2018 - John Hendricks Memorial Award for Composition at Bennington College
Overview:
I play mostly jazz, and grew up playing country, piedmont blues, Elvis songs, bluegrass, R&B, rockabilly, the music of Francisco Tarrega, and folk. I have been playing for sixteen years. I am also an amateur luthier. I was lucky enough to have been taught guitar predominantly by women, and found it incredibly valuable as a young girl learning guitar to be able to see people like me playing professionally. This is part of my motivation for moving into teaching now---the other half of it involves the wonder that is music! Playing with others brings me an inimitable kind of joy. I hope to be able to share this joy with others!
I studied music composition at Bennington College, and graduated with my BA in June of 2018. I've played at the Amerikahaus in Munich, Blue Note in Manhattan, with John Zorn at the Brooklyn Conservatory, with Debbie Harry at the Hard Rock Cafe, at Webster Hall, Rockwood Music Hall, The Flea Theater, Fat Cat Billiards, The Music Hall of Williamsburg, the Flea Theater, the Williamsburg Music Center, Windjammer, and Scholes Street Studio. As a composer, I've written for string quartet, piano, flute and trumpet duo, solo electric guitar, orchestra, and a quartet of home-built instruments based upon the design of the trompette marine, and the bowed psaltery.
EXPERIENCE
I taught students ages 5-7 in the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls' Jumpstart program, and ages 8-18 in Willie Mae's Girls Rock Program. At Willie Mae, I taught mostly group lessons. I have also taught group theory and fundamentals lessons at the Brooklyn Music School in Fort Greene, where I work currently as a counselor. I enjoy teaching one-on-one lessons because they tend to allow for a more productive (and fun!) learning environment. My largest body of teaching experience is in rock and blues music, but my largest body of learned experience is in jazz. I found it valuable as a student to be allowed to choose what I wanted to learn, and I bring that into the way that I approach teaching.
METHODS USED
I believe that it's important to have heard a wide breadth of the kind of music that you might be interested in learning. As a jazz guitarist, and as a student of classical composition, it has been drilled into my head by scores of teachers (no pun intended!) that careful listening is the first (and most important) step in the process of learning. I would go home from guitar lessons in high school with handfuls of CDs, and feel that it is important to pass on a knowledge of the history of a given kind of music, whether it's afro-cuban jazz, R&B, classical, western swing, or prog rock! I also believe in the importance of learning sightreading and theory in tandem with learning by ear. All three are important, and all three are essential to becoming a well-rounded and proficient musician. Having fun and enjoying practicing is also important---if you don't like what you're playing, you won't want to practice it!
LESSON STYLE
For me, the most vital aspect of teaching involves creating a self-motivated student. I believe that you can do this by teaching music that is of interest to the person you're teaching, and by introducing material that is graded in such a way that it is always a little bit more challenging than what your student is used to (no matter the level they happen to play at). If a student has no reason to practice by themselves, and if a sense of curiosity and desire for exploration and accomplishment haven't been developed, the teaching itself becomes obsolete. I think that my best teachers have consistently been the ones that pushed me to try to improve myself independently of them. That sense of self-accomplishment is important in life, let alone in music!
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