Education & Classes in Littleton

With the mix of high-mountain air; private, personal instruction from real musicians; and professional-quality instruments and equipment, your kids will be shaking the walls before long. In addition to weekly 45-minute private lessons, a month's tuition also includes a weekly 90-minute to three-hour supervised rehearsal (depending on the student's skill level and the group he or she decides to join) with other students and all the glittery, sequined clothes you can safely gaze upon.

Open Media Foundation's staffers skillfully craft websites, edit videos, and capture studio broadcasts, but they don't work in a high-rise office building or inside a film-production studio. Instead, they use their tech savvy to help Denver community members to turn up the volume on their own stories. In addition to designing websites, producing videos, and providing other media services, the staff runs small-size classes to teach the fundamentals of video production, animation, and audio production to students hungry for the knowledge. The foundation also arms its protégés and members with high-tech hardware, such as video cameras, editing systems, and discreet teleprompters, to make professional-grade projects more accessible.:

"I basically live, eat, and breathe music," says Strum & Sip owner Christopher Bloom. A 27-year veteran guitar player, Bloom already had 15 years of teaching experience and his own production studio when he had the idea to open Strum & Sip with some friends. Setting up shop at local watering holes, the guitar virtuosos cultivate a laid-back ambiance where students can sip wine while teaching their fingers new chord shapes or plucking patterns and learning songs to serenade people at a family gathering or congressional filibusters.

Captain James Cook's nautical adventures have taken him from delivering yachts across oceans using only sextant navigation to earning the ASA's most-advanced instruction certification. Since 1986, he's channeled that oceanic expertise into Victoria Sailing School, where expert instructors help students of all skill levels earn ASA certifications and endorsements through hands-on techniques.

Before they set foot on a boat, however, aspiring seafarers get their feet wet in a safe classroom setting in the Colorado Executive Club Building. Upon passing their exams, they move on to practical sessions on the Cherry Creek, Lake Carter, or Chatfield Reservoirs, where they learn basic maneuvers or rig spinnakers on a J/22. More advanced students cut their nautical teeth on a J/30.

Along with sailing courses, 10-week coastal- and celestial-navigation classes help guests master the skills necessary for steering a course through the open seas, including an ability to decipher longitude, latitude, and the shouted, arcane demands of the moon. Weather for the Mariner classes teach students to analyze weather maps and prep strategies to avoid hurricane hazards.