Piano with Daniel H.

Daniel Hyde is a active piano instructor, classical pianist and musician living and working in New York City for the past ten years. With a decade of experience teaching students ages 3 through 60 and every age in between, he has developed a thorough and personalized teaching method that leaves students fascinated musicians and skilled pianists. Daniel's students not only obtain the skills of a well-rounded pianist, but learn to learn, learn to enjoy and learn to share in the magic of music making. As a versatile musician who works as an high-level accompanist and classical pianist, Daniel uses the skills of composition, improvisation, sheet-music reading, collaboration, repertoire performance and music-theory application daily. It is these skills which Daniel bestows upon his students through his unique methodology. While each class is personalized to the skillset and interests of the student, with the primary goal of inspiring them to learn and love music, Daniel's classes are a rigorous and exciting time for student, teacher and parent alike. Daniel is currently employed as a pianist at the Juilliard School, LaGuardia High School For The Performing Arts, with The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Company, The Martha Graham School Of Contemporary Dance, The Manhattan Youth Ballet and many more. He has taught a growing studio of piano students over his time in New York, as well as teaching for 'Music To Your Home', a major musical education company. He has taught theory, structure and the relationships between music and dance as a Guest Professor at The National University of Costa Rica, as well as in improvisation classes at The Ballet Hispanico School (NYC). Daniel received extensive training and his Bachelor's Degree in Classical Piano Performance from The University Of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and at El Instituto Superior De Artes, Costa Rica. He has also been trained as an elite Dance Accompanist for over a decade under the mentorship of the best accompanists in New York City. His work as an accompanist has brought him to Barcelona (Spain), Athens (Greece), San Jose (Costa Rica), Chicago (Illinois), and put him in the employment of nearly every major school and dance company in New York City. Daniel would love to bring his skills, experience and love of music to you and your family. A hour lesson with Daniel might go something like this! Technical Work: [10 minutes] - Scales, posture and technique, and 'Dozen A Day, Daily Piano Lesson Exercises' as well as other method's of technical development created by Daniel to work on dynamic shading, arpeggios, and tone often function to start the lesson, engaging the student's focus and challenging their memory to 'bring up' what was achieved in the previous lesson. Repertoire: [15 minutes] -Pieces are chosen from the 'Bastien Piano Teaching Method' which are supplemented by Daniel's personal collection of pieces and based on the students skill level and interest. In this section we interact with the full capacity of the student to read music, master rhythm and technical difficulties, add increasingly subtle detail, achieve consistency and focus and all with the intention of eventually performing the work. Along the way we instill the knowledge and skills necessary to perform before an audience, often creating mock-performance environments. Additional repertoire: [15 minutes] - Students often learn and play Duet Repertoire with Daniel, engaging in the experience of Chamber musician creation and learning the importance of collaboration and listening. - Students interested in pop and jazz begin work on aural skills or 'Ear Training', learning pieces by way of listening to them and then creating piano arrangements from the transcriptions they craft with Daniel's help. These arrangements become pieces in the student's repertoire. Music Theory: [10 minutes] - Theory: Students are taught early on to read 'key signatures' and 'time signatures' in tandem with the development of their scale work and their repertoire. Students learn the significance of the ordering of the scales, the intervals (distance between notes) which define them and multiple ways to deconstruct and define a scale and its parts, thereby allowing students to continue learning on their own, as well as developing the terminology to communicate with other musicians. Theory gradually increases in complexity based on the student’s interest and skill level, to encompass every facet of chord making, harmony relationships and Roman Numeral Analysis. - Vocab Word: Students receive a 'Vocab Word' every lesson. This word is a musical term, which will help the student to accurately communicate with Daniel and other musicians as well as more deeply understand the musical language. - Flash Cards: Students also receive and develop a 'flash-card library'. This is a note-learning game which students play in each lesson with the goal of 'beating last weeks time' using increasing skills in sheet-music reading. As the student learns more notes and achieves faster times, the 'flash card library' grows and the challenge increases. Improvisation: [5 minutes] - Every lesson Daniel and the student improvise at least one piece of music. The student is guided over a period of weeks to internalize the concept of improvisation, eventually freeing them to the infinite and inspiring possibilities inherent in the practice of 'Improv'. Improvisations use and thereby reinforce the scales learned at the beginning of each lesson and demonstrate the importance of listening, collaboration, imagination and harmony. The Color Game: [5 minutes] - This is a game played at the end of each lesson in which Daniel and the student take turns striking a 'triad' (a chord with three notes). With eyes closed, the two participants begin to 'listen closely' to the chord as it is then restruck and eventually attempt to 'hear a color'. Students may also 'hear' shapes, textures, and scenes, which Daniel and the student then share with each other to great fascination and amusement, revealing similarities of interpretation and most importantly, opening the students mind to a new and magical understanding of sound. This game, related to the psychological phenomenon of synesthesia, engages the students imagination, self-confidence and concludes each lesson is a fun, inspiring and exciting way. Piano Notebook: - All of Daniel's students keep a 'piano notebook', in which they receive a practice plan at the close of each lesson. The practice plan outlines the goals and methods of practice for the coming week, as well as containing advice from and a synopsis of that day's lesson. The notebook further serves as a workbook and a reference used throughout the learning process. Sincerely, Daniel Hyde