Voice Lessons in Orinda, CA

Instruments: Guitar Voice Ukulele Acoustic Guitar

My teaching style flows from my teaching philosophy: Whole-heatedly meet a student where they are, and THEN, respectfully lead them to where you as the educator know that they need to go...Establishing a true RELATIONSHIP with a student, where they know that you have THEIR best interests in mind is absolutely fundamental. As in any relationship, trust and respect are essential, and establishing a firm foundation in those areas should be just as important as the academic and skill development aspects of teaching. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums Conga Latin Percussion

For beginning guitar I start out with Chris Parkening: classical guitar book...learning finguring styles, rudiments, and notes. We then go into various techniques and develop song repetoire and chording and strumming styles. For beginning piano I start with level one Hal Leonard book for beg. piano and various beginning classical composers: Beethoven, Mozart, Tchakovisky, Jazz, etc. . I split this class into musicianship-learning notes and reading music, fingering and scales, and theory. Read More

Instruments: Voice

I have a great and sincere love of all things music.  I have devoted my life to private studio teaching for over 10 years.  I had the opportunity to study voice and opera at the San Francisco Conservatory and The Boston Conservatory.  After a number of years as a professional singer, I returned to school to complete my degree.  I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Performance from Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Ca. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice

My method is to incorporate proper technique and fingering, and though reading music is important, i also put emphasis on hearing what your playing and also understanding it theoretically. This way students will be well-rounded and be able to understand what they are playing from an audio and theoretical stance, rather than just being told what to play by the notes on the sheet music. What this does is it allows the student to become independent so that they don't have to rely on music and a teacher to be able to play or pick-up songs they desire to play. Read More

Instruments: Voice

I prefer to take on students who are considered "intermediate" or at least working toward the intermediate level and advance because I specialize in developing a singer's performance quality. It's important that the student has basic vocal technique training prior to training with me because they'll have a technical foundation and sense of confidence that will allow them to explore (or as I like to call it "play") more of their vocal capabilities. Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice

I have been teaching private voice for three years, and feel like I truly thrive when I'm sharing my knowlege of music and performance. At Colorado State University I taught a to wide range of students and styles from freshmen voice majors, choral conducting graduate students, theater majors, voice minors, and even a couple aspiring folk/country singers! I also taught a Fundamentals of Music Theory course to over 100 non-music majors, covering reading music, piano basics, intro to harmony, the physics of music and the psychology of music. Read More

Instruments: Voice

I teach all levels and use a wide variety of methods for teaching, matching the students with what is most effective for their learning style and goals. I typically teach one-on-one with the student in my home office, giving vocal coaching and singing lessonsn lessons for children, adults, individuals and small groups; beginning or advanced levels. Students always love being in my class as I teach with patience and understanding, but have clear expectations about the proper way to sing and perform by creating a personalized lesson plan tailored to your needs. Read More