Veronica G
5.0
(10)
Instruments: Piano
Styles: Classical, Pop, Rock, Blues, New Age, Punk
Veronica G
5.0
(10)
Instruments: Piano
Styles:
Classical, Pop, Rock, Blues, New Age, Punk
Where I Teach:
Ages Taught: 8-80
Bachelor's of Fine Arts, Mount Holyoke College 2003
Associates in Music, Holyoke Community College 1999
I am a motivated instructor who loves making lessons fun and interesting. I have a BFA from Mount Holyoke College where I concentrated on composition and performance. I am classically trained, however I often am teaching other types of music to my students such as: blues, pop, rock, musicals, etc. I love listening and arranging popular music to suit various levels of ability. Since I have a wide range of music tastes/interests, I can easily accommodate any style requests from students with ease.
I have been teaching for over 20 years (since 1999). I have taught in several music stores, music academies, and also have had long-term private students (I traveled to their homes to teach). I love meeting with students in person. More recently (in the past 2 years), I have been offering online lessons and have found that to be equally as rewarding. Since I have perfect pitch and a well-trained ear, I do not need to see a student's hands in order to know what they are doing/playing/fingering. I find that teaching piano gives me a deep satisfaction in life.
I have used a wide variety of method books. I feel very comfortable with any book in the Alfred's series, Piano Adventures, Bastien, Playtime Piano, etc. However, in many cases, I often select songs/material outside of lesson books to keep lessons interesting. As a musician who needs motivation to practice, I know that practicing material that I like to be essential. The same applies to my students. If we are working on a piece that the student enjoys listening to, the student will be more motivated to practice.
I feel that positive encouragement means everything! I am a very relaxed and easy-going teacher as far as helping students move along through their piece especially when the student may not be practicing. I am never quick to judge or make a student feel bad about their rate of progress. I like to break pieces apart into patterns that the student can easily recognize for more effective learning. I also like to include theory into every lesson in some way: identifying chords within the piece, rhythmic patterns, melodic phrases, etc. There will never be a lack of interesting information in a lesson with me.
Mark
I first contacted Veronica about four years ago. I am an adult who used to take piano lessons throughout high school and then lost touch with music until recently. She is very organized and helped me to fulfill my piano goals through a customized plan that she designed for me. She has been teaching me mostly classical music. She has introduced me to some really great pieces by Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, Bach and others. Occasionally we dive into projects that involve the creative process such as improv. I would say that she's quite versatile and is able to play just about any style of music with confidence. I highly recommend her as a teacher to anyone.
Alice
Veronica has been my teacher for 3 years now. She is very patient and kind. Her teaching style is relaxed and she pushes me to go further in my learning in a very gentle way. I enjoy playing showtunes, but there's not always a version that suits my current ability level, so she takes it upon herself to write out a version that I will be able to play. I cannot say enough good things about her. She has been a positive influence on me and is very encouraging.
Jenny
"Our family has been taking lessons with Veronica for seven years! We have four kids and so initially, she was coming to our home for the first several years (which is super convenient!) but over the past two years, we switched to on-line lessons and there are a lot of wonderful advantages to that too ( like you can do your lessons in your jammies or not feel the need to pick up the house! On top of that, if our schedule is a little erratic and we need to make changes to the schedule, it's not as big of a deal). At first, we were a bit unsure of how the on-line lessons would go, but Veronica has things easily set up with a few different camera angles so you can watch her face or her piano keys and she is able to take snap-shots of your music lesson book pages. We just set up our ipad on top of the piano and it's easy! She has a good ear and can hear if we're not playing the right notes on our end. As far as her style, I cannot say enough about how kid-friendly she is. My youngest started at age four, when he was a pre-reader, and he was so eager to be like his big brother and sisters. Our older kids started around age seven and voluntarily want to continue with lessons every week. She has the ability to take them from the simplest of music to the most complex. Her style is relaxed and friendly and we never feel worried or scared if we haven't practiced or perfected a piece. She just meets you where you're at and helps break things down into easy chunks. She also has quite a repertoire of music that kids love! Veronica has a multitude of talents. When one of my daughters decided she would rather play the flute instead of the piano, Veronica was able to seamlessly transition to flute lessons. She's great with instructing adults too, as I decided to start taking lessons myself, as a 40-something year old mom, and it's been great! If you are considering taking in-person or on-line lessons with Veronica, I would wholeheartedly endorse her. I owe her a lot of credit for keeping my kids interested and engaged in wanting to continue with music lessons for more than seven years." -
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