Joshua S
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Banjo, Music, Keyboard, Electric Guitar, Djembe, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, Electronic, Reggae, New Age, Punk
Joshua S
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Banjo, Music, Keyboard, Electric Guitar, Djembe, Acoustic Guitar
Styles:
Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, Electronic, Reggae, New Age, Punk
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 7-80
I spend a lot of time performing on various stages, playing guitar, banjo, and keyboards primarily. I love sharing what I know with others, and I especially love seeing someone I've taught succeed in their chosen path. I've taught young children how to collaborate musically, I've taught people to play the banjo, guitar, piano, and I've taught music classes to bigger groups. One thing I'm very proud of about myself is my ability to improvise and adapt my musicianship to what is required in a given opportunity. I've been able to succeed in projects ranging from classical to bluegrass to reggae to punk rock. I love sharing my perspective on how to effectively do this, as well as how to learn any given instrument.
I am a relatively new teacher! I've been a musician all my life, but only recently started teaching children and young adults how to play instruments or how to collaborate musically. I have found that teaching is an important part of being a musician, and I'm very excited to find new students. I would like to point out that while I haven't been a teacher by trade for all this time, I have spent a lot of time teaching other musicians songs or concepts that I've found useful. In collaborative situations, I find that the relationships between the musicians often take on a teacher/student dynamic, albeit not all the time.
As a teacher in the classroom, I focus on experiential methods such as giving students access to a variety of instruments in order to find where a student's preferences are, and what their natural talents are. I like to group students together and see how they can work together to accomplish a musical goal, such as performing a 30 second group composition. As a teacher of private students who hope to learn a specific instrument, or a specific set of pieces, I focus a lot on understanding the student as a person and as a musician. Often what works for one student will not work for another, and I like to be sure I'm teaching the student most effectively. As I begin to understand the student's musical goals and interests, I can develop a specific curriculum that I know will not bore them or lose their attention. Ultimately, a solid grasp of the fundamentals of any given instrument is important, so I like to give students access to this information while keeping it interesting. If I notice a student has a peculiar method of approaching the fundamentals, but it isn't leading the down a bad path, I will help facilitate their unique approach while guiding them toward mastery of the concept. I feel the single most important thing about teaching music is to nurture the love of music that will sustain the student through the intermittent struggles with learning, rather than try to force a student down a "traditional" path.
I love seeing a student succeed, but what I love more than that is seeing that the student understands it is their effort that has resulted in their success. It is hard to put in the practice time sometimes, and it is hard to always feel like you're progressing, so while I may need to sometimes guide a student into better choices (whether fingerings on the piano, or picking patterns on a guitar or banjo), I will always try to find some aspect of their current ability to compliment. Maybe a student demonstrates an uncanny ability to articulate dynamics on the instrument, but they struggle to hit the right notes every time. Maybe they have perfect rhythm but they choose inefficient fingerings. Maybe the student can very quickly improvise their way back to the melody of a piece they are struggling to memorize. In all these cases, the student has shown their unique approach to music, and I feel it is important to acknowledge these accomplishments before offering suggestions to improve.
Check out our A+
Rating from the Better Business Bureau
100% Risk-Free Trial Lesson
If you are not satisfied after your trial lesson, you will not be charged and we can match you with another teacher.