Melinda O
Instruments: Piano
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Blues, Folk, Country, Musical Theater, Showtunes
Melinda O
Instruments: Piano
Styles:
Classical, Jazz, Pop, Blues, Folk, Country, Musical Theater, Showtunes
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 3-18
BS, University of Utah, Cultural Anthropology, (pending - two classes left). AS, Dixie State University, Theatre Performance
The economy is rough. Your child still deserves to learn music. Growing up, it was not always easy for my parents to afford piano lessons. Despite that difficulty, I developed a love for music, (and particularly the piano) that has lasted throughout my life. I have played the piano for twelve years, and continue work to improve myself as a pianist every day. I was lucky enough to receive lessons from a woman who had her Master's Degree in Piano Performance from BYU, and my teaching methods mirror hers. I love to share my love for music with students, and help them to achieve their goals and dreams with the piano. I have three years' teaching experience, and am now beginning to expand and build my clientelle out of South Salt Lake City.
A few years ago, I taught the piano for approximately three years. I stopped teaching for a while in order to pursue my Bachelor's Degree - beginning at Dixie State University, and I am now working to build my clientele again. I absolutely love to teach. One of my favorite moments with every students happens at around the 4th or 5th lesson, when the student then feels comfortable enough to begin to discuss with me some of their goals with the piano. (Some students open up a little sooner, and others take some time). At this point, I begin to see their motivation behind learning, and am able to accordingly adapt our lessons to accomodate that student's area(s) of interest, along with the standard lesson information.
For young beginners, I generally teach from the Nancy and Randall Faber Piano Adventure series, however I have recently been working to become more familiar with other options in order to best accomodate individual students. I am now also familiar with Alfred's Piano Method books, as well as the Hal Leonard series for young students. I have also taught by books from the same composers for an older beginner. I am a great fan of recitals, and as I build my studio I will collaborate with fellow piano teachers in the area to hold them. It is my belief that a teacher must be adaptive in order to create a positive experience for each student. For this reason, along with the lesson books, I prefer to help the student learn about what genre of music they are the most interested in. Some love to learn all types, but others have a "sweet" spot with certain composers or genres. I like to expound on that as much as possible, and help them to branch out from there. In my experience, this helps students to actually enjoy their practice time and feel more motivated to continue.
At the beginning of a lesson, I like to begin with something fun that the student has been working on. This could be a performance piece, some improvisational composition, or another activity related to the piano. As we go along, I like to branch into the theory behind what we are doing. Once they have a firm grasp on the basics, I like to begin students fairly quickly into learning the circle of fourths, and the scales and chords following the order of the circle of fourths. I also like to begin students early on improvisational composition in order for them to strengthen their own imaginative creativity and back that up with the knowledge that they need to begin to create pleasing music.
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