Saxophone Lessons in William Penn Annex West, PA

Instruments: Piano Guitar Saxophone Organ Double Bass Keyboard

My own mentor was a tough guy... He would stand behind me, yell, shout and pound my shoulder. For sure, it is not for everyone. With most students, I take a calm and relaxed approach. As a child studying the classics, I remember teachers hitting my hand with rulers when I made mistakes. Jazz; however, is a creative art. It also requires making things up on the spot, so the most important skill is not to avoid mistakes, but to be able to recover from them. 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: Piano Guitar Saxophone Flute Clarinet Synthesizer Piccolo Mallet Percussion Orchestral Percussion Oboe Bassoon English Horn Acoustic Guitar

I love the learning process and to see students progress through the stages of learning an instrument. I taught myself to play the piano before I started formal lessons. I began playing the saxophone at the same time I took up the piano. I entered my undergraduate program in 1992, majoring in music education with the saxophone and piano as my principle instruments. During my studies at the University of South Alabama, a new program was started in MIDI and I attended an extra year to master digital audio. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet

Over the years I can trully say that in every person their is a musician inside what makes them wake their passion on discovering their inner musician is the teacher that inspire, motivate them in seen themselves as the teacher sees them and helping them express thru their instrument all their feelings. Read More

Instruments: Saxophone

My name is Stephen and I’m a passionate saxophonist, composer, and arranger. In May 2019, I graduated from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, earning a Bachelors degree in Jazz Studies (saxophone performance) as well as an honors certificate with accompanying 40 page thesis on jazz composition. I've had the distinct honor of being able to study with jazz legends Ralph Bowen and Victor Lewis, amongst many others. Read More

Instruments: Piano Saxophone Flute Clarinet Keyboard

While my lessons are catered to each individual student, each follows a general curriculum that I have developed over the years through teaching. Method books are a great structured way to quickly get confident on an instrument, however they don't often encourage listening skills or creativity. This is why I structure my lessons around particular method books like Rubank or Faber while providing additional pieces, exercises, and improvising to supplement the book. 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