Saxophone Lessons in Cedar Brook, NJ

Instruments: Piano Guitar Saxophone Flute Clarinet Synthesizer Piccolo Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Oboe Bassoon English Horn Acoustic Guitar

For my beginning piano students, I emphasize the twelve major and minor scales with proper fingering, first one octave and then two octaves. These exercises strengthens fingers and create more familiarity with the keyboard. I use the book, Level 1 The Older Beginner Piano Course by James Bastien and the companion book, Musicianship for the Older Beginner. I have seen results when these books are used in tandem. The student increases in technique and start to master music theory simultaneously. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone Clarinet Oboe

My teaching method starts with whatever the school is using. I don't want to contradict their music teacher. If they don't have a teacher at school then I will recommend a method book depending on their level. I don't believe in teaching beginners that there are easy scales and hard scales. A mistake many teachers make is conditioning students to believe that a C scale is easy and a F# scale is hard. Read More

Instruments: Piano Guitar Voice Saxophone

It depends on the student. Every student has their own pace and I believe in developing a student where they are at. Music is a lifetime to learn and concepts are different for every student. I am very patient when teaching and I will challenge when I feel the student is ready for a certain challenge. Growth is very important to me because it tells me I am doing the job correctly if I can give a student more advanced level material and they are able to perform it properly. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone Clarinet

My teaching experience goes back to my undergraduate days, where I had plenty of field teaching opportunities as well as student teaching. My clarinet professor gave me opportunities to help out with teaching the Woodwind Methods classes at USM for more pedagogical experience. In grad school, I taught make-up lessons to undergraduate students, coached chamber ensembles, and taught lessons to non-majors. My philosophy of teaching starts with strong fundamentals, and knowing different ways to teach different students. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone Flute Clarinet

I began teaching private lessons at the beginning of my time at Michigan State University. I have experience teaching all ages and skill levels including very young first timers up to experienced adults. In addition to private lessons, I have taught at the Apprentices in Jazz Workshop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida as a woodwind instructor, improvisation teacher, as well as big band director. While I am most experienced in Jazz, I love playing and teaching all types of music! Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet

I first began teaching while still completing my Bachelors degree at William Paterson in 2011. Most of my students were beginning level piano students, but I had a few more advanced students as well as some people studying saxophone with me. My teaching philosophy is to combine teaching the technique of an instrument with learning songs as well as theory and improvisation/composition. Everyone learns technique, but learning music that I wanted to learn, learning how those songs were written (theory), and eventually elaborating on those songs (improvisation), and writing my own music (composition), was what really got me deeply engaged in the act of practicing and making music, and I have found over several years of teaching that it keeps my students engaged and enjoying the learning process. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet Keyboard

I began teaching in high school, where I taught lessons to the younger students as well as instructed my jazz band in improvisation lessons. I enjoyed problem solving with my students and figuring out the appropriate exercise or explanation to help them get over a particular hurdle. In college I taught at a music school, where I branched out from teaching saxophone to clarinet, flute, and piano as well. I also gained a lot of experience with very young students at this school. Read More