Music Lessons in Churchland, VA

Instruments: Violin Viola Music

For beginning students, I typically teach using Hal Leonard's Essential Elements book and the Flesch Urstudien book. Every student is different. I treat my students as individuals and adjust my teaching style to achieve optimal results. The way you practice reflects on how much enjoyment you get from playing and how well you perform at recitals/auditions, etc… I spend a significant amount of time, especially with new students, on the art of practicing. Read More

Instruments: Piano

The bulk of my teaching experience comes from my college days where I taught secondary piano lessons to college undergraduates and children. My teaching style and methods were solidified in my graduate studies at Indiana University where I was an Associate Instructor of Piano. During this time, I taught group piano classes to music and non-music majors, private piano lessons to both graduate and undergraduate students, and worked as a counselor/practice coach for three summers at the prestigious piano summer festival Indiana University Piano Academy. Read More

Instruments: Drums Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion

I am a very strong believer in hands-on teaching. We will always warm up at the beginning of a lesson, and work on technique and basics. After, depending on your concentration and skill level, we could work on expanding your repertoire, or learning new grooves and rhythms. Read More

Instruments: Voice

I have been teaching voice since I was an undergraduate student, and now, almost 20 years later, I have a Doctorate in Vocal Performance and experience teaching private students ages 7 to senior citizen. I have taught every level of student, from beginning to professional, in a variety of styles, including pop, folk, musical theater, and opera. Read More

Instruments: Piano Music Keyboard

I create a lot of my teaching material my self, and I developed at Indiana University a reading method that emphasizes the similarities between the clefs and allows the student to have a global view of the staff. My lessons are very energetic and fast paced, I normally prefer if parents are present in lesson taking notes, and when possible, I even teach the parents before I teach the students, so we have a consistent learning environment at home as well. Read More

Instruments: Guitar

My main goal right off the bat for my students is to get them playing from the very first lesson, starting with basic chords, and even have them practice a simple riff or lick from a song that they might recognize. In my philosophy, because this is how I was taught, it is important to keep the student interested, having fun, while still learning the things that they may consider "boring." I do this by implementing songs that they may know, or songs that they want to learn, and use that to teach what chords the song is using, what scales it might be using, and from that, have them practice the song and chord or scale accordingly. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone Clarinet

My teaching experiences began in college as a sectional leader in my marching band. During my final semester of college I began working at a local music store as a private saxophone instructor. Later in 2006, I started also working with a local high school marching band. These were some of the happiest moments of my life as I got to watch my students grow in their music. Currently I am a band leader of a popular group called Furioso. Read More