Kathryn R  
Instruments: Piano, Voice, Flute
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Folk, Country, R&B, Musical Theater, Opera, Latin, Funk, Showtunes, Spirituals, Latin Jazz, Swing, Samba, Bossa Nova, Soul

For beginning piano students, I usually employ the Faber or Alfred Series books. They are intuitive and the various books (Lesson, Theory, Technique, Performance, etc) complement each other well! They also have an "older beginner" series that is great for teens and adults that are new to piano. I also encourage my students to try composition, even if it is very simple melodies. This is usually after they have established a good grasp on beginning music theory concepts.  For beginning voice, we begin half with the essential signing technique as well as the beginning musical concepts such as pitch, rhythm, etc. I usually find out the student's musical preferences and try to pick songs from that style, meanwhile, introducing them to classical music or folk music and helping them pick music to work on from that genre.  I follow a similar pattern with flute lessons. Depending on the experience of the student, lessons can begin a little more slowly than with the other two instruments since wielding the instrument is largely dependent hand size and length of arms! I try to encourage my students to get their hands on their flute as much as possible in the first few weeks to become comfortable with not only their mouth position but also with the position of their arms and hands. This helps a lot.