Piano with Christian D.

Hello everyone! :) I am a piano teacher from the Los Angeles area! I have two big passions in life. Music and teaching! And putting both together is truly a rewarding experience for me. That being said, I feel so lucky that I am a music teacher! I absolutely love to instill my passion for music in others, and I feel very accomplished when a student not only learns their instrument well, but also develops a passion for playing it! I always say that my main goal while teaching piano, is to make lessons both fun and rewarding! I believe that in order for a student to learn piano well, he/she must love playing it! I know that I've accomplished this "main goal" many times in the past, and I'm absolutely thrilled about doing it again and again! I hold a Bachelors of Arts in Music degree from USC (my focus was Classical Piano). While pursuing this degree, I studied classical piano with renowned pianist Norman Krieger (among other teachers at USC). Also, I recently graduated with a masters degree (my focus was music composition) from UC Irvine. While there, I taught music theory to undergraduates. I think theory is important and it's one of the things I emphasize when I teach piano. When performing live, I love to play my own music but of course I also have a passion for performing the classics as well! I have also been playing keyboards in a rock band for several years. *** Lesson Details *** I teach Beginner to semi- advanced levels. When working with beginners, I like to start with teaching basic scales and chords before starting to work on actual pieces of music. Scales help develop finger technique and knowing what chords you're playing helps one understand music better. When we start to go over pieces, I like to emphasize phrasing and dynamics as much as possible. And I also help the students analyze the music (chords, etc) so that they, again, understand the music they're playing. At first, I like to choose what pieces a student plays. But as they get more advanced, I encourage them to choose the music themselves. In other words, I want them to play what they want to play. I find classical music very exciting and I try to help students "get into it" by having them find music they like, and learning it! Of course, I try to help with this process as much as possible and if a student only chooses music that I feel will not help them improve their piano skills (or music that is beyond their level), I will help the student find something else. In general, after 3 to 6 months with me, a student will have learned some exciting pieces of music, they will have developed greater finger technique, they will understand the theory behind all the music they play, and they will have developed a greater passion for their instrument and for music itself! *** Studio Equipment *** lessons in living room, piano, room for parents *** Travel Equipment *** For piano students: I would expect them to have a piano or keyboard in their home. I would provide sheet music for the first few lessons. I am trained in the Alfred and Bastien methods and have used those books during my lessons. I would talk to the student over the first couple of lessons to find out whether I think they would benefit from those books. For song writing and theory students: I would expect them to have blank musical notation paper. I would provide scores/books for study for the first several lessons. Later, I may ask them to purchase certain books if I feel it would help them. *** Specialties *** My background is mainly in classical music (although I have been playing keyboards in a rock band for the past several years). I have been studying classical piano since I was 5, and I also studied it while pursuing my Bachelors degree in music at USC. I have been teaching Beginning-Advanced music theory to college undergraduates for the past 2 years. I hold a Masters degree in Music (my emphasis was music composition) from University of California, Irvine