My teaching philosophy: Find the fun, fast

Would you agree that most people who spend time and money on music lessons don't do it in hopes of becoming a concert pianist or their child pursuing a career as a professional musician? It's mostly about having a bit of fun in life, right?

I believe my mission as a music teacher is to help my students "find the fun, fast” and to keep having fun playing music for the rest of their lives.

As a child, I endured years of piano lessons that seemed to consist of meaningless scales, boring exercises and obscure pieces of music I didn't like. My parents had to force me to practice. It was no fun for the whole family.

When I reached my teens, I almost quit in protest. But then I got a new piano teacher who let me learn Top 40 hits from the radio (plus Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, also favoured by Peanuts pianist Schroeder). Suddenly it all made sense. Learning piano was no longer a chore. Now it was fun, cool even – like The Beatles, Billy Joel, Elton John and other music idols back in the day. I started playing keyboards in garage bands and discovered that my childhood piano lessons made it pretty easy for me to learn other musical instruments as an adult… saxophone, harmonica, etc.

Then came the internet, and an explosion of online instructional content – some very good, some not. In my experience, left on your own, a music student can waste a lot of time and money trying to navigate the sea of available online lessons and other stuff. Without an experienced tour guide at your side, you can easily lose your way and develop bad habits that can be tough to fix later on. The do-it-yourself approach to learning a musical instrument can be sooooo frustrating.

I believe in a balanced approach: 

In-person, private music lessons with a teacher who curates the best technology and other instructional resources to help each student learn their instrument and find the fun, fast.

Below you'll find links to recommended learning resources I use with my music students. Some of these tools I use in my own work as a performing musician. Much of this content is available for free on the internet, and none of it costs very much. 
 
Have fun!