Drew W
5.0
(2)
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, R&B, Gospel, Musical Theater, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Showtunes, Reggae, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Punk, Avant-garde
Drew W
5.0
(2)
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles:
Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, R&B, Gospel, Musical Theater, Latin, Funk, Hip Hop, Electronic, Showtunes, Reggae, Latin Jazz, Swing, New Age, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul, Punk, Avant-garde
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 11-80
MM, New England Conservatory, Contemporary Improvisation BM, University of Nevada, Reno, Jazz and Improvisational Music
2013 - Reno Jazz Orchestra Award for outstanding composer/improvisor 2015 - New England Conservatory Music Merit Scholarship
I am a passionate instructor dedicated to helping my students achieve their musical goals. I have received a Bachelors of Music in Jazz and Improvisational Music from the University of Nevada, Reno and a Masters of Music in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory. I teach guitar, piano, songwriting, and composition with an emphasis on intuitive learning, ear training, and music theory. My background includes jazz, classical, rock, blues, reggae, hip-hop, electronic music, improvised music and more. As an instrumentalist I have toured the country with many projects and performed at a variety of notable venues across the country including NEC’s Jordan Hall, The Lillypad, Outpost 186, Wally’s, Birdland, The Freight and Salvage, The Firehouse Space, and John Zorn’s The Stone. As an educator I have eight years of experience in private studio and have given workshops at the middle school, high school, and college level including recent outreach work with the Boston Philharmonic to underfunded schools in the Boston area. I approach each student as an individual with their own goals, needs, experience level, and learning style to create a specialized curriculum that helps propel the student towards their best self and enjoy the process at the same time.
I began teaching in my undergrad to help pay living expenses and have been teaching ever since in private studio, public schools, and private music schools. In total I have taught for eight years and change. I strongly encourage my students to perform in public and play music with others as much as possible. To help facilitate this I organize two recitals per year where students have the opportunity to showcase their abilities for family and friends and gain valuable performance experience along the way.
With all students I put a lot of emphasis on leaning how to learn. I believe that by, for instance, teaching students how to make good use of their practice time (being productively self-critical) and processing information in an intuitive way, drastically expedites musical development and profoundly affect brain development. Much of this intuitive practice has to do with internalizing information such as music theory or recordings to the point that they become second nature much like a language.
I treat each student as an individual and spend time getting to understand their goals, musical tastes, learning style, and ability level. As we get to know each other I guide the student through exercises, repertoire, techniques, and concepts that are specifically catered to build a foundation to achieve their unique goals. As we proceed down this road, I provide feedback and suggest new exercises or material based on a mutual understanding of strengths, weaknesses, and what has worked well so far.
Davia Schmidt
Drew is a great teacher! Both my daughters love learning piano with him. We are lucky we found such a down to earth, nice person. Thanks, Musika, for connecting our family with him.
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