Music Lessons in Imperial Beach, CA

Instruments: Piano Voice Ukulele

For beginning piano students, I like to use the Piano Adventure book series. They do a very good job at laying out the basics of piano technique in a fun and colorful way for young children. As the students progress through the series I will encourage them to begin learning pieces on their own and eventually preparing them for recital performances. For vocal students, I like to teach based on their ability and style preference. Read More

Instruments: Piano Violin

I usually beginwith warm-ups, scales, music theory, then continue with reviewing past homework, focusing on posture, rhythm, technique, etc. Lastly, we will sightread and preview the next pieces to be assigned for homework. Pace is set mostly by the student and how much they practice, but I will always nudge the student to improve in musicianship and posture after every lesson, with patience and perseverance. Read More

Instruments: Drums Latin Percussion Djembe

Roger has 45 years of experience in drumming, from touring worldwide (over 100 countries) to recording on over 100 albums. With 28 years of international touring with numerous renowned artists, from ABBA to Zappa (Dweezil), with events in many out of the way places such as Russia (1980 Summer Olympic Games), Rome (with the invitation of Pope John Paul II), South Africa (Invitation by Nelson Mandela), Poland (working with Lech Valesa of Solidarity) and The White House (3 times, under 3 different Presidents). Read More

Instruments: Violin

Pieces of music are normally chosen from a huge selections of violin literature or from Suzuki books. Students show very good progress in a short period of time, and they are very soon able to produce beautiful sounds from their instruments, accurate intonation, strong vibrato, correct rhythm, and great musicality. They develop a positive attitude towards the acquisition of the art of violin playing, and look at the learning process as a fun experience, especially when they are exposed to a new piece of music, whether it is a simple song such as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or  a major composition such as the violin concerto by Beethoven or Wieniawski. Read More

Instruments: Guitar Bass Guitar Ukulele Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar

For chords we will work through some books that I've had great past success with in my lessons. It's a great way to start off with just 2 or 3 chords, and slowly add more chords and strumming patterns as we progress through the book. As we learn more chords, we eventually start incorporating these chords into our songs as well. For advanced students I sometimes focus more heavily on one particular aspect of a students playing if they desire that (for example; if the student is already proficient in rhythm we may move directly to soloing and music theory). *I do not force my students to learn notation as I've found it can be very discouraging (especially for children), but I can incorporate this into the lesson if it's desired by the parent or student. Read More

Instruments: Piano

It is important to meet each student where he or she is at rather than trying to force a one-size-fits-all approach on every student. Each student has individual needs, and I do my best to tailor lessons to those needs. My hope is that each student not only learns how to play, sing, and read music, but also develop an appreciation for music and the ability to see how music can truly enrich one's life. Read More

Instruments: Piano Organ Keyboard

For basic students from 6 to 14 even intermediates they will start by reading or learning how to read sheet music classical and traditional music but I also throw in a jazz piece for students to learn how to make they're playing more jazzy and colorful. But before all that music reading the most important thing is to learn your major and minor scales because in all keys because if you don't know your major and minor you won't be able to play your favorite songs without reading. Read More