Music Lessons in Rural Valley, PA

Instruments: Clarinet

For beginner students, I start with teaching them the foundational clarinet skills including: embouchure, breathing, tonguing, and music theory. I then proceed to teach them the chromatic and major scales as well as arpeggios. I typically have students start off with working through the Essential Elements for Band and Rubank books. Once the student has progressed to have a grasp of the fundamentals, I will begin to introduce solo repertoire appropriate for their first recital performance or audition piece. Read More

Instruments: Violin

I do a lot of demonstrations and use analogies from the realm of physics to describe the violin technique. I do focus on Musicality and musical phrasing. Read More

Instruments: Guitar Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

I meet with students for an introductory lesson. We discuss their goals. I suggest method books, online learning tools, and other strategies that they can use while they study and practice. During lessons, we review songs, techniques, theory, and other concepts that they are studying and need to improve on. In my experience, by providing a custom lesson plan, students can improve in the areas that they want to learn. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice

For young beginners, I like to use the Faber and Faber series. They do a wonderful job incorporating reading, listening, and writing into the curriculum. I also think creativity is a huge part of music. I love asking students to write their own songs. When I play their compositions on the piano, their reactions are priceless! For older beginners, advanced students, and voice students I use a similar approach but with supplemental materials. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone

As a teacher, I'm interested in more than just my students' success on the saxophone. I want to cultivate their understanding of music from all angles - to get them listening to new styles, learning the history, analyzing the pieces they play. I also want to ingrain habits that will help them in all areas of their life - setting achievable goals, developing discipline, respecting others, and loving to learn. Read More

Instruments: Piano

The two methods I typically use for young beginners are "The Music Tree" by Franicis Clark, and "Piano Adventures" by Faber and Faber. As the child progresses, I add supplemental materials and more advanced performance pieces that may be used for recitals. For adults, there are a variety of good methods that I draw from, taking their genre and style preferences in mind. Read More

Instruments: Cello

The passion for music took me all over the world, where I have been successfully teaching and performing. I have been teaching and mentoring my students for over twenty years now. I enjoy practicing and am happy to teach everything that I know, which is not only how to play the instrument, but also how to employ your knowledge in real life. You can hear me perform on local radio channels, and find some of my concert recordings on youtube. Read More