Voice Lessons in St Paul, MN

Instruments: Guitar Drums Bass Guitar Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar

What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
Practice at least thirty minutes per day and at least five days per week. Focus on the tools I teach each week while practicing. I usually will have a homework assignments each week which specifically will help them use the tools. I expect the student to know the homework assignments for the following lesson. It's important to practice the lessons because each lesson builds off the previous lesson. Practicing the lessons and also playing around on the instrument is the most important part of the learning experience.

How do I know if my child is ready to start lessons?
Use your intuition and look for signs like natural rhythm. While listening to a song, see if the child can tap along with the meter of the song. Also, a good indicator is if they can remember the words to a song or hum or even whistle the melody of a song.

When will I start to see results?
It all depends on how you look at it. If you encourage your child to practice and take a role in the learning process, you'll see results that can be measured lesson to lesson as long as the student follows the lesson plan. Sometimes lesson plans may take a few lessons to learn, depending on how much the student practices on their own and practices the homework assignments. A good indicator and something I try to encourage parents and students to recognize if the student has learned the homework assignments well. If so, I encourage the student to move ahead on lesson plans.

Did you have a teacher that inspired you to go into music? How did they inspire you?
Well, my first music teacher was my grandfather. He was a professional musician who started his music career in 1955 and got his first big gig in 1955 at the 500 club in Atlantic city and was there for about 5 years. He worked as a drummer along side of acts like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and many others. He was the one who discovered that I had musical talent, encouraging me to learn the saxophone and shortly after, learn to play the drums, in which he instructed me to play along to Blues and Soul music. From there, I practiced on my own and taught myself quite a few instruments.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
Well, in late middle / early High school I was a drummer in a band (with Doug Sabolic, guitarist from A Life Once Lost,) as well as another talented guitarist and bass guitarist. I picked the guitar up back then and started writing songs for the band. It was a really great "first band" to be in, because everyone in the band could switch up instruments and I began playing guitar more and more. Doug left the band so we reformed with me on guitar, the guitarist switched to drums and the bass player remained on bass (although I did briefly play lead guitar for a band he put together and played guitar and sang for a few gigs in 2006.) By this point, I was getting good on the guitar and became part of a group I truly loved playing with. The singer and rhythm guitarist was a top level professional BMX rider and I was semi professional, which gave us an instant following. We played good ol' knitty gritty Rock and Roll. A few of our songs were featured in BMX movies. Things started to slow down and Wiz (the rhytm guitarist and vocalist) and I really fell in love with the blues. Once I started playing blues, I learned a lot. I knew I'd be doing something in music, like teaching. I went to college to teach, so I started doing private lessons, then I was a senior instructor at a music school, teaching guitar, bass, drums, and novice piano. I love teaching and it was time to move on to another outlet in which I'm actively teaching the art of music to the younger generations, or older generations for that matter. It's never to late to learn MUSIC!!

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