Lessons for piano/keyboard or 6 string guitar- 
     Lessons meet for 30" up to one hour once a week on a regular basis. If you would like to have just one or two lessons with me, that's fine too.  If you are a very beginner, if you have previous musical skill or if you are an advanced musician, you are welcome to have a piano or guitar lesson with me.  
     My piano/keyboard and or 6 string guitar lessons include several musical topics.  To the best of my ability I honestly try to meet you where you are at with your own musical gifts, musical aptitudes, skills and GO! from there, helping with musical growth.  Some of the musical topics I teach about are included in the following.  Basic beginning, like how to hold the guitar so that you are comfortable, and with the piano, learning to keep oneself distanced away appropriately from the instrument so that your arms and hands have the best angles to play well. Another topic of basic beginning with piano is how to develop hand movement while having fun.  Basic stretching, that takes less than 3 to 4 minutes, so that it is easier to play the guitar and piano. 
     When I work with children, I usually play at least one musical game at least every other lesson to encourage ear training and rhythm development.   The earliest age I teach with guitar is usually six.  The earliest age I teach with piano is four.  There are always exceptions.  Fun, laughter and enjoyment are mandatory.

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     When I teach,  I FOCUS on what WORKS.  I do NOT adhere to any one specific methodology and "make" the student follow it.  I am familar with several music education methodologies and integrate all of them to help you have a positive musicial experience  I endorse several music education methodologies, including Dalcroze, Suzuki, Solfege, and Orff.  I try to help you, the piano and guitar students to develop your own strategies that work for you.  I teach how to become aware of how to BE aware!  :)    
     I teach listening skills that will benefit students so that increased comprehension can take place to further other musical skills.  I help to develop the musical ear by helping students to notice what it is he or she is listening to, pitch differential, the intervals- how far apart are the musical sounds and how that correlates with ear to hand/body movement.  In the lesson, this is accomplished by playing musical games, analyzing student's choice recordings, and learning the language of intervals including different types of chords and chord sonorities, textures of the sound.  I encourage playing by ear from already knowing the song "by heart," and how to play by ear from using recordings.
     At any age and at any musical caliber, one can enhance melodic and rhythmic aptitude and skills.  At the very beginning, it is noting the vocabulary difference between melody and rhythm and understanding how melody and rhythm works together.  Usually, the study of melody or "soloing" is how most beginning musicians start to practice.  The melody includes rhythm.  This leads to memorizing the song on the piano or guitar, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or When the Saints Go Marching In.  I usually recommend every guitar and piano player to keep a few songs memorized from the very start.  So that means I also teach how to memorize music from a few different perspectives, including classical style.  

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     There are worlds of different rhythms, as MOST of us already well know.  At the begininng stages of piano and guitar study this means how to keep a steady beat and become aware of different rhythms, styles of rhythms, how to create your own rhythms are all musical topics that I teach.  Some of my students prefer to learn multitudes of rhythm patterns, while some of my students like to become aware of musical genres which are defined by rhythm.  It is important to me for each individual student to be able to assess accurately where they are at rhythmically.  It is not a good nor bad thing.  Rhythm is something to be learned and rhythm is a skill, as well as melody.  When the person who is taking lessons from me can understand how he or she relates with rhythm, it becomes much easier to learn rhythm and about rhythm.  If you are patient with yourself, you will understand how you personally learn rhythm skills and keep them to your musical advantage.
     In piano and guitar lessons, I teach how to understand musical notation and reading of staves, tablature and other forms of sheet music.  I accomplish this by encouraging parents to expose their children to listen to music, in turn, using their developed ear- there's that ear to hand/arm movement stuff- to assist them in reading.  There are several ways to learn how to read music.  In the beginning stages color code paper charts, rote, memory, simply making a commitment to do it and more.   
     Other topics of music that I use to teach piano and guitar lessons with are introductions and exposure to different musical styles of modern day societies and historical concepts.   I teach basic western music theory and integration of modalities. When I say mode, I am referring to the historical collection from Europe, often called the Seven Church Modes, that are representations of seven pre-existing cultures before and during the Roman Empire.  These modes were in use dating back to around 800 AD, the modes were assimilated and are passed on in today's European and American music.

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     I teach improvisational techniques- this also ties in with knowing intervals and basic theory, scales major minor pentatonic chord development, chord sequencing. songwriting.  Improvising is simple for a lot of my students.  I simply ask the student at the beginning stages to make up a melody while I play bass chords or a bass line.  Improvising evolves with the use of knowledge from scales and basic to advanced chord knowledge and of course practice.  
     I do not require all of my students to do all of the above.  Rather, I meet with you, see what you want to do musically, make up a plan of action that you the indiviual agree with or the family agrees with.  We proceed from there with music lessons.  If you decide to take lessons from me on a more continous basis, we rediscuss your goals with piano and guitar music about every 4-6 weeks to make sure you are headed in a musical direction that you want to go. 
     Students are encouraged to go at a pace you are comfortable with. Students are encouraged to develop your own individual musicianship, artistic style and creativity.  Students are encouraged to make up your own musical goals.  Family members are invited and welcome to join during the lesson. It is important to me the person feel comfortable, relaxed and enjoy their learning process. 
     One music book does not fit all.  I use different method books to teach with.  Some personalities do better with one set of music books and others do better with different music books.  If you have pre-existing music books that you like- let's use them.  If you have music books that you do not like, I suggest recycling them to a library, book store, reselling them or give them to a neighbor.  


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     I do not keep written contracts with my students. I do ask for common courtesy like calling me as soon as possible if you or your child cannot make it for the scheduled lesson so that we can reschedule the lesson date or just go to the next week.  If I show up for a lesson, you are not there and you did not call me the morning before the lesson, payment for that missed lesson that day is requested.  Lessons are $20 per half hour.

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