Music Lessons in Mcminnville, OR

Instruments: Piano Voice

I believe that every student is different, and that is important to understand each student’s passions and interests.  It is important to find out how each student learns, and to motivate him or her to improve, grow, and be passionate about music.  I do not want to only teach the notes on the page; I want to instill a lifelong love of music and a basic knowledge of music theory.  Learning the goals and aspirations of each of my students is very important to me, as I know that performing music should be about joy and self expression. Read More

Instruments: Piano

For those students who are children and are just starting out, I'll have them work through a lesson book that I find fit for them so they can grasp the fundamentals. Once they establish the fundamentals, I'll assign them solo repertoire so they can begin learning their own pieces. For older students, I'll find out what they are interested in learning and go from there. Some examples of a main focus for piano lessons may be to learn a specific genre of music, learn how to compose original music, or improve their technique in an existing realm of music. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Bass Guitar Ukulele

I've been teaching on and off for about 10 years, I enjoy helping students obtain their goals, whatever their age or skill level. I think it's important for guitarists to learn some basic music fundementals we can communicate with other improvisers outside of guitar-centric music. I am not against guitar tablature sites altogether, but I do believe that tablature can be more useful if it at least indicates the rhythms. I believe learning how to read and notate rhythms can help enrich and empower students and help them develop as performs, composers and teachers in their own right. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Flute Ukulele Recorder

In 2011, Chuck moved to Portland, Oregon from Gainesville, Florida, where he was a staple of the music teaching and performing community for more than 25 years. Originally from Chicago, Chuck completed his BA in Music History and a Masters of Music (MM) at the University of Florida. Chuck began piano lessons at age 12 at a time when The Beatles caught his attention. His first attempt at composing was actually improvising melodies over the ending chords to "Hey Jude". Read More

Instruments: Cello

For all beginning students, I start with the Suzuki books. They introduce new techniques in a comprehensible way that helps build upon fundamentals before progressing to more advanced techniques. After a bit with Suzuki, I like to add the Dotzauer etude book, which helps to focus on one technique per etude, building on what we learned earlier in Suzuki. Then, once the student’s musicality has developed a bit more, I add the first Bach Cello Suite: something recognizable, yet challenging and engaging. Read More

Instruments: Drums Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Conga Latin Percussion Djembe

I enjoy giving my students control over their own learning process at times. This means that I will sometimes provide them choices within the context of what I am trying to teach them. I also make lessons fun by performing duets with students to take a break from the daily material. I also emphasize site-reading in every lesson to develop this much-neglected skill. All of these techniques are designed to keep the student mentally engaged because it is only then that they will truly be learning as much as possible. Read More

Instruments: Piano

My teaching experience hoes back to when I went off to college, to Major in Piano Performance, at the age of 18. I did it then you be able to have a little extra money, but then I really started to love to teach music. I started out teaching just kids because I felt that's all I could do, but then when I was about 24 a man my age (at the time) asked if I'd reach him and I agreed. Read More