Songwriting with Jacob L.

I am a professional songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and recording artist. I graduated from Wesleyan University with a Bachelors of Music, specifically Jazz and Music Production. Music Theory students can expect to work each week on understanding core music theory concepts. Some of the practice each week will include analyzing classical pieces, and writing out exercises on staff paper, but a large portion of the lesson is about applying the concepts to contemporary music and even to original compositions by the student. I encourage students to explore how these concepts present themselves in the genres of music that my students are interested in. Understanding how an indie rock guitarist utilizes functional harmonic theory differently from a classical jazz artist provides context for the theory that I've found is usually lacking. Learning theory is best when students are excited to practice them! I teach beginner and intermediate piano students. I've been playing piano for 10+ years with a concentration in contemporary keyboard and musical theater. Depending on the needs of the student, we can work on sight reading and classical technique, or learning how to read chord sheets and tabs online in order to play contemporary songs. As a professional touring and recording artist, I like to work songwriting into all of my lesson plans. For any student particularly interested in songwriting, I can make that a much larger portion of the lessons. Songwriting is a uniquely intimate art. Rather than tell a student how I think they should write songs, I strive to empower the student to be able to make the artistic decisions that they want. By making conscious decisions based on their musical knowledge, the student can grow his or her's own unique songwriting voice. My personal passion is contemporary songwriting, but my own musical journey included many genres like Classical, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Theater, and more. I would not be the songwriter I am today without all these different experiences, so my goal has always been to foster passion and excitement for the material any student is learning.