Denver, CO Accordion Lessons

(Performed with Myron Florin at the Wurstfest in Texas for 10 years!).

I teach the piano keyboard accordion as well as the B & C system Chromatic. I also have written lesson materials for the 3 row Diatonic Accordion. Before I closed the physical studio - I had an accordion teaching staff of over 6 instructors and 125 students.

*** On-Line Lesson***
Lesson material will be emailed in advance. Min. Charge based on selections used.

*** Lesson Materials ***
I use Palmer & Hughes instruction books and personally arranged selections for the taste of the student. I use personally produced accompaniment CDs for enhanced performance of students. I train classically (you can chose to learn all your technique and chord progressions) and instruct to the style the student wants. Pop & Standards, Italian, German, French, Cajun, Tex-Mex, etc.

tc.

I relocated to the Denver, CO area in the spring of 2011 after completion of my degree from Washburn University. I continue to teach private music lessons in the Denver metro area.

*** Lesson Details ***
I create fun / structured lessons plans, according to each students' musical interests and experience level. I believe students should be challenged, but also enjoy what they are practicing. I will make sure that beginning students are able to demonstrate and understand various basic to intermediate concepts of music. My goal is that my students will become well-rounded knowledgeable musicians, and will be able to comfortably play and perform with other experienced musicians. I am an easy-going teacher that will make sure students are learning a wealth of information about music, while having a good time doing it.

*** Studio Equipment ***
doesn't really have a studio but could teach out of his home if student really wanted to go.

*** Travel Equipment ***
I can provide Music Stand, amplifier, chords etc.

*** Specialties ***
I can teach a variety of styles of music, including but not limited to, jazz, pop, rock, bluegrass, country, cajun/zydeco etc. I teach music theory/ site reading, flat pick guitar/finger-style guitar, Scruggs style banjo playing, improvisation, etc.

ory that I knew how much I not only loved the thrill of playing music but the discovery of how it worked. With this experience I can show you or your child why learning an instrument can be not only an exciting experience but an interesting and enthralling one as well.

I have been teaching music for over 7 years and have had the privilege of teaching children as young as 4 to adults in their late 80's. I am a very attentive teacher who can not only help get you moving in the right direction but keep you on that path until your are a self-sufficient musician. A level of musicianship that simply means you can learn whatever you want on your instrument on your own, whether it be for business, pleasure or for mere self-improvement.

Through my own student career in private lessons I had the chance to study with graduates of the Musician's Institute (MI), the California Institute of the Arts (CAL Arts) and Berklee College of Music. This has provided me with an inside look into how and what each institute teaches, as well as a first hand look at the techniques and ideas that the great players from these remarkable schools have come to produce.

My formal music education consists of 2 years at Pasadena City College where I obtained my general Associates Degree (much of the studies included music) and a semester at California State University Long Beach as a Jazz Guitar Performance Major. Additionally, I completed a great deal of California State University Long Beach's teaching credential program (focusing on the teaching of history/social studies), where I learned strategies and theories of how and what to teach my students - making me that much more knowledgable of my craft. At Pasadena City College I studied with jazz/classical guitarist, Ron Berman, who has played with such jazz greats as Herb Ellis and Jimmy Wyble. At Cal State Long Beach I studied with jazz guitarist Ron Eschete, a former teacher at MI who has toured with the likes of Ray Brown, John Dizzy Gillespie and Jim Hall.

Most importantly I hope to show you or your child a new way to love and appreciate music. And to provide you with the ability and know-how to have the most fun on your instrument as possible.

*** Lesson Details ***
Throughout my lessons, I always encourage basic skills including scales, sight-reading and technical exercises. But what I hope to give all my students is a basic understanding of music and their instrument, providing them with a practical ability to navigate the vast world of music for a lifetime.

Beyond these skills, I always have songs, styles and theory for you to work on but I am often more interested in what you as an individual want to learn on your instrument. Getting to learn concepts that you have chosen yourself will help encourage practice and will make the finished product all the more the rewarding.

I can custom tailor a teaching curriculum and/or style for any of my students: we can focus on learning songs, learning to read, how to write music, how music works, and even how to play specific styles of music (including funk, rock, jazz, Latin, flamenco, classical, country and blues). I also self tailor my own worksheets and set weekly goals with my students to help encourage practice, understanding and progress. For students interested in more advanced concepts, I can also teach ear training, music theory, advanced jazz improvisation as well as advanced playing techniques.

All this in a friendly and easy-going teaching environment.

