Ben D
Instruments: Piano, Trumpet
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Blues, R&B, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Showtunes, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Marching Band, Mariachi, Avant-garde
Ben D
Instruments: Piano, Trumpet
Styles:
Classical, Jazz, Pop, Blues, R&B, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Showtunes, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Marching Band, Mariachi, Avant-garde
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 6-80
2021- Trumpet Divison Award (Berklee College of music)
2021- Al Natale Scholarship recipient
As a trumpet player with 13+ years of experience performing, recording, and learning from many mentors of different backgrounds, I know how difficult and frustrating the trumpet can be. I've always felt that if I could give myself the information that I now know to my beginner self, how much more wonderfully talented I could be today. My goal as a teacher is and always has been to give my students the specific tools they need to progress, while also giving them ample opportunity to follow what parts of the instrument and styles of music are interesting and intriguing to them. I'm originally from California and graduated from Marin School of the Arts, a well-known performing arts high school. I recently graduated from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Trumpet Performance and Music Production. Getting to travel and perform live for large audiences has been some of my most exciting and fulfilling experiences, as well as getting to perform in venues that my heroes have played in. Venues like The SF Jazz Center, The Royale Boston, The Road Runner Boston and Stone Pony NJ, are all venues that have been a center of great music over the years that I've had the pleasure of performing at. Along the way I've also performed alongside Grammy-winning artists such as Bob Mintzer, Nicholas Bearde, Lalah Hathaway, Aaron Serfaty, Chucho Valdez, and many more incredible up-and-coming artists.
For beginners and younger students, I usually start with things that are low pressure, yet effective. As opposed to using textbooks, I prefer to write my own exercises in front of students so that they feel included in the process. I also normally let them help me write these, which helps with reading and understanding written music and how it's related to the instrument. My biggest emphasis for younger and less experienced students is to get them to try and play everyday, even just for 10-15 minutes and make it a habit. People don't realize how important daily consistency can be, even for a short span of time. As students grow and become more comfortable on the horn, I slowly start introducing more and more advanced concepts, while still giving them room to experiment on their own and discover their own interests. There are a few exercises that I will continue to enforce, but for the most part, I try to avoid pushing any student in a certain direction when it comes to repertoire because the most important thing is that they stay engaged and develop a passion for the music.
One of my strengths as a teacher is adapting my teaching style to fit the needs of any student I'm working with. For some students, concepts come easily and their motivation is very clear, but for others, it's not always so easy. The biggest virtue that I've found to hold true throughout my years of teaching is patience. I treat all my students as (young) adults, and that means treating them with respect and understanding to the utmost degree. The most important part of teaching for me is trying to make sure students are growing a passion for music, and that I am helping them in that way throughout the entire process. I've had teachers in my past that I felt didn't care for my interests, and were impatient with abilities, and those lessons always pushed me away from wanting to pursue music. As a private instructor, I want nothing more for my students than to see them flourish and succeed at their craft, but fun and passion always comes first in my book.
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