Guitar with Heather M. L.

More important than my conservatory education and my experience as an educator and a performer is my passion for teaching music and acting and my undying belief that anyone can learn to be a musician and an actor. I'm currently available to teach lessons in my own St. Augustine home studio and online around the globe. I'm a cum laude graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey and a winner of its merit scholarship. I studied classical music there, grateful to have been taught by the likes of tenor Thomas Faracco, and renowned voice scientist and pedagogue, Dr. Scott McCoy. After performing with the New York and Royal Philharmonics, the New Jersey and Virginia Symphonies, the American Boy Choir and the internationally renowned opera star, Andrea Bocelli, studying opera and piano at Westminster Choir College and performance art and improvisational acting at East Carolina University in North Carolina, and appearing in shows and pageants across the east coast, I found my life's work in 2003 when I began teaching music. I've taught hundreds of different students since 2003 with great success, from 5-year-olds with special needs to middle-aged professional opera singers, from a professor in Saudi Arabia to a 65-year-old doctor of music, from kids of Radio Disney to students of the famed Actors Studio in New York, from busy stay-at-home parents to retirees with bucket lists, from CEOs to touring singer-songwriters. I've created and led a workshop about singing called, "The Whole Body Singer". I've written dozens of articles about music and music education for the blog at TakeLessons.com. My extensive knowledge of the voice has encouraged and empowered hundreds of singers and prepared many of them to win competitions, pageants and auditions, as well as roles in operas and musicals, including lead roles in Limelight Theater and Curtis Camp productions. When a student comes to me in need of voice coaching, my job is to get to the root of mental blocks, to reveal why and how she's not singing at her optimum. Before I received formal training at a conservatory, I learned piano on my own, and both have prepared me to teach almost anyone, with any experience, how to play. The intensive training and education that I received at Westminster Choir College in songwriting, music theory and sight reading has benefited my students at every level. My current work as singer and keyboardist in the acoustic folk rock duo, Timberwood, has strengthened my knowledge of a broad range of styles and genres. As a lifelong learner, I have a strong commitment to continuing my education. That's why I studied songwriting online with the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2014. In the lessons that I teach, I'm flexible, positive and encouraging. While I want my students to have fun and love music, not dread it, I expect hard work and persistence. I am caring, patient, nurturing, and compassionate. In piano lessons, I usually allow the student to choose a piece with which to warm up and then move on to technique and repertoire. In voice lessons, I usually warm up the singer and discuss technique and sight singing before focusing on song choices. Joan Frey Boytim wrote a book for voice that I like to use, and I like the Estelle Liebling exercises for the more advanced singer. Hanon exercises are a big part of my piano curriculum, and I enjoy the Bastien and Alfred books for young and old. I have used completely random songs pulled out of a piano bench and a karaoke CD for kids. I will use almost anything I can get my hands on if it means effectively teaching music. Acting lessons consist of exercises and games that apply learned concepts, with an emphasis on stage acting and Meisner technique, as well as monologue and audition coaching. Currently, I have only online availability for guitar students. Students under the age of twelve will use the Alfred Guitar Book for Kids. All other students will start with the Hal Leonard Guitar Method. Parents, siblings and spouses are always welcome to observe lessons quietly.