My Teaching Practice
As you look for a teacher for yourself or your child, there are probably a few things you are considering. To help you determine if I’m a good fit for your needs and goals, here are some of the common things I come across with my students and my approaches to each of them. I will not be the best fit for every student, but I do want to be the best fit for every student underneath my care. If you’d like to know my approach to anything that hasn’t been listed here, please contact me via email to discuss it further!
My general teaching approach considers all of these goals in a balanced way. The following descriptions are meant to help you get to know me a bit better so that you can determine if my values align with yours.
Goals
The first thing that you’ll want to think through are your goals! Here are a few that might resonate with you or your child. (Feel free to click on any of the topics to immediately jump to that specific part of the page.)
Playing for fun and leisure
Learning to play lead sheet style music
Developing confident music-reading skills
Learning to play music by ear
Doing a deep dive into music theory
Exploring your own creativity through improvisation and composition
Pursuing a career in classical or contemporary music performance
If you’re a student looking to play primarily for fun and leisure…
For most people with this goal, they don’t particularly care about a professional career in music, and they don’t care to have a lesson experience that is particularly strict or serious. They want to enjoy the process of learning to play the piano and their main priority is in maintaining a positive relationship to the learning process. Progress isn’t measured in terms of achieved repertoire or technical skill, but rather in the accomplishment of learning whatever it may be that draws their attention in; a specific piece of music, or perhaps a specific small goal such as composing their own piece or performing for a group of friends.
The great part about this goal is that it truly allows creativity and curiosity to abound. The student is able to pursue music in the way that most captures their attention, and the result can be a lifelong love of playing.
The caution with this approach is that students may find themselves not progressing as quickly as they want to in other areas that they aren’t making a priority. There may be a little bit of a instinct to want to compare themselves to other pianists and feel like their own playing isn’t as impressive.
To that I only say, the idea of progress is quite personal! Often we’re told what we “should” be able to do due to basic factors such as age. But it is truly my belief that that should never be the true measure of progress. Age is simply a number. If a positive relationship to music is your primary goal in learning how to play the piano, then the only progress that should be measured is the positive feelings and the success of accomplishing what you’ve set out to accomplish. If you have a great teacher, you can trust that you’ll be taken care of within that goal and still be taught the necessary skills to accomplish that goal well.
If you’re a student looking to learn how to read and play lead sheet style music…
This is a bit of a niche goal, however it is one that is somewhat popular! There is so much music to explore using this style of playing, and it does truly open the doors to being able to play any singer/songwriter songs that your heart desires—both old and new. The lesson focus will be on developing a solid music theory foundation as well as learning to read music and understand complex rhythms with ease.
A fun little side effect of this goal is learning to improvise and compose! Lead sheets are fairly simple in and of themselves, and ultimately they’re meant to give the musician a jumping off point from which to do their own thing. The more we understand about music theory and composition, the more we understand about lead sheets…and the more you’re able to be creative with completely on your own!
The caution with this approach being too heavy-handed is that students may find themselves only really ever feeling comfortable playing lead sheets instead of more classical or contemporary piano solos. This of course can be mitigated with a combined approach of learning both piano solos and lead sheet styles, but ultimately if that doesn’t matter to you, then it’s a non issue!
If you’re a student who would like to be able to read any piece of music…
This is something that I focus on with every student! For some however, it may have an extra prioritization pull due to something like a desired job in accompanying, or perhaps playing the piano is already a technical and ear-trained skill for the student but not yet a reading one.
I won’t sugar-coat it. Learning to read music takes a great deal of patience. It’s essentially a whole written and spoken language with its own grammar and nuance and context. While you might be able to “sound out words” rather quickly (identify the names of the notes on the staff and where they lie on the keyboard), it takes awhile to feel like the notes are just flowing out of your fingertips. It’s not a particularly difficult skill, but it is not a skill that one develops overnight. So if this is a goal, plan to strap in for a bit of a long haul! Depending on how accomplished you’d like to be and how much practice you dedicate to this goal each week, this process could very well take a few years before you’re able to comfortably read the music that you’re hoping to read.
This is not meant to scare anyone, simply set an expectation. Throughout my 17 years of teaching, I’ve had dozens of students come to me expressing frustration that they cannot easily read the music that they’re wanting to play. I have my go-to resources and I promise that if I’m your teacher I will guide you along the best route for this goal, but it might not be the most “fun” thing you have ever done in your life! Reading music fluently takes consistency and dedicated practice over a sustained period of time.
