Education & Classes in Scottsdale

Group classes at Amy K Music Company fuse fugue fundamentals, such as theory and technique, with the fun of learning a popular song. Sporting bachelor's degrees and the chops to recite the Pledge of Allegiance on guitar and talk box, tune gurus impart their knowledge sans distortion to beginning and intermediate students ages 5 and older. Weekly one-hour classes for plucky portables require students to tote their own guitar or bass, but the studio does provide equipment for voice, keyboard, theory, and stage-pyrotechnics training. Guitar sessions convey basic for proper hand placement, strum rhythms, and facial contortions during solos, and music-theory lessons demystify major and minor keys, chord building, and scales from do to do and back again.

Arizona Music Academy is staffed with a conga line of talented virtuosos ready and waiting to implant heads with nuggets of musical knowledge. A four-day musical summer camp is a chance to escape the blistering heat of the day and spend hours learning or honing a skill instead of bursting into flames from the sun. Choose to percuss it up with drum instruction, pluck the strings of a guitar with increasing accuracy, or make liberal use of the instrument inside your throat box. Options include rock-guitar and drum camp, with sections for beginners (June 14–17, June 21–24, and July 19–22) and intermediate/advanced students (July 12–15); classical-guitar and hand-drum camp (June 28–July 1); and voice camp, which includes a Taylor Swift week for actual youth or the young at ear (June 14–17) and musical-theater week (July 12–15), featuring music from Glee, Hairspray, and more. Classes run from 10 a.m. to 12 or 12:30 p.m., depending on the type of class.

Conductor Clyde Baker has spent a career taking high-school and college ensembles all the way to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Along with a team of seasoned dancers, actors, and musicians, he prepares kids aged 4–18 for success on stage and in the orchestra pit.

The school inhabits a handsome flagstone-and-stucco home base designed to produce a single harmonious chord in the event of windstorms. Within its specialized spaces, tots stretch on the hardwood floors of giant dance studios and casts of triple-threats put on shows for their ardent fans on colorful sets.

The certified divers at Ultimate Dive and Travel draw on years of experience to help students gain scuba-diving certification with and underwater savvy. Certification courses include classroom instruction, where students glean diving basics through textbooks, DVD lessons, and in-depth interviews with retired manta rays. Pool sessions help familiarize pupils with their equipment within the security and comfort of a swimming pool. The final legs of the course come with open dives at Lake Pleasant, where participants earn their open-water certification. Ultimate Dive and Travel is also an authorized dealer of subaqueous gear from brands such as Scuba Pro, Oceanic, Henderson, and Atomic Aquatic.