Rachel T  
Instruments: Piano, Guitar
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, R&B, Gospel, Musical Theater, Showtunes, Spirituals, Swing, New Age, Soul

While I have been teaching my friends and family music skills since I myself have been a music student, I began my formal music teaching career at the age of 19. My first teaching position was with the Tuscaloosa County-based music conservatory, Musical Beginnings. I worked with this conservatory for over three years in the form of a group piano teacher, a private piano teacher, and a private guitar teacher. I taught for Musical Beginnings from April 2013 to July 2016. In August 2016, I began an internship at the Gwangmyeong Social Welfare Center (GSWC) in South Korea. In addition to my other roles as an intern, I also taught piano and music lessons to the children being served by the GSWC. Since returning from this internship, I have continued to provide piano and guitar lessons to students in the Decatur-Athens-Huntsville area of Alabama. I have experience teaching a very diverse range of students from many different cultures, learning abilities, and developmental abilities.

For piano students: I typically like to use the Faber and Faber Piano Adventure lesson series with beginning and early-intermediate students. During the first lesson I provide to the student, I like to assess the ability level of the individual student to determine the book I believe it is most appropriate in which to begin. Typically, if a student is a beginner, I will start with the "My First Piano Adventure" with students aged 4-6 years of age, the "Basic Piano Adventures" series with students aged 7-9 years of age, the "Accelerated Piano Adventures" series with students aged 11-15 years of age, and the "Adult Piano Adventures" series with students aged 16+. However, as stated before, the pace in which I teach each student will vary depending the abilities of each student. Once the student has graduated from the Piano Adventure series, we will begin building their solo repertoire. When choosing pieces for the student's repertoire, I will also work with the student in order to pick pieces that student will both enjoy learning and grow as a musician. I typically focus on classical pieces, but I will also incorporate other genres of music depending on the student's interests.

For guitar students: I typically only accept beginner-level students for guitar lessons. I will teach students the mechanics of the guitar (tuning, anatomy, theory, etc.) before learning any pieces. I will teach students how to read a variety of musical notation including sheet music, tablature (tabs), and chord sheets so that each student will be versed in the primary notations they will encounter. For both piano and guitar students, I will incorporate music theory and music history lessons in order to give context to the pieces in which they learn.