Piano Lessons in Laverock, PA

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet Keyboard

While my lessons are catered to each individual student, each follows a general curriculum that I have developed over the years through teaching. Method books are a great structured way to quickly get confident on an instrument, however they don't often encourage listening skills or creativity. This is why I structure my lessons around particular method books like Rubank or Faber while providing additional pieces, exercises, and improvising to supplement the book. Read More

Instruments: Piano

I have been teaching for 36 years, and I love when students have fun at their lesson and are excited about their pieces. In my experience I find every student learns differently, and so I have developed various approaches to solve a wide assortment of technical problems. I have expertise in correcting those habits and problems that frustrate students and lead to performance issues. I work well and have successfully taught children diagnosed with emotional and behavioral difficulties like ADHD and anxiety disorders. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Drums Music Keyboard Electric Guitar

For beginner students, I often begin with the foundations of the instrument. For drums, we would be practice the rhythmic subdivisions (quarter, eighth, sixteenth notes) and slowly work them into grooves that they can easily start to pick out of their favorite songs. When the fundamentals have been established, we can learn more advanced grooves, dissect songs together, and learn how to improvise and write our own drum parts. My biggest focus as a teacher is to help the student discover the music that they want to learn and make so that they can develop their own unique voice. Read More

Instruments: Piano Flute

For Beginners who are just learning how to read music, I usually start off with Faber's method, there is a version for adults as well as children. This seems to progress at a very suitable speed, comfortable yet still challenging, and has proved to be quite effective in getting basics down. Once my students have become familiar with the fundamentals in these books, I move them on to repertoire according to their individual goals or needs. Read More

Instruments: Piano Organ Keyboard

When I teach beginning students who are children, I start with the Bastien Piano Basics or Alfred Basic Piano.  This way, I make sure that my students learn and understand the fundamentals and basics of piano and music.  After they learn from several levels of these method books, I introduce easy pieces by classical composers from Easy Piano Classics by Bastien or Easy Piano Classics edited by Agay, followed by Sonatinas by Clementi, Kuhnau, Haydn, and Mozart. Read More

Instruments: Piano Flute

I use the following method books, depending on the age and ability of the student: Alfred, Bastian and John Thompson. For younger students (under eight years old) I usually use the Alfred all in one book.. for older children, I use the Bastian set of four books: piano performance, technic and theory. For adults and teenagers, I use the Alfred all in one adult method book. For gifted students, I use the John Thompson book (the one I learned from). Read More