Teaching Methods

Given the wide range of subjects I teach, my lessons are oriented specifically to the interests and abilities of each individual student.

My priority is getting students to a place of joyful and expressive music-making quickly, with technique serving as a means to that end.

Below are examples of lesson plans for different types of students:

With guitar and piano students, I often start by identifying a song or piece the student already knows and loves. I then develop a plan to teach the student how to play it while learning/refining technical skills along the way. These skills are catered to each student but may include developing an understanding of basic chords, melodic playing, reading notation (scores or tablature), and basic rhythmic patterns.

For electronic music students, we start by learning the basic techniques of Garageband (or Logic/Ableton, if the student prefers), with the student quickly developing the skills to make their first song. In more advanced lessons, we cover principles of arrangement, sound design, mixing, and production, all through the creation of the students original work. 

For songwriting and composition students, a basic understanding of a primary instrument is assumed. These lessons involve listening to and discussing the work of others, as well as regularly creating and editing original work. For songwriting students, this can also involve performance technique - talking not only about how to write songs, but how to perform them.

Though online learning poses difficulty in having student/teacher play at the same time, all other functions of a lesson can be accomplished via video-chat and screen-sharing.

As these lessons are catered to the individual, students are welcome to move between disciplines freely. Guitar students may pick up songwriting, piano students may pick up electronic music.

At the end of the day, the goal is to help students develop the kind of relationship with music they want, and to have fun doing so.