Anne R  
Instruments: Piano, Bass Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Country, Gospel, Musical Theater, Showtunes, Spirituals, Swing, Soul

My experience as a musician goes back to when I tinkered around on an organ as a young child, then continued when I started formal piano lessons. As an adult, I have performed on bass guitar in two bands and participated on an ongoing basis in church worship bands, which involves learning a new set of songs for every service. During college, I began as a music major and received further training on piano as well as took three semesters of music theory courses. I have continued to advance in my piano skills over the years and have taught piano to my children for the past six years. I am currently teaching piano to students ranging from teenage to adult, but I also love working with children.

For piano students: I love to get my students started with the fundamentals of music through hands-on experience with the piano. I want them to explore the instrument and get creative from the get-go! I also want them to understand that: - creating music is fun and easy - music can tell stories - music is more than pushing down keys—it is art, which involves dynamics, speed, feeling, etc. - music is made up of chords, patterns and melodies - music can be transposed into different keys At the first lesson, I show my students how to sit properly at the piano and use their arms, wrists and fingers correctly. Even before I assign written music or note-reading, my goal for beginners is that they would: - develop a good sense of time - be able to tap rhythm and keep a beat - be able to sing a song and keep a beat - be able to chant and play rhythmic patterns - know the names of all the white keys and be able to quickly find them - improvise on both black and white keys - be able to tell a story with music - know the difference between 3/4 and 4/4 time and also be able to explain and demonstrate their knowledge - understand the basics of harmony At the appropriate time, students will be assigned scales and exercises, and will also use lesson books suited to their age-level. Music theory will be taught both informally and formally. At first, though, musical concepts will be taught mainly within the context of direct experience with the piano (rather than through “bookwork”). At all stages, I strive to choose songs and styles of music that will be particularly interesting and motivating to individual students. Especially for younger kids, I include games and other activities to make learning as fun as possible. Students will learn to read music along with how to play with expression/dynamics, good voicing and articulation, use of pedal and so on. They can also work on solo pieces that would be appropriate for recital performances. For bass guitar, I would take a slightly different approach—it's less focused on learning songs from a book and more about learning the layout of the instrument (parts of the bass, how to tune, etc.) and good technique with some basic music theory.