Resources for Music Students

How do I teach?
Lessons run for at least one-hour. In that hour we concentrate on eight aspects of music:

1. Warm-up improvisation
2. Scales & Arpeggios
3. Sight-reading
4. Ear-training & Solfeggio
5. Theory
6. Rhythm
7. Repertoire
8. Composition & Improvisation

During the warm-up improvisation I guide you through free-improvisation music making at the piano. This is a time to "get into the right headspace" for music making.

We then move to five-finger exercises, scales & arpeggios, using the Schmitt, Preparatory Exercises for Piano.

I believe that sight-reading should be a part of daily practice. We use the Bartok Mikrokosmos, and Czerny's The Little Pianist for sight-reading.

Ear-training & solfeggio is studied using the above texts. I encourage student to solfeggio while they are playing.

Music theory is studied from both a classical & jazz perspective. I work with student using How to Play From a Real Book by Rawlins.

Learning to read rhythms is essential. We work through Robert Starer's Rhythmic Training book.

Finally, repertoire of the student's choice. I primarily teach pieces by Bach, Chopin, Satie, Ravel, and Debussy, as well as, jazz standards.

We conclude the lesson with composition techniques & improvisation. I encourage all of my students to compose their own music & to improvise at the piano daily.

Here is a printable list of the skills you will learn with me.

Resources for Music Students

On Learning Music & Being a Musician
The Musician's Way (Klickstein) *Required for students
Free Play (Nachmanovitch) *Required for students
Effortless Mastery (Werner)
The Music Lesson (Wooten)
Just Being at the Piano (Portney Chase)
The Perfect Wrong Note (Westney)
The Musiciansway.com
The Universal Mind of Bill Evans

Music Theory
How to Play From a Real Book (Rawlins) *Required for students
Essentials of Music Theory (Gardner)

Music Reading
Bela Bartok, Mikrokosmos Vol 1 *Required for students
Schmitt, Preparatory Exercises for Piano *Required for students
First Lessons in Bach *Required for students
Real Book for Vocalists *Required for students

Music History
Howard Goodall, The Story of Music (BBC)
The Cry of Jazz (Sun Ra)
Jazz (Ken Burns)

Improvisation
Herbie Hancock, Norton Lecture Harvard
Jamie Aebersold, Anyone Can Improvise
Beginning Jazz Improvisation, Dave Frank

Composition
Composition for Beginners (Hamilton)
Donald Fagan on Songwriting

Ear-training
New England Conservatory Course in Solfeggio
Dannhauser, Solfege de Solfeges

Rhythm
Rhythmic Training (Starer) *Required for music students