Education & Classes in Barrington

If you've never played an instrument, you're missing out on one of the most fulfilling human experiences: smashing your instrument. Actually, the most fulfilling experience is when you play something so beautiful that you lose yourself in the music. For you seasoned musicians, a brush up lesson at Page Music could improve your skills. Why, even Mozart took piano lessons late in his life to learn new techniques. Today's Groupon also makes a great gift for a talentless friend or relative. All ages are welcome at Page.

Professional bartenders teach in classrooms set up as fully functioning bars. The facilities present lifelike conditions for students to learn skills such as the proper shake and pour for a variety of cocktails, muddling raw ingredients, and getting the right amount of head on a draft beer. Courses also cover the technical elements of bartending, which may include setting up drink stations, understanding liquor laws and board-of-health requirements, and operating payment systems that accept both credit cards and gold ingots.

The Real School of Music bestows the gift of instrument-playing ability upon students with a variety of music lesson options. The week-long, all-day summer music program, Real Jams Academy (ages 10–19, $500 for five days), is complete with music lessons, songwriting, band-forming, and a live performance in front of families, friends, and fans (no experience necessary). Get private lessons (approximately $37 per week, with daily access to the facility) in the instrument of your choice (voice, guitar, bass, keyboard/piano, sax, drums, pork-rib-xylophone, etc.). Private students achieving intermediate proficiency are then invited to play in one of the school's RealBands. If you're not ready for private lessons, embrace education with your fellow students in a group lesson ($120 for six 45-minute lessons) to learn the basics. Baby Beethovens (five and under) can flourish under the RealKids Family Music program ($180 for nine 45-minute lessons).

Finally, you'll have a viable alternative to wooing potential romantic partners with a sousaphone serenade. For $137, today's side deal gets you five private, in-studio guitar lessons at Boston School of Guitar in Brookline (a $275 value for adults), including use of a guitar during your lessons. You may also choose to take home a rental guitar for additional practice (limited availability). Boston School of Guitar's private lessons are available seven days a week and typically last 45 minutes (30 for kids). All you'll need to bring to your lessons is a pick, some functional fingers, and maybe an iPod full of the music you'd like to learn.

With the decline of boomboxes and mixtapes, the lovelorn have discovered that blasting "In Your Eyes" from an iPod held aloft doesn't pack quite the same emotional punch. Today's Groupon gives crafty romantics a much-needed alternative medium for creatively professing love. For $20, you get $50 towards jewelry-making, sewing, or paper crafts classes at Abeille. If you're feeling especially inspired, you can buy two for $100 worth of do-it-yourself tutorials. Your Groupon can also be applied toward jewelry-making materials, even if you don't enroll in a class.

Since 1985, the FAA-certified team of pilots and instructors at East Coast Aero Club has shepherded citizens from Hanscom Field airport to the skies above Boston for sightseeing, introductory flights, and pilot-certification programs. The crew oversees a 35-aircraft-strong fleet composed of planes by Piper, Cessna, Cirrus, and Diamond, as well as helicopters by Robinson. The company’s entry-level educational program, Learn to Fly, matches pupils up with one of more than 25 certified flight instructors, who teach students how to read each craft's instruments and back issues of SkyMall.

But passengers don't just learn about flight; they also learn about the area around them. Scenic flights afford aerial views of the city, soaring from Hanscom Field over such sights as the Lexington battlefields, the Charles River, and the USS Constitution. Passengers can bring along cameras to capture the spectacular views and document any crop circles they spot in the outfield at Fenway Park.