Saxophone Lessons in Indianapolis, IN

Instruments: Violin Viola Electric Violin Fiddle Music

If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
Writing and art for sure. I have pretty intense ADHD which led me to learn all kinds of arts and trades, seeing them as puzzles to play with and figureout.

What is your dream piece to perform and why?
I am actually currently working on Morpheus by Rebecca Clarke, which has been a dream of mine for a while now. The piece is very intimate in nature and represents the God of Dreams very well in a sort of floating dreamworld atmosphere with moments of intensity I haven't heard anywhere else. The story beats at play send me to a different world when I listen to them, and now I get to represent my own vision in this work. The other piece I dream of performing is the Kryukov Viola Sonata for very similar reasons in that the chromatic work of the piece creates intriguing sounds and moments of definitive character that shook my world and became my only music for a week straight upon first listening.

Do you use specific teaching methods or books? (Ex: Alfred, Bastion, Suzuki, Hal Leonard) Why did you choose them if you did?
I mostly choose Suzuki for the introduction to the common repertoire. Hal Leonard is also an option I look to, but I'm not near as much of a fan. I also subscribe to teaching methods such as Orff and Kodaly, finding it absolutely vital to incorporate physical movement and play into my lessons. Games will be a common theme because gamefying skills make them easier to learn.

What does a normal practice session look like for you?
I like to start with some sort of technical warm up, be it scales, etutes, etc. From there, feeling warmed up, I utilize those for character building in my performance. I might decide to make a deeper character, and utilize dynamics and articulation to achieve that. After that, I look to my repertoire and develop a story with scenes and beats, and decide what styles are going to best represent the story I want to tell. Once that's decided, I set my metronome to make my notes as clear as possible while practicing my decided styles.

How do I know if my child is ready to start lessons?
Most likely your student will show a particular interest in their instrument over all the options they have in school. When they get home, and consistently all they want to do is hammer away at their instrument, it might be time to have a professional or experienced player guide their hammering away towards something that will make for a fulfilling career. Let's not also forget: if they ask you for lessons, they certainly are ready.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
To be completely clear, I chose the viola in particular because of Jake the Dog from Adventure time, and I never looked back :) sometimes its just as simple as the media you consume that draws you to your instrument of choice.

What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
First, find multiple recordings of your music. Practice is not only picking up your instrument but also having a mental map of your music and what it conveys. People can produce a new outcome just by envisioning how it can be done without any movement. Secondly, finda. schedule that fits for you. Some people play 15 minutes 4 times a day, others play 2-3 6 hour days in a week. There's a lot of variety, just as long as its done and done with purpose, it works.

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