Music Lessons in Northwoods, IL

Instruments: Voice

Nothing is more rewarding than seeing one of my students develop a passion for music! Therefore, it's important that each student progresses at his or her own pace. I encourage this by setting realistic goals for my students at each lesson. Acknowledging accomplishments helps fuel a students desire to progress, and makes students eager to learn more. By trying to find out what inspires the student, I can successfully tailor my instructor to their wants and needs. Read More

Instruments: Violin

For my beginner students who are children, I usually start with Hal Leonard's Essential Elements and sometimes Lee W. Kikuchi's Musicianship for Strings. Scales and arpeggios follow shortly after. As the student progresses, I follow up with Harvey S. Whistler's Introducing the Positions (this book can also work with adults). Etude books such as Wohlfahrt and Kreutzer come into play when the student is ready. As far as repertiore, I use the first few Suzuki books and Barber's "Soloists for Young Violinists" for my younger students (the latter can also work with adults). Read More

Instruments: Piano Voice Music

I believe each person is uniquely different in this life and that goes for music too. For piano beginners, I like to use the standard Faber curriculum, if you're more advanced we can explore adding some more challenging books such as the Hanon scales, Junior Hanon for beginners, etc. I like to supplement core pieces with scales, technical books, and ad hoc assignments that I sometimes have students pick. For voice, it will very much depend on your goals and where you are at vocally, but my voice teaching style is very much grounded in healthy technique and learning about vocal pedagogy, no matter what genre of music you want to sing! Read More

Instruments: Piano Violin

I encourage a parent/guardian to be involved in helping students build a practice pattern. My philosophy is that students need to practice every day, even if its only 5-10 minutes they have time for. Practicing a little bit each day is more effective than cramming practice into the day before the lesson. I want to be a team, making sure students and guardians feel comfortable communicating their needs as the lessons take off! Read More

Instruments: Voice

My teaching style is basically giving personalized voice lessons to each student according to their goals and musical interests. I will customize each lesson according to this common ground. I usually will spend 50% of the lesson in vocal technique and the other 50% applying the vocal technique to the repertoire the student is working on. Sometimes this will vary according to the specific needs of the student. Their might be for example a deadline to prepare for an audition, or to perform in a recording, so we might warm up the voice in that case and go directly to working on the repertoire. Read More

Instruments: Drums

My lessons typically include warm up, stretch, book work and creative playing. My various warm ups include the open closed open technique with rudiments, great hands for a life time by the Tommy Igoe, and the rudimental Ritual by the late great Alan Dawson. The books I work from are rooted in jazz and pop but can be applied to anything in-between, with repetition as the key element. Mindfulness in the musical world (being aware of how your mind and body works best with your instrument) is something all of my students will learn to love and embrace as a tool for all areas of life, not just music performance. Read More

Instruments: Guitar

While I taught some guitar lessons here and there in high school, I got my first steady gig teaching at a music store at the age of 19. Now, at the age of 25, I have taught hundreds of lessons, and had jobs teaching at a few different locations. I am constantly looking for better ways to explain things, ways to get students more motivated, and most importantly, ways to make learning music more fun! Read More