Piano Lessons in Passyunk, PA

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Flute Harmonica Music Keyboard Electric Guitar Acoustic Guitar

As a music teacher, I am passionate about giving people of all ages the tools for self-expression and collaboration. I am a performer, flautist and singer-songwriter based in Philadelphia and I have been an active member of the music community for over a decade. With a background in poetry and creative writing, my compositions combine storytelling and collage, and draw from my roots in folk music and RB. I have performed at music festivals such as South X Southwest, Firefly, XPoNential Music Festival, and I have opened for legendary acts such as Questlove and Talib Kweli. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Trumpet Trombone Euphonium French Horn Tuba Music Keyboard Acoustic Guitar

My performance and education career began as early as my freshman year of college. I have been fortunate to perform over 1,800 professional commitments in my career as well as teaching roughly 25 students. Some performance highlights of my career have been performing on four national tours, playing two contracts with the Hershey Park band, recording with different artists, and of course performing with the Marine Corps and the Air Force bands. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Drums Music Keyboard Electric Guitar

For beginner students, I often begin with the foundations of the instrument. For drums, we would be practice the rhythmic subdivisions (quarter, eighth, sixteenth notes) and slowly work them into grooves that they can easily start to pick out of their favorite songs. When the fundamentals have been established, we can learn more advanced grooves, dissect songs together, and learn how to improvise and write our own drum parts. My biggest focus as a teacher is to help the student discover the music that they want to learn and make so that they can develop their own unique voice. Read More

Instruments: Piano

I keep a "Piano Homework Assignment" Word document for each student on my laptop which I can then email to you after your lesson is over for reference during the week.  A usual assignment would consist of a "Warm Up" section where we focus on hand position or scales or technique, a "Lesson Book" or "Repertoire" section where we work on new pieces or songs, a "Theory" section for written assignments, a "Fun" list for pieces we are done with but want to keep playing just for fun and then a number of special sections depending on student interest.  Special sections might be things like - improvisation, composition, playing by ear, recital or competition prep, exam prep, sight reading, ear training, etc.  I'm comfortable in few method series but I prefer Faber Piano Adventures for typical beginning children and The Music Tree for very young beginners.  I try to make sure each student has a piece they love every week. Read More

Instruments: Piano Bass Guitar Double Bass

I believe in tailoring music lessons to the individual students needs. This usually involves speaking with the student in the first lesson/lessons to find out what specifically they want to learn or improve. Once I've figured this out, I begin to find repertoire or create exercises that challenge this student in the respective area of focus. With younger students, I prefer to make an executive decision to begin with method books and then ease into more relevant material when the student is comfortable with their instrument. Read More

Instruments: Piano Drums Mallet Percussion Conga Djembe

I believe every student is unique and will need to improve in different areas for different reasons. Every student will have a specific taste in music so I always to try design lessons based on the music style they enjoy most. I will also introduce new music to keep them inspired. But, in general I have found the best teaching style is to both agree on a list of songs to learn. Read More