The study of the piano has been a life-long passion which I know will accompany me for as long as I live.  For me the wonder of the piano is that it provides me the opportunity to constantly learn new things, to constantly challenge myself, to constantly look for ways to improve my skills, and to have a source of complete joy. I know when I sit down to “just play”, I have a hard time finding a reason to stop! And no music moves me more than that which comes from the piano…

My goal in teaching the piano is to instill in my students a love of learning and a life-long appreciation for music. I believe this can be started at any age, which is why I offer lessons to preschoolers, adults, and every one in between.

The benefits of learning to play an instrument are well-documented and a quick Google search results in millions of possible reading material. Playing and studying the piano exercises multiple areas of the brain simultaneously. These areas govern not only the physical movements of the hands, arms, and feet and the sensory experiences of sight, hearing, and touch, but also the intellectual areas that handle mathematics, memory, critical thinking, and problem solving. Therefore, practicing a scale, for example, is not a mechanical drill but an exercise in division (beat), fractions (rhythm), patterns (intervals), finger, arm, and wrist control (dynamics), ear training (pitch), and more.

Playing the piano also develops the soft skills so necessary in every day social interactions and in our studies or jobs. Skills such as discipline, patience, delayed-gratification, mindfulness, determination, perseverance, dedication, responsibility, creativity, concentration, learning from constructive criticism, self-motivation, and self-confidence. These skills are developed with each new piece, with the countless hours spent practicing consistently, and with hearing constructive critiques.

I strive to provide each student with the knowledge and skills to become a well-rounded pianist as well as create an individualized course of study based on the student’s interests and goals. I emphasize the study of classical repertoire, but I also value the inclusion of contemporary music (pop, jazz, musicals, movie themes, etc.) in a student’s lessons.

Over the course of a semester, students will learn:

• Music Theory:
• Music History, History of the Piano, Lives of the Great Composers: We all love to learn about the back stories of our favorite songs… and classical music is full of back stories that are interesting, powerful, inspiring, and as gossip-rag worthy as any Top 100 song today! The composers who wrote this music came from all walks of life and lived and loved as intensely as we do today. Studying the history of music and the piano and the lives of the composers puts the music in context and develops a sensitivity for interpretation and the more intangible aspects of music (musicality, feeling, storytelling, creating an image with sound).
• Ear Training: In it’s simplest form it is the ability to determine when you are playing the wrong note in a piece, but develops into picking up melodies you hear, then processing and playing more complex works. It creates an awareness and discernment of musicality, rhythm, interval and key recognition, and pitch.
• Sight-Reading: As a teenager, I remember being astounded by a scene from “A Song to Remember” when Franz Lizst picks up Chopin’s manuscript for the Polonaise in A Flat Major Op. 53 and knocks it out of the park. Detail: he had never seen or heard the piece before! Sight-reading is an essential skill for developing…
• Improvisation:
• Composition:
• Memorization:
• Performance: