Piano lessons
Whether just beginning or already experienced, six years old or sixty years old, everyone has something to gain from piano lessons. I teach students of all ages at a wide range of skill levels at K&S Conservatory of Music in Woodbury, Minnesota.
Who I teach:
Everyone! I offer lessons to musicians of all ages and abilities who have the desire to put in the time and effort. Neurodiversity is one of my specialties, so I welcome autistic students, as well as those with ADHD, dyslexia, auditory processing disorders, emotional disorders, physical disabilities, and trauma. Having lived with obsessive-compulsive disorder and ADHD for as long as I can remember, I have some insight into what it's like to be neurologically different. Where there's any interest in learning music, I want to help develop that interest into a skill!
What I teach:
My lessons have a largely classical focus. Beginning students start out with a method book, and as they progress I transition them to canonical repertoire with pieces by Bach, Telemann, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Kabalevsky, Bartok, and other big names, as well as music by contemporary pedagogical composers in classical, jazz, and pop styles. Students are welcome to introduce whatever music they'd like in addition to what I assign them. If they have something special in mind that they'd like to play, I'm always happy to try to find it—and if I can't find it, I'll write an arrangement myself, or co-arrange with the student. Whatever a student is interested in, we can find a way to make it a meaningful learning experience.
How I teach:
Cheerful, collaborative, adaptable.
I'm a cheerfly, optimistic, and inquisitive person, and my teaching style reflects that. Each student is greeted with a smile at every lesson. More importantly, though, my lessons are not socially stratified—I am emphatically not the student's superior. Instead, both the student and I are collaborators in their music study. This allows students to feel more comfortable taking risks, leading them to explore the many complicated forms of musical knowledge in a more intuitive way. My greatest goal is to help each student excel at music by enjoying the process. Along the way, students explore their interests and discover new ones, and I reflect and get feedback to see if there are ways I can adapt my approach to better serve the student.