John C
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Voice, Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Musical Theater, Opera, Showtunes, Punk, Avant-garde
John C
Instruments: Piano, Guitar, Voice, Bass Guitar, Synthesizer, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar
Styles:
Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Musical Theater, Opera, Showtunes, Punk, Avant-garde
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 5-80
DMA, Peabody Conservatory, Music Composition
MM, Peabody Conservatory, Music Composition
BM, With Honors, University of Arkansas, Music Composition
2008 - 2nd Prize, Virginia Carty DeLillo Composition Competition
2007 - Otto Ortmann Award for Music Composition
2007 - Prix d'Eté Composition Competition
2004 - Jack Groh Concert Choir Founders' Award
I am a composer, pianist, guitarist, and singer. In 2016, I graduated from The Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Composition. Prior to this, I obtained a Master of Music degree from Peabody in 2007, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Arkansas in 2004. I have had performances of my music in Baltimore, New York, Seattle, Cincinnati, and Fayetteville, AR. I have performed in bands, ensembles, and choirs since I was ten.
I taught music theory and musicianship at Johns Hopkins University from 2007 to 2017. I have also previously taught at Towson University and the University of Arkansas. I have taught private lessons in guitar, piano, composition, music theory, and musical arrangements off and on for the past 16 years. I encourage students to seek out and explore music that they enjoy and wish to master. I have taught students of all ages and can cater to each individual's needs. I look forward to helping you discover your musical talents!
For beginning piano students, I use a combination of books from Alfred's, Faber, John Thompson's. At the same time, I emphasize proper finger technique, shape, and position. For more advanced piano students I prefer exercises from Hanon, Czerny, and Bartók. For beginning guitar students, I prefer Mel Bay books. However, for guitar students I also use a much more individual and custom approach for learning how to get a good sound out of the guitar through proper hand position, finger placement and pressure, and string picking.
I believe that the goal of music lessons is to discover what each student wants to achieve. Therefore, I seek to use different methods, lessons, and exercises that will work toward what each individual wishes to accomplish for themselves. If we can work together on a particular piece of music or a song that a student wants to learn, then there is a goal to accomplish and it is fun to reach that goal! This is much more enjoyable than taking lessons just to practice scales! Scales are necessary of course, but the point of our lessons is for you to be able to play the music that you love!
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