Piano Lessons in Keizer, OR

Instruments: Piano Violin Viola Fiddle

Festivals include International Celtic Colours Festival, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia;International Festival-Institute at Round Top, Texas; Aspen Music Festival and School, Colorado. Performance experience includes: Miami Symphony Orchestra, Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra, Chehalem Symphony Orchestra, Cape Breton Chamber Orchestra, Lafayette Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Reno Symphony Orchestra, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Newport Oregon Chamber Orchestra. Teaching experience includes: Miami Dade College, George Fox University, Davis & Elkins College, Indiana University, University of Nevada. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Bass Guitar Ukulele Conga Music Keyboard Electric Guitar Djembe Acoustic Guitar

I am a driven and passionate instructor who focuses on students' artistic and personal growth as musicians. I began my musical journey as a singer, moving towards piano and guitar throughout my formative years. In high school, I performed as a choral singer, musical theatre artist, and as a pianist for both jazz groups and worship settings. While an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, I studied tenor voice with renowned operatist John De Haan and piano performance with Jamaican pianist Paul Shaw. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Clarinet

There are lots of great teaching tools and methods available, and once I have an understanding of a student's current ability level and what they want to work on, I can make recommendations. For wind players, Essential Elements provides a good way to get started on an instrument. I look for ways to incorporate different styles of music from classical to jazz to pop music in addition to the important fundamentals you will learn from a method book. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Bass Guitar Ukulele

I generally split lessons into three sections, 1/3 with chords, 1/3 scales, 1/3 with songs, but every student is different, for example, If your goal is to strictly learn chords to sing folks songs over, I will emphasize more chord reading and learning time. If you want to play leads, I will spend more time emphasizing scales to help you learn how to improvise. There are also other excercises we can do like rhythm reading (just with clapping, no instrument) transcription/listening, and harmonic analysis. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice Synthesizer Keyboard

I started learning piano as a child, but it was in high school that I realized I really wanted to pursue playing keyboards, because it allowed me a way to express myself. I later attended Mt. Hood Community College, famous for its jazz program, where I played keyboards and sang in select choirs and vocal jazz groups. After graduating, I directed the college Gospel Ensemble for two years before working full-time at a large local church, where I was Music Director, a worship leader, and keyboardist. Read More

Instruments: Piano

For those students who are children and are just starting out, I'll have them work through a lesson book that I find fit for them so they can grasp the fundamentals. Once they establish the fundamentals, I'll assign them solo repertoire so they can begin learning their own pieces. For older students, I'll find out what they are interested in learning and go from there. Some examples of a main focus for piano lessons may be to learn a specific genre of music, learn how to compose original music, or improve their technique in an existing realm of music. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Synthesizer

For beginning students, I have used Hal Leonard's Essential Elements as well as Nancy Faber's Adventures series. For piano students, I like to use Hanon exercises to develop not only necessary musculature but also disciplined use of a metronome for practicing. For students interested in exploring music theory and/or jazz, I use the Real Book combined with my own materials explaining the theory around chord symbols, chord scales, modes, and the like. Read More