Voice Lessons

I am classically trained and approach teaching as such. An important factor to bear in mind that is that the human voice matures very slowly—most of our voices don't fully settle until our mid-30s! I am very conscious of the damage it is possible to do to our voices at a young age, and I take that very seriously, especially with my younger singers. All my repertoire choices come from what I feel is pedagogically appropriate for each individual student. We mostly work with classics, folk music, and musical theatre. I generally do not assign pop music or focus on it in lessons unless it is needed for a specific performance. 

Songs are expected to be memorized for performances.

We also work on music theory to aid in music reading proficiency. Older students who are comfortable reading music will do sightreading exercises, but will not spend much dedicated time on music theory. 

Piano Lessons

We work hard and have fun in piano lessons! My foundational belief about teaching piano is that basic concepts are extremely important and shouldn't be brushed past. Too many piano teachers let students move quickly through material if the notes are kind of right—that is not my style! I teach the Faber method (that would be the books with the flying piano) and all books are available in the piano books subpage. 

Acoustic pianos are not terribly accessible—I don't have one myself! There are many excellent options for electric keyboards. Ideally, you want a full-size (88-key) keyboard with at least semi-weighted keys.

Progress absolutely does not happen without practicing. Students are expected to practice the following amounts per week:

Ages 5–6: 40 minutes
Ages 7–8: 60 minutes
Ages 9–10: 80 minutes
Ages 11–12: 100 minutes
Ages 13+: 120 minutes

When these amounts are not met, we will devote lesson time to technical exercises. The number of exercises we do will be contingent on how many weeks a student has missed the benchmark (i.e., one excercise the first time, two the second, and so on).