Piano Lessons in Danbury, CT

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Clarinet

What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
If you are a beginner, frequency is key! 10 minutes a day is better than an hour on Saturday and Sunday. If you are more advanced and don't have a problem sitting down to practice for 2-3 hours, my advice is take a break! You need to practice until you start to hit a well. Put pressure on the wall, but then go grab a coffee or take a five minute walk. There is nothing more likely to create bad habits than trying to force your way through that wall for another hour. Just take a break and come back with a fresh head. But to all my students, practice must be creative, because music is an inherently creative thing. Even if you're just working on a scale, be creative in how you approach that scale. And always... stop practicing what you're good at.

How do I know if my child is ready to start lessons?
This is sort of a cliche by now, but music really is a language of its own. So theoretically, your child can start taking music lessons once they start developing language skills. This is more easily done on piano or percussion instruments which won't provide the same physical hindrances to a 3 year old that a saxophone would. But really the most important thing is to make sure that your child is engaged creatively. If they aren't, maybe the teacher isn't working out. Maybe the instrument isn't a good fit. Whatever the situation, keep tabs on your child's progress and level of enjoyment—without being overbearing of course—and adjust accordingly.

When will I start to see results?
Working with me, you should definitely see results in the first month, even if the only result is increased enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm, any technical progress on the instrument is progress made on borrowed time. If the student is putting in practice time without the necessary desire to improve, they are likely building up a resentment toward practicing and taking lessons in the first place. Once a student is excited about improving, which is my only goal at the start, he or she will improve, regardless their level of experience, prior musical training, or natural aptitude.

Did you have a teacher that inspired you to go into music? How did they inspire you?
David Schumacher was my first saxophone teacher, and to this day is the strongest musical influence in my life. He is equivalent to the musical 'voice inside my head,' urging me toward what I hope to be the right decisions in my life of music. He would never raise his voice or get angry. Any stress or anxiety I might feel in a lesson was out of guilt that I hadn't practiced as he expected of me, that I hadn't held up my end of the bargain. The fear of disappointment replaced the fear of anger or discipline. But far more palpable than fear in lessons with Schumacher was just a sheer love of music and an assurance that the art form will always be passed along down generations because it has to be.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
I wanted to play the saxophone at the age of 4 because an older family friend who was 9 at the time started playing it in beginning band, and I thought he was one of the coolest kids ever. So when I turned 9, it was inevitable that I'd also play the sax in beginning band. That's really the only reason I chose to play the it. The rest of my career with the instrument is just a series of good teachers and good decisions that made it more or less the centerpiece of my life. It could be that I'm somehow better suited for a different instrument or a different life style but, really, who cares? I have no objections to the life choice that I made at the age of 4.

What musical accomplishments are you most proud of?
I'm extremely proud of the three awards that Bard College gave me while I studied there. I think they accurately reflect a lot of really hard work that I put in to improve. But I'm most proud of my final concert as a second semester senior at Bard, which is harder to describe succinctly in resume-format. But for this concert I wrote an hour's worth of original material based on a book I read by late 20th century psychologist, Julian Jaynes. I wanted the concert to be one cohesive piece of music that really took the listener on some kind of journey. I feel that I was really successful in doing so. It is the most difficult project I've undertaken to date.

What do you think is the hardest thing to master on your instrument?
The hardest thing to master on the saxophone is probably the tone. Out of the gates, we know that everybody's tone is going to be different because one of the resonators of the saxophone is your own mouth and throat. So two people playing the exact same horn with all the same equipment will still sound different. To add to the conundrum, even after you've developed really good embouchure and breathing habits and feel like you're getting an authentic sound, there are still myriad mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds, even saxophone necks which you can mix and match, every combination giving you a different sound. So it's tough to know what to change if you want your tone to change. Do you need to refine your technique? Do you need different equipment? Possibly both.

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