Piano with Jeffrey L.

Jeffrey L. is an active professional musician performing with jazz, blues, rock, country, and R&B groups all across Ohio and the Midwest since 1999. He is an Ohio native who trained at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied piano and music theory and history, earning a Bachelor of Music degree. As an independent piano instructor at the Cincinnati Music Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jeff taught students from ages 8 to 68 at all levels of experience, specializing in popular and jazz styles, improvisation, and beginning piano and keyboard. Jeff enjoys teaching students in both traditional and non-traditional styles, allowing students to guide their own studies. Jeff spent many years performing gospel and contemporary praise music with the Mother of Christ Choir ensemble in the Cincinnati area. He was instrumental in developing the ensemble's sound as their accompanist as well as by arranging of many of their songs. Jeff and the other instrumentalists from this ensemble went on to form Mocha, a contemporary jazz and blues group, which performed at area landmarks such as Cincinnati Music Hall and the Greenwich Tavern. In addition to teaching and performing music, Jeff is a composer and audio engineer, having produced original music for several independent films, theatrical productions, and commercials. He values being able to take an original idea from an artist and help them realize the full extent of their vision. Jeff continues to teach, perform, and produce music, now residing on the near-West side of Cleveland. In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors, woodworking, and discovering new music. Jeff has a variety of approaches to the beginner student of any age. Regardless of whether the student ultimately wants to play Chopin or Elton John, learning the basics of piano is emphasized. Jeff often makes use of well-known piano instruction books such as the Alfred's All-in-One Piano Course for adults and Faber's Piano Adventures for children. Using these established methodologies as a basis and augmenting with his own personal materials, the beginner student gets a robust introduction to the world of piano in a fashion designed uniquely for each player. For those with prior experience in music - whether it be an adult who took piano lessons as a child, a high school jazz band student, a guitar player or other instrumentalist, or a singer/songwriter - starting with the rudimentary skills can be redundant and tiresome, and a more practical approach is desired. Jeff approaches these students by studying the musical idioms relevant to that musician's personal experience and expanding it based on their goals. For the jazz band student who needs to learn how to improvise solos, Jeff guides the student in analyzing music within the genre and learning what characterizes such solos. Alternatively, Jeff assists the student who wants to learn how to play pop songs from the chords in breaking songs down and recreating them from their most basic elements. In all these cases, the student chooses the music, the songs, and the pace in order to achieve their own personal goals.