Music Lessons in Circle Pines, MN

Instruments: Voice

I begin with an assessment of the student that starts with the student explaining to me his or her background and personal goals/reasons for taking voice lessons. From there, I take the student through simple exercises where assess the students ability in the fundamentals of, postural alignment, breath support, resonance, articulation, and vowel constancy. Based on the students' ability I devise a regimen of vocal exercises designed to strengthen areas of weakness. Read More

Instruments: Trumpet

For the first couple lessons I try to gauge how advanced students are in their studies. From then on, I choose material that is feasible and challenging so that students grow accordingly. A lot of learning comes from persistence and practice, so that is a must when it comes to learning with me! I try to find out what motivates the student and what makes them so interested in trumpet and go off of that. Read More

Instruments: Voice Saxophone Clarinet

For students of all levels, I emphasize the fundamentals. No matter what style our focus is in, the development of scales, chord progressions, modes and technique patterns are universal. I incorporate solo literature early and often and work with the students to play the music that they listen to every day. We develop the students ear through weekly memorization of music the student enjoys on a daily basis. This allows us to branch into more advanced literature with a deeper understanding of what makes a style, a style. Read More

Instruments: Guitar Bass Guitar

I am a musician, songwriter, producer, and live sound engineer, but my biggest passion is sharing my knowledge of music with others. I graduated from the Minneapolis Media Institute with an associates degree in recording and live sound, and have been working as a freelance producer and songwriter in the Twin Cities. Music is my entire identity; whether I am producing or writing for work, or playing shows for fun, I am constantly either consuming or creating music. Read More

Instruments: Piano Keyboard

For beginners, I like to start with getting to know the keys and their patterns. There are 7 different white keys and 5 different black keys and once you figure out the pattern, it becomes easy to identify the keys on the piano. After that, I like to touch over basic music theory i.e. identifying sharps and flats, intervals, structures of scales, etc. I also like to teach my students how to read sheet music and flashcards (which I have) have helped a numerous amount of times with that. Read More

Instruments: Guitar

For beginng students i like to start with Hal Lenords guitar 1 book and progress from there. I like to start kids with reading notation and little melodies cause it will help them in the long run. As they progress we will move to more advanced methods. I also use books when teaching such as guitar 1 to 3 it helps students learn how to correctly play rhythms as well as read music notation. Read More