Piano Lessons in Maple Valley, WA

Instruments: Piano Violin Viola

My teaching experience started in 2010 during my college freshman year when I was employed by the Music Institute of North Texas and the Carrolton Independent School District as a private violin instructor. On top of violin pedagogy, I was also employed by the University of North Texas Learning Center as a Supplemental Instructor for Music Theory. When teaching, I try to incorporate basic music theory into performance, as I feel both are important to gain a greater understanding and appreciation for muisc. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet

I've been teaching for over forty years. Many of my students have been successful in various auditions and life in general. There are many factors that enter into that, and I am happy to be one of those factors that helped them on their way. Read More

Instruments: Piano Music Keyboard

I foster a fun and supportive learning environment. In addition, it is important to me that my lessons are student led. Rather than dictate to students exactly what and how they should practice, I always use my students' curiosity as a guide, and work on what is most interesting to them. For young learners, I do everything possible to make the learning environment as fun and engaging as possible, practically not even introducing the concept of a mistake until around 1 year of lessons. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Drums Bass Guitar Ukulele Double Bass Keyboard Acoustic Guitar

I have the same approach to teaching beginner and intermediate piano. Again, we learn our notes in five finger position and then we learn to read time signatures, notes in the treble clef, chords, and rhythms, as well as playing complete songs. When teaching piano for beginners I like to pick the leaning material that we'll use based on the individual because we all learn differently and I like to keep it fun so the student stays interested. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Bass Guitar Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

I like working with students in a way where our love of music is the center of our attention, as such musicality is always the goal. For beginner students who’d like to sight-read, I like to start with the Alfred Modern Guitar Method 1 and supplement that with the Mel Bay Modern Guitar Method, Grade 1, or Frederick Noad’s Solo Guitar 1 if we’re learning classical guitar. Alternatively, if the student wishes to take a route in which he/she does not sight-read musical notation, I like to start with basic picking technique, proper guitar positioning, reading tabs and chord diagrams. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Bass Guitar Organ Synthesizer Lap Steel Guitar Ukulele Keyboard Electric Guitar Classical Guitar Acoustic Guitar

For all of my students beginning through advanced I have my own curriculum of technique building studies. Combined with that I have my own curriculum of style studies and songs which include many genres of music. If students want to learn how to read music I usually suggest the Hal Leonard series of books for their particular instrument to start with and then I suggest more advanced materials for the style of music that they want to start specializing in. Read More

Instruments: Piano Violin

Learning in this fashion has taught me something really important to teaching private lessons. Adaptability. All of my students took lessons because they wanted to improve their ability to play music. I desperately wanted my students to enjoy learning their instruments and music they learned; knowing how easy it is to feel burnt out from too many scales and disappointed by slow progress. So I started asking my students, even the 6 year old, why they wanted to play an instrument and what they wanted to achieve. Read More