Voice Lessons in St Paul, MN

Instruments: Guitar Classical Guitar

What advice do you have about practicing effectively?
Even more than practicing every day, it is important that students practice with their mind engaged. This means paying attention to notations in the music, reminders we have written on the page for both exercises and songs, and all the myriad aspects of posture and technique that we address in lessons. Of course, practicing regularly and with high frequency will also help you develop quickly as well. It is also important that, as daily practice volume goes past roughly 90 minutes, the student splits up practicing time into 45-60 minute chunks in order to avoid burning themselves out both mentally and physically.

When will I start to see results?
This depends on how much time you spend practicing each practice session, and how frequent those practice sessions are. Beginner students should practice every day if they want to see consistent, tangible progress. The amount of time spent practicing will also effect how much progress is made, as well. A bare minimum length for a practice session would be roughly 30 minutes, to allow the student enough time to warm up with technical exercises before moving on to working on the specific technical and musical challenges of whatever songs they are currently learning. Those students wishing to see more dramatic progress, especially early on, should aim to practice 60 minutes or more every day.

Why did you choose your primary instrument?
My father plays the guitar as well. He had many classical guitar records that we listened to constantly when I was young. The guitarists we spent the most time listening to were Andres Segovia, Christopher Parkening, John Williams, and Julian Bream. They played a historical cross-section of music spanning genres from the 17th century all the way up to the 20th century, influenced by a variety of cultures. This music is what inspired me to pick up the classical guitar. I also love jazz music; we listened to jazz guitarists such as Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery constantly as well.

What do you think is the hardest thing to master on your instrument?
The illusion of continuous sound. Every time the instrument is plucked, the sound of any individual plucked note immediately diminishes. This is in contrast to a violinist or vocalist, to take two examples: both of those kinds of musicians can sustain a note, and even change its volume and tone as they sustain it. On the guitar, changing volume and tone can only be achieved over the course of playing several notes. Being able to change volume and tone in this way requires the student to address the issue as part of technical exercises I introduce or develop in lessons.

If you have a Music Degree, what is it in (Performance, Education, Musicology, Theory, Composition, etc) and why did you choose that degree?
I currently have two degrees: a Bachelor's of Music, and a Master's of Music, both in Guitar Performance, both from the IU Jacobs School of Music. I am working towards a Doctor of Music in Guitar Performance at the same school. I have pursued performance degrees because it is my hope to pursue a career performing professionally in addition to teaching. As part of all three degrees, I have taken and am taking rigorous classes in music theory and history. I have studied Baroque music quite thoroughly in two separate courses and intend to study both 16th and 18th century counterpoint in the next two years as well.

If you weren't a musician what do you think you'd be doing instead?
I have always been interested

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