My Teaching Philosophy:

All my students learn to read music, count rhythms and play to a metronome. Once those basic skills are well established, they learn chords, theory, scales, how to play music from lead sheets, jazz/pop, in addition to standard classical instruction. I encourage them to study all types of music from classical and jazz to pop and world music, and many of them do. I also teach many instruments and encourage them to try more than one! Many of my students play 2 or more instruments.

I teach fundamentals well. I believe that it doesn’t matter what instrument you learn, or what styles of music you end up learning... reading music is the most important skill and should be taught from the beginning. All of my students start by learning to read music; learning each piece by reading it, never by rote. My system is very easy for the students to deal with, because I break every task down into small chunks in logical order. I rarely lose students; they find that it’s fun because it’s taught kindly and they can do it easily and successfully.

I provide a progressive course of study. This, done well, should ensure that the student 1) is well rounded and 2) does not get frustrated working on material that is too hard. I think that many, if not most, students-who-quit quit because they spend a lot of unrewarding time working at the wrong tasks. Beginning students learn best on a whole lot of easy pieces that teach skills in the proper order.

I respect the student’s time and interest level. Music students are all different. Some are instantly passionate about music but lose interest over time. Some never lose interest. Some students are indifferent to it at first but fall in love later. Some never decide to be good musicians, and that’s alright too. Music lessons can be great life experiences for all of these students if taught properly and compassionately.

My Philosophy on practice: Students who practice regularly do very well. If they are properly taught, they progress quickly and have lots of fun doing it. However, not every student practices regularly, and even those who usually do find themselves with weeks when they haven’t practiced.
I believe in accepting what students are bringing to the lesson. If they haven’t practiced, a teacher should be able to use the lesson fruitfully anyway. I have students who rarely practice, and they still advance, just a bit slower than those who do. I believe that for the majority of music students, it is the exposure to music that is important to them, not the degree of virtuosity they attain. And of course, sometimes a reluctant student will find things in their lessons that changes her interest level; some of them become very good musicians. In short, I believe that keeping students without nagging them is the best way to give them a good experience with music over the course of their lives.

On the other hand, I make sure that I teach students the importance of practice, as well as what constitutes good practice; how to do it well. I also advise parents on the process.

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