Music Lessons in Sunset Hills, NC

Instruments: Drums Orchestral Percussion

As far as my teaching style is concerned, I strongly believe in teaching one "how to fish," as opposed to just letting them eat for a day. I purposely introduce material and techniques that are outside of the student's playing ability early on, so as to push them exponentially past whatever they originally "thought" they could do. To some, this pedagogical approach may seem a little extreme, but in my 10+ years of teaching, I've found that every student that has decided to stick with this style has found themselves playing some of the very styles and techniques that they never thought possible before. Read More

Instruments: Drums Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Conga Latin Percussion Music Djembe

My teaching experience dates back to my freshman year of college in 2013. I began teaching snare drum and drum set to one private student. As time went on through my undergraduate studies, I had a studio of twenty lessons students. Coupled with private lessons, I gained experience teaching high school percussion ensembles and I was a percussion instructor for marching bands. In my graduate studies, I had the amazing opportunity to teach collegiate level percussion ensembles and private lessons. Read More

Instruments: Drums

I like to start out with extremely simple fundamentals which can then be seen in most every piece of music. Connections like that are important for any student. For younger students I heavily emphasize just having fun, and that every lesson they can go home and say 'look mom/dad at what I can do!' I believe that keeping students interested and focused on having fun while learning new material and techniques is the best strategy to ensure growth as a musician. Read More

Instruments: Trumpet

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a musician is seeing the development and growth of the next generation and their take on the music. That being said it is important that each student have a personalized style to fit the needs of the student. By setting goals and task to be practiced in between lessons I am encouraging students to push themselves and find passion and gratitude in their accomplishments. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone Flute Clarinet Piccolo Oboe English Horn

For beginning students, we will spend a good amount of the first few lessons in developing core fundamentals. Once we have a solid foundation, I will start to add in some exercises. I work out of many books to expose my students to different methods of playing. For more advanced students, I will work with them on developing more characteristic sounds. We will also dive into deeper topics such as tone color, articulation style, and period specific styles. Read More

Instruments: Clarinet

I let my students set their own goals from a list of basic/intermediate goals I come up with that may be good for them to improve on or learn for future sucess. I let them set their own pace and never let them get discourage or be hard on themselves. Music is fun! It should never be something a student feels is a burden or something they no longer want to do simply because it may take them a little longer to pick up on. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice

As I get to know my students I will learn better how to teach them. Some people respond best to big challenges, some people learn best with baby steps. Either way it is so important to take time and look back to see how much you have grown, and to celebrate both large and small milestones. Learning something new is a crazy amount of work, so it's important that you enjoy it. Read More