Music Lessons Adelaide

About Novar Music Learning Centre

At Novar Music Learning Centre, we pride ourselves on offering a bespoke service to each of our musicians. We tailor our students’ learning experience to their specific educational needs, delivering individualised attention.

Novar Music Learning Centre has been teaching musicians for more than 17 years. During that time, experience has taught us that students always perform their best when they enjoy their learning. We provide our musicians with repertoire and technical tutelage that suits their needs.

People come to us for a variety of reasons. Some are striving for a professional career, others for pure enjoyment, and some use music in their life for improved mental health and general well-being.

No matter what our students choose to do with their music, we strive to nurture a fundamental, lifelong love of music in each of the musicians in the Novar Music family.

Our musicians are nurtured to develop a love of music and skills for a lifetime!

Novar Music Teaching Philosophies

We aim to educate the whole musician beyond
the mechanics of playing an instrument

The Novar Learning Centre Adelaide endorses the philosophy that learning music should be fun. We take a holistic approach to teaching music with the view that our musicians develop a lifelong love of the art. This is our guiding principle.

We also believe in the following philosophies:

  • Bespoke learning plans increase engagement. Individual tuition allows tailored learning opportunities and exciting outcomes for each musician
  • Music tuition includes developing skills in musical literacy, aural work, an understanding of musical contexts, different styles and music theory
  • Broader musical education enhances our understanding and enjoyment of music
  • Music should be an activity we enjoy for our whole life. Music tuition should equip each musician with the skills and knowledge necessary to accomplish this
  • Music technology is an effective means for us to discover and further enjoy music
  • Tuition should help enable musicians to successfully use available modern technology
  • Performance is a foundational music skill that nurtures confidence, self- believe, courage and presentation skills
  • Anyone can learn to play an instrument if they are prepared to work steadily at the task. Our Musicians benefit from family support in developing and reinforcing regular practice routines. This benefits the musician in achieving positive learning outcomes and allows the family to participate in their child’s development.

Connecting Through Performance

At the Novar Learning Centre we love our musicians to have performance opportunities. Music is a fun way to connect with our community and nurture performance skills. Each year our musicians have the opportunity to perform in a variety of settings. From Performance Parties for our five to twelve year olds to Music & Pizza nights for thirteen to fifteen year olds and Evening Soirees for  adults, we have events that will suit everyone. Throughout the year our performance opportunities include events for our adult students, exam performance panels, practice recitals and formal concert performances. 

We believe that learning to perform and shine on stage is a skill each musician can achieve. Soaring confidence and assured public presentation skills are some of the exciting benefits our musicians experience participating in our performance program. We meet each musician where they are at and nurture both their instrumental and performance skills.

About Carly McDonald – General Manager

For general manager Carly McDonald, Novar Music Learning Centre is a culmination of her business education and her lifelong passion for music. She has a strong desire to continuously develop her own skills, as well as those of her teachers, and she is inspired daily by her students and fellow teachers. Carly has been teaching music lessons in Adelaide since 2002, establishing Novar Music Learning Centre in 2005.

With two children of her own, Carly loves working with children and seeing them become increasingly confident as they explore and expand their musical capability. Seeing her students persist through challenges and learn new skills brings much job satisfaction. “I love seeing their little light bulbs go off as they believe in themselves that they can do it.”

Carly was on the board of the Music Teachers Association of South Australia and takes pride in organising professional development opportunities for music teachers in South Australia.

In her ‘spare’ time Carly has been a part of the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference organising committee in Adelaide, Co-Editor of the ‘I Want To Play That!‘ Piano Series, Editor of The Piano Teacher Magazine and a black belt in karate.