Richard D
Instruments: Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Recorder, Piccolo, Music
Styles: Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, R&B, Funk, Reggae, Swing, Soul, Avant-garde
Richard D
Instruments: Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet, Recorder, Piccolo, Music
Styles:
Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Blues, R&B, Funk, Reggae, Swing, Soul, Avant-garde
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 7-80
Hello! I'm a Berklee College of Music Alumnus with 20+ years playing experience! I started studying the saxophone at 9 years old and spent most of my early school years performing in community, school, and local college jazz bands around the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington State. My music has given me the opportunity to travel the world, and in summer of 2016, I conducted a tour of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda with my band the AfroXchange in conjunction with music therapy organization Global Youth Groove where I hosted jazz masterclasses, as well as performed at clubs and festivals, and assisted a music therapy team around the countryside. Currently, I play weddings and corporate events around the New England and New York areas on weekends and teach middle school band during the week in Manhattan.
My passion for teaching began in my Junior year of high school in 2011-2012, when I spent 6 months teaching guitar lessons to elementary school students at a local YMCA after-school program. With a class size of approximately 10-15 students, I learned many valuable teaching methods for students of all backgrounds and learning methods. Later that year, I said goodbye to my students to move to Boston and attend Berklee College of Music, however, in summer of 2014, I revived my passion for teaching when I started a saxophone lesson program at Brighton's All 'Bout Christ church. Since then, I have moved on to teach saxophone, flute, piano, and theory lessons at Onset School of Music in Wakefield from summer of 2018, and currently teach middle school band at two schools in Manhattan.
For beginners, I have a multitude of etudes, simple songs, and exercises to encourage sight-reading, finger comfortability, and basic cognitive understanding of music fundamentals such as scales. For guitar, I usually begin with fun simple songs such as "What do we do with the Drunken Sailor" and a simple blues. For woodwind instruments, I'll typically begin with songs such as Hot Cross Buns, Mary Had a Little Lamb, or some holiday songs during the holiday season. For more seasoned learners, I typically utilize the practice of transcription, Klose and similar classical etude books for saxophone, Werner classical etude book for flute, and a host of other intermediate-professional books, transcriptions and learning materials for other instruments, as well as a lesson-by-lesson breakdown of scales, chords, arpeggios, harmonic analysis of songs, and related chord scales, melodic and harmonic exercises.
The most rewarding thing about teaching is seeing my students cultivate their love for music, and self-confidence in their sound! In order to best achieve this, the most fundamental understanding is that each student learns and progresses at his or her own pace! With this in mind, I believe the best way to achieve results is to set realistic goals for each lesson - goals that utilize skills practiced in the lesson, yet set the stage for the next lesson are most ideal. In this way, we can help fuel the student's hunger for growth, while keeping them eager to keep on learning! I always start by finding out what inspires the student most, and what, in their own words, their goals are. In this way, I can most ideally suit my teaching style to my students' needs.
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