Music Lessons in West Woodland, WA

Instruments: Voice

Guitar: For children, I begin with simple folk songs to teach them chords and strums. From there, we progress to picking patterns. For teens and adults, I use both folk songs and easy pop music. For both age groups, I encourage note reading and some classical work. For classical guitar, I use technique books by Aaron Shearer. Voice: I put a great deal of focus on breathing, open throat and support. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone Clarinet

I like to start by asking about a student about their prior experience (if any), interests and goals on their instrument. With my students, I generally start by tackling basics like healthy breathing and posture, producing good tone, note-reading, and rhythm. Depending on students interests, we may then gradually incorporate more advanced techniques such as playing by ear, learning longer, more complex classical or jazz pieces, music theory, and improvisation. Read More

Instruments: Drums Mallet Percussion

Proficiency in reading music is a top goal for my new students and we start to read music within the first few lessons. I balance working out of a book with listening exercises, playing along to songs and the occasional game or two. A typical 60 minute lesson run down: 5 minutes - check in from previous lesson and a warm up 15 minutes - beat/groove workshop - digging into a style and working on various drum beats in that style 10 minutes - technical piece that relates to the beats/grooves weve been working on and some exercises to improve technique 5 minutes - game or improvisation break, something to give our brains a rest 20 minutes - working on a song. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone

My experience as a teacher is very scarce but being a student for so long, I have been able to help others out during college while I was a student with how to approach practicing, utilizing what you learn in lessons to help reinforce great practicing and how to stay focused and motivated in the shed so you don't burn out or don't find joy in it. One thing I have learned being a personal trainer is to be able to make things fun so that we are engaged 100% of the time. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice French Horn Music

In the same genre, I have taught and coached pianists and pit players to adopt the nuances of musical theatre music. In the classical world, I have coached chamber music, solo and group improvisation, jazz combos, choral ensembles, solo vocalists, and piano soloists. When I was an undergraduate, I took courses in choral, woodwind, string, percussion, and brass pedagogy. I find teaching music to be an act of listening deeply and responding from my gut, my experience, and my heart. Read More

Instruments: Piano Trumpet Trombone

For beginning brass players I generally start out with Hal Leonard's Essential Elements series of books. After going through that, with some other material on the side, such as performance pieces, etc, they would progress to the Arban book (at around high school age for the student who began in sixth grade, as I did). For piano, I much prefer starting out with basic fundamentals, but not to any specific method, in contrast to brass. Read More

Instruments: Violin

I'm a passionate music educator who studied Violin Performance at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC before moving to the west coast. I have eight years of teaching experience with students aged 3 and up, and I have played in many orchestras such as the Northwest Symphony Orchestra where I am currently principal second violin, the Santa Cruz Symphony and San Francisco Academy orchestras in California, the Greenville Symphony and South Carolina Philharmonic in my home state, and numerous others. Read More