*** Studio Equipment ***
Located in my home garage, it is equipped with a small stage, an upright piano, an electric keyboard, a PA system, amplifiers, a drum set, a lap steel guitar, a pedal steel guitar, 2 cellos, multiple guitars, 3 mandolins, a dobro, a 5-string banjo, a 4-string tenor banjo, 2 ukuleles, 2 accordions and 2 electric basses.

*** Specialties ***
Styles: Jazz, Rock, Reggae, Metal, Funk, Progressive Rock, Classical, Folk, Bluegrass, Country, Various forms of Latin Music, Blues, and a few others.

Instruments Beginner to Advanced: Drums, Accordion, Piano, Guitar, Mandolin, Cello, Banjo (5 String), Irish Tenor Banjo (4 String GDAE), Tenor Banjo (4 String CGDA), Electric Bass, Ukulele, Dobro, Lap Steel Guitar (6 String C6 Tuning), Slide Guitar, Pedal Steel Guitar (10 String E9 Tuning).

I also teach the Beginning and Advanced concepts of:
Music Theory, Ear Training, Sight Reading, and Song Writing.

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*** Specialties ***
mariachi, Catholic music, Andean music, Latin rhythms

s the touring pianist for classical crossover group Vivace, as a solo singer-guitarist-pianist, and as the lead singer-guitarist-pianist-composer for my own symphonic-rock-fusion group, The Living. I've also toured extensively in Europe as keyboardist and backing vocalist for singer-songwriter Melanie Dekker.

My compositions have been performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, The Plastic Acid Orchestra, Turning Point Ensemble, Ad Mare Wind Quintet, Vivace, The Living, The Whiskeydicks and cellist-singer-songwriter Cris Derksen.

I have a B.Mus in Piano and Music Composition from The University of British Columbia. I'm an IVA Certified Level I Voice Instructor and have studied Vocals with John Henny, Jeffrey Skouson, Guy Babusek, and Spencer Welch; piano with Terence Dawson, David Vandereyk, and Ross Taggart; composition with Dorothy Chang, Keith Hamel, and Armanini; drums with Jay Deachman and Morgan Childs; bass with David Spidel; and accordion with Jelena Milojevic.

I've just moved to LA from Vancouver where I had about 40 students, so this is the time to sign up as I have room for new students for the first time in years!

mphony Orchestra, the Ad Astra Festival Orchestral, Michael Tilson Thomas's New World Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Radius Ensemble, the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, and currently plays in the Hays Symphony Orchestra, among others. Recently, she served as principal horn with the Geneva Light Opera in their production of Così Fan Tutte, acted as section coach and chaperone in the Boston Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2015 European Tour, and this summer served on faculty at the High Plains Music Camp as a collaborative pianist and hornist.

Equally at home in symphonic, opera, and chamber music worlds alike, Breanna has performed in music festivals across Europe and the United States. In 2011, she served as principal horn at the Eutiner Opernfestspiele in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. She attended the Colorado College Music Festival in summer 2012, and later that summer attended the Ameropa Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. While in Prague, Breanna performed with an international chamber group that took second place in Ameropa's International Concertante Competition. The quartet performed Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante K295b in the Czech Philharmonic's Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall with Camerata Filarmonica Bohemia. In the summer of 2015, by invitation, Breanna studied with world-renowned hornist and pedagogue Frøydis Ree Wekre in Oslo, Norway.

Holding performance degrees in both horn and piano from the University of Kansas, Breanna attended the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy as a pianist in 2010. There, she met kindred spirits amongst the composers attending and later that year, invited them to Kansas to hear their commissions performed by her brass quintet, the Lawrence 5. The concert served as both premieres of their works and as a benefit concert to aid in the building of schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan through the Central Asia Institute. While at the University of Kansas, Breanna was a recipient of the Zakoura Collaborative Pianist Scholarship. Much of her pianistic time was spent collaborating with instrumentalists and vocalists from all realms, often in premieres of new works by colleagues in composition. Regarding hornistic studies while studying at KU, she was assistant then fourth horn of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra, the first job she won at age 20.

Breanna graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA under full Presidential and Merit scholarship with her master's degree in horn performance, studying with James Sommerville, principal horn of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. During her time there, she also earned her Music-In-Education Concentration under the guidance of movement-founder Larry Scripp. She received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Kansas School of Music in horn performance, studying with Paul Stevens, and piano performance, studying with Jack Winerock. Breanna is currently Interim Professor of Horn at Fort Hays State University and continues to be a collaborative pianist at the University and throughout the state of Kansas. When not pursuing musical endeavors, she enjoys creating raw desserts, planning her worldwide backpacking trip, and learning mad, Balkan rips to busk with on accordion.