Music Lessons in San Gabriel, CA

Instruments: Voice Trumpet Saxophone Flute Clarinet Recorder

My teaching style is very much praxial and based off of skill reinforcement. For any instrument, I will incorporate the Kodaly method (solfege) of musicianship into the curriculum. For me, my goal is to teach the student how to learn for themselves. I focus on practice techniques, assessment of tone, sound, rhythms, pitches, etc. Rather than spoon feed all of the answers to the students, I wish to encourage each musician to develop their own critical mind towards the art that they create. Read More

Instruments: Guitar Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar

I like to create a very warm, encouraging, relaxed and positive atmosphere for all my students. My teaching style is very much student-led in terms of goals and preferences. While I will create a general plan for each student to reach their particular goals, I never see my lesson plans as these rigid constructs that must be stuck to closely, and a guitar lesson may shift gears right in the middle of the lesson if I feel a student needs to spend a bit of extra time on one skill or concept before moving on, or if I find the student has picked up something much more quickly than expected, and we can move on to the next thing, or if the student asks a question that leads us to dive a little deeper into one particular topic that wasn't necessarily on the plan. Read More

Instruments: Piano Drums Orchestral Percussion Conga

For young students who have never played before they are introduced to a fun and easy book called Hal Leonard's Drum Set Method. After a quick assessment I apply some adjustments to there playing and quickly assign some fun homework. Simply and effective for their style of playing. For adults, I asked them to play for me a few bars and drum patterns. I check their ability to read, improvise and how strong their "pocket "is. (i.e. Read More

Instruments: Trombone

As a Jazz Studies major at Cal State Northridge (CSUN), I placed in the college's Jazz "A" Band, which won 1st Place in its division at the Next Generation Monterery Jazz Festival. During my time at CSUN, I also began to write and record music for jazz big band. After finishing my undergraduate studies, I began playing my own songs and compositions at live music venues and was often hired to play on live television series. Read More

Instruments: Guitar Classical Guitar

I consider my role as an instructor as one where I give the students information that they can't (or at least it would be very difficult) to learn on their own. I focus a lot on proper technique and reading notation for the guitar. I believe that the sooner a student no longer needs me to learn new pieces and grow artistically, the better I have done my job. My ultimate goal is to foster a deep love and appreciation for music, because I believe that at least in a small way this makes our world a better place. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Violin Cello Viola Trumpet Trombone Saxophone Flute Clarinet Recorder Fiddle French Horn Piccolo Oboe

I started teaching violin about 15 years ago. A few years later I started teaching viola and cello. When I got to CSULB I started learning all the band instruments. I did some coaching for several years at middle schools and high schools. After that I bought a lot a wind instruments and started to teach wind instruments privately. Playing and teaching each instrument is like entering a different world. Each instrument is special in its own way. Read More