If you’re a student that would like to primarily play music by ear…
Here’s where I want to first say that this is not my strongest personal skill, so therefore it is not my strongest area in which to teach. If you have a desire to become quite advanced in the ability to play music by ear, or if you have perfect pitch and would like to develop that, I recommend looking for a teacher that specifically focuses on this with their students. When inquiring with potential teachers, specifically ask about their personal skill level and thoughts and feelings on the subject. Based on their response, you should get a good feel for whether or not they’ll be able to help you!
Since I have your attention, I have a bit of personal encouragement to offer. One common complaint that I hear time and time again from students that have already taken this route is that learning to read music after learning how to play by ear only makes the music reading process more difficult. It’s actually quite a common story that one learns to play by ear, but not very much from the page. Playing only by ear will limit the amount of music a student can play well to that which is taught by rote or composed of their own accord.
So if I may, I would try to encourage you to find a teacher that is able to provide a balanced approach to this goal instead of it being too heavy-handed in the direction of ear training. Trust that learning to read music will actually enhance your ability to play by ear because you will be able to visually reference the sounds that you can make—and communicate your ideas to other musicians using the written language of music. This allows your music to live on long beyond your time, and is well worth the effort.
If you’re a student that would like to do a deep dive into music theory…
Here’s where I want to first say that this is not my strongest personal skill, so therefore it is not my strongest area in which to teach. If you have a desire to become quite advanced in the ability to play music by ear, or if you have perfect pitch and would like to develop that, I recommend looking for a teacher that specifically focuses on this with their students. When inquiring with potential teachers, specifically ask about their personal skill level and thoughts and feelings on the subject. Based on their response, you should get a good feel for whether or not they’ll be able to help you!
Since I have your attention, I have a bit of personal encouragement to offer. One common complaint that I hear time and time again from students that have already taken this route is that learning to read music after learning how to play by ear only makes the music reading process more difficult. It’s actually quite a common story that one learns to play by ear, but not very much from the page. Playing only by ear will limit the amount of music a student can play well to that which is taught by rote or composed of their own accord.
So if I may, I would try to encourage you to find a teacher that is able to provide a balanced approach to this goal instead of it being too heavy-handed in the direction of ear training. Trust that learning to read music will actually enhance your ability to play by ear because you will be able to visually reference the sounds that you can make—and communicate your ideas to other musicians using the written language of music. This allows your music to live on long beyond your time, and is well worth the effort.
If you’re a student who is drawn to improvisation and composition…
Here’s where I want to first say that this is not my strongest personal skill, so therefore it is not my strongest area in which to teach. If you have a desire to become quite advanced in the ability to play music by ear, or if you have perfect pitch and would like to develop that, I recommend looking for a teacher that specifically focuses on this with their students. When inquiring with potential teachers, specifically ask about their personal skill level and thoughts and feelings on the subject. Based on their response, you should get a good feel for whether or not they’ll be able to help you!
Since I have your attention, I have a bit of personal encouragement to offer. One common complaint that I hear time and time again from students that have already taken this route is that learning to read music after learning how to play by ear only makes the music reading process more difficult. It’s actually quite a common story that one learns to play by ear, but not very much from the page. Playing only by ear will limit the amount of music a student can play well to that which is taught by rote or composed of their own accord.
So if I may, I would try to encourage you to find a teacher that is able to provide a balanced approach to this goal instead of it being too heavy-handed in the direction of ear training. Trust that learning to read music will actually enhance your ability to play by ear because you will be able to visually reference the sounds that you can make—and communicate your ideas to other musicians using the written language of music. This allows your music to live on long beyond your time, and is well worth the effort.
If you’re a student that would like to have a successful music career…
Here’s where I want to first say that this is not my strongest personal skill, so therefore it is not my strongest area in which to teach. If you have a desire to become quite advanced in the ability to play music by ear, or if you have perfect pitch and would like to develop that, I recommend looking for a teacher that specifically focuses on this with their students. When inquiring with potential teachers, specifically ask about their personal skill level and thoughts and feelings on the subject. Based on their response, you should get a good feel for whether or not they’ll be able to help you!
Since I have your attention, I have a bit of personal encouragement to offer. One common complaint that I hear time and time again from students that have already taken this route is that learning to read music after learning how to play by ear only makes the music reading process more difficult. It’s actually quite a common story that one learns to play by ear, but not very much from the page. Playing only by ear will limit the amount of music a student can play well to that which is taught by rote or composed of their own accord.
So if I may, I would try to encourage you to find a teacher that is able to provide a balanced approach to this goal instead of it being too heavy-handed in the direction of ear training. Trust that learning to read music will actually enhance your ability to play by ear because you will be able to visually reference the sounds that you can make—and communicate your ideas to other musicians using the written language of music. This allows your music to live on long beyond your time, and is well worth the effort.