Piano Lessons in West River, MD

Instruments: Piano

If there's anything I've learned over the years as a piano teacher, it's that every student develops and progresses at his or her own pace. My job, if doing it well, is to work with them, at THEIR pace, while at the same time, encouraging and pushing them forward. Just as some baseball managers are regarded as a player's manager, I like to consider myself a student's coach. That is, a teacher who is in the student's corner, supporting them, encouraging them, believing in them, no matter how much they may struggle, or how many bumps in the road they may face along their musical journeys. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Clarinet Oboe

Playing music has been such a large part of my life, my goal is to try and cultivate that experience in my students. First and foremost, the student needs to enjoy themselves! How can someone make beautiful music if they do not enjoy music lessons? I believe that music can be learned by building one lesson on top of the other, so each lesson will have a specific, reachable goal in mind, which will usually build on what was worked on the previous lesson. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Saxophone Bass Guitar Organ Music Keyboard

Recently I was hired as piano instructor for Quartertonez Music, in Washington DC. Also, I have had experience teaching and studying music education under my high school mentor, renowned music teacher Tim Savage; I was his student-teacher for a semester course at St. Lawrence University. Additionally, throughout my experience as his music student, his teaching approach has infused music education and facilitation lessons within the musical instruction itself. My past teaching experience also includes being a Drill Instructor for the Italian Department at Vassar College for two years during my time as an undergrad (I not only "ran drills" for students who had already started learning the material, but also had to compensate in a variety of ways for the unsuccessful, dysfunctional, or half-hearted engagement that is typical in a foreign language class). Read More

Instruments: Piano Trumpet Saxophone Flute Synthesizer Music Keyboard

My methods are different for every student, but I always start with fundamentals. This includes scales, exercises to improve sound and intonation, reading, writing, improvisation, and most importantly listening. Depending on the path the student choses, some areas will be focused on more than others. I will often introduce more advanced concepts early if the student displays interest in them. I am not the kind of instructor who will say "play your etudes first and then we can talk about improvisation." I almost quit shortly after I started music because I had an instructor with that outlook. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar

For beginners, I use Alfred's books. They are very easy to understand. Alfred's Book Course are the most valuable books I have ever seen. I use Alfred's: lesson book, theory book, technique book, notespeller booke, and recital book. I usually make sure to include recital book as we are going to start our first recital this year. I also make sure that we alternate between lesson and technique book every lesson. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Bass Guitar Synthesizer Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar

For beginning piano students, I use a combination of books from Alfred's, Faber, John Thompson's. At the same time, I emphasize proper finger technique, shape, and position. For more advanced piano students I prefer exercises from Hanon, Czerny, and Bartk. For beginning guitar students, I prefer Mel Bay books. However, for guitar students I also use a much more individual and custom approach for learning how to get a good sound out of the guitar through proper hand position, finger placement and pressure, and string picking. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Keyboard Acoustic Guitar

I never want to pressure or overwhelm a student with too much information or expectation, because instead of the instruction being seen as a challenge, it is interpreted as an unenjoyable command, and that discourages the student from practicing to meet their goals, instead of motivating and inspiring them. What I find works best is relating lessons to popular current music, further exploring the bridge of dynamics that make up the songs that the student enjoys. Read More