My Teaching Philosophy

Whether a musician creates their own music or plays songs that were written yesterday to centuries ago, they are bringing to life our deepest feelings, dreams and emotions. For some, this expression can be enough when playing in solitude but for many of us, the connection to other people created by music is necessary

There are many ways to learn to play an instrument, but study is important. Just as a painter learns to mix colors on a palette or a potter learns to shape clay on the wheel or a boat builder learns to bend wood into a sailing vessel, as musician needs the right skills to fully create and share their love for music.

This does not mean 10,000 hours of practice but rather to start with creating a musical skill foundation that you can continually build on with your teacher, or by self-study or by playing with others.

Some skills are fundamental. For example, being able to physically press the keys or press the frets at the right place and at the right time. Being able to interpret sheet music whether in chart or sheet music form. Being able to understand how music is put together from a theory perspective. These three provide a great foundation that is achievable for anyone.

I have found that music learning methods such as The Royal Conservatory (RCM) Prep (and beyond) or the Alfred Basic Piano Library or the Hal Leonard Guitar Method series are essential in that they provide a very tangible path for learning and practice for basic practical skills, technique and theory.

Musical learning is not just a straight line upwards from being a “beginner” to being a “skilled”. The journey takes many twists and turns and often feels like a set of plateaus or stairs that the student climbs as they add more knowledge over time.

I’m a lifelong musical learner and I hope my students follow this path too. Even now, after many years, I’m taking RCM courses as a certified teacher to improve my own skills…not just for playing but for teaching.

Music is wonderful when played with others. I encourage my students to take advantage of twice-yearly recitals and to learn tools for recording their music such as GarageBand. For my more advanced students we’ll spend more time on improvisation and composition. For all students, we’ll have fun which is the most important thing.

Although the student is the primary owner of their path to learning, for my younger students, there is a partnership that is put in place between the teacher, student and parent. I ask parents to commit to providing learning materials as requested, a decent instrument to play and positive space and time for the student to practice a bit daily.
In our busy lives, finding and prioritizing practice time is challenging.

At some point, a young student will decide that music is their thing (or not!) and they will prioritize it versus jobs, sports, schoolwork etc. My feeling early on is that practice should not be forced on the student. Ideally, younger students should have weekly practice and creative time on their instrument that cumulatively at least equals their lesson time.

Thanks for visiting me, I look forward to being able to help your student get started on a lifetime of musical enjoyment.