Holiday Gift certificates Shop Now!
Berklee College Of Music Old Dominion University
When I was 8-years-old my father gave me his old guitar. From then on I spent most of my free time playing and learning music. I enrolled in structured lessons when I was 12 until I went to Berklee College of Music for a year's time. Afterwards I decided that I wanted to dedicate my spare time to music and not make a professional career out of it. I have taught lessons since I was 15 and enjoy sharing what I know and watching the joy that music brings to its students.
I have taught guitar lessons for the past 5 years and have taught a number of students. I strongly emphasize the importance of practice, patience, and diligence in learning and pursuing music. I believe that learning music is a skill that will carry one far in life as it is one of the few pursuits that is for the most part self-motivated.
For beginning students I usually encourage a method book such as Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method or a Fingerstyle method book. At the same time I introduce basic chords and try to introduce songs as early as possible to show the practicality of all that is being learned. For intermediate students I ask what would like to be learned and what techniques they would like to see themselves doing in the near future.
As a teacher, I always want to accomodate to the student's vision of what he or she would like to achieve through learning music. Personalizing lesson plans and objectives in this way is extremely empowering to the student and promotes more devotion of time to learning outside of the lessons. I strongly believe the most important way to measure a student's progress is by setting short-term and long-term goals. By helping the student develop or facilitate their goals, learning music is far more rewarding and will become an activity that will last a lifetime.