classes, daily for one or two weeks, for example).
While courses meet weekly, CMP Workshops are typically designed to be one to three days in duration, and they typically provide a targeted group of students and/or parents an opportunity to focus on a particular set of skills and/or concepts. Center faculty and guest instructors often share the teaching responsibilities in CMP Workshops. Workshops are scheduled on a rolling basis by individual faculty. Invitations and announcements are forwarded to Center students and the general public as events are planned.
AMHS & GAP Elements
- Studio Lessons
- Comprehensive Musicianship Program
- Performance and Music Projects
- Intern & Externships
Whether your interests are Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock, or American Folk & Roots music, traditional or experimental approaches, lessons with our faculty provide the means and the motivation for developing musical skills and understanding. When you arrive, if not before, we match you with the desired resource-- a great teacher-- and pair you up in an inspiring setting.
Options include:
Read MoreThe Comprehensive Musicianship Program (or CMP) Courses and Workshops provide essential support for CMC Atlanta students. Time spent one-on-one or in small group classes taught by music theory, harmony, composition and improvisation specialists works in tandem with private lessons to foster musical understanding, skills, and ultimately, the framework for performance and creation.
CMP Overview
For each of our AMHS and GAP students, we develop a unique curriculum that meets the students needs and interests.
Read More
Performance Program While some students study music with no performances in mind, most people take lessons and classes with the goal of developing the skills and confidence to play for others, either friends and family members or an appreciative audience, small or large. After all, who wants to be alone hour after hour in a practice room, taking lessons week after week, with no end, no purpose, no clear goals in sight?
Drawing on Studio Lesson and CMP Course & Workshop training, AMHS and Gap students form small ensembles of all kinds--
Read More
AMHS and GAP students are encouraged to work with CMC Atlanta faculty and administrators to take on an internship or externship. These arrangements are designed to meet the student's short and long term goals, and they can be either administrative or instructional in nature.
Internships are sometimes, but not always, available as an element of GAP and upper level; AMHS enrollment.
Read More-
Why AMHS? +
A creative musical output requires an approach that immerses the student in a community of practicing musicians and encourages the student to engage in a crucial set of activities with teachers and peers in a disciplined and ongoing way. The educational or (perhaps, put better) human goal of cultivating musical artistry and understanding drive the curriculum and schedule for individual students and the AMHS community. Because of the condensed academic schedule, the AMHS experience also provides balance and harmony between traditional academics and passionate pursuit of musical skills and authentic artistic personal expression. We think this balance and harmony are crucial for student happiness and success.
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Who is eligible? +
Since AMHS curriculum and schedules are designed on an individual basis, AMHS is suitable for students falling on a continuum from some experience to Pre-Professional levels of training. Since the program immerses the student in music performance, music education, and music outreach experiences, students who enroll should be passionate about music and in most cases have had at least a foundational education, whether formal or informal.
Students are divided by interest and skill level, so we are able to accommodate diverse skill levels without undermining the experience for advanced students or putting a less experienced student in an unnecessarily intimidating situation.
Atlanta Music High School is open to 9th-12th grade students. Atlanta Music High Prep is open to students grades 6-8.
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Where? +
AMHS is based primarily at CMC Little 5 Points; however, elements of AMHS (private lessons, rehearsals, personal practice space, or internships) can potentially be arranged at any of the four CMC Atlanta locations for interested students:
- CMC Brookhaven 1934 Cliff Valley Way NE, Suite A, Atlanta, GA 30329
- CMC Little 5 Points 1127 Colquitt Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30307
- CMC Decatur 189 Sams St, Suite B, Decatur, GA 30030
- CMC Dunwoody 5518 Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd Dunwoody, GA 30038
We also use a variety of community resources and local performance venues, as needed
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When? +
AMHS offers coursework year round:
- Fall Term: August - December
- Winter Term: January - May
- Optional Summer Term: June - July
Although we operate on a traditional academic term cycle, students may register and begin at any time pending an audition/interview.
Once a student enrolls at AMHS, we plan directly with the student and family to create an individually crafted schedule that accommodates the student's interests, goals, and academic coursework, regardless if the stduent is cross enrolled at Capstone Academy, another public or private school, or home schooled.
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What style of music? +
We offer training in
- Classical Music
- Jazz Music
- Rock and Pop Music, and
- American Folk & Roots Music
Traditional and experimental approaches within these fields are supported.
Students are not limited to a single genre or style. All students are taught to read and understand music using the terminology and conceptual frameworks used by professional musicians in these different styles.
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How much? +
Term tuition, music training only:
- August-December, $6000 paid in full or monthly installments
- January-May, $6000 paid in full or in monthly installments
- optional June-July Summer Term, $1200 paid in full or in monthly installments
Please note: there is an annual registration/enrollment fee of $350 per student; other fees and restrictions may apply. Tuition rates are subject to change with 60 days notice.
Tuition will be discounted for students who would like to enroll at AMHS, but would like to continue private lessons with an approved teacher who is not a member of the CMC Atlanta faculty.
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Student Jaz Trio Rehearses "Take Five" @CMCLittle 5 Points