Piano with Jonathan S.

I am a graduate of the Wheaton Conservatory of Music with a B.Mus.degree in Piano and Composition, and have taught private piano and drum lessons for over 15 years. I have experience with children and adults of all ages. I've performed with many bands over the years (US and Europe) including Mavis Staples, Andrew Bird, Tim Booth, Mucca Pazza, Bobby Conn, The Detholz, and Paris Delane. My approach to teaching is fun and varied according to students needs and personalities. I teach reading, ear training, theory, technique, composition, song writing, performance, etc...and want to work with students on music that THEY want to learn. *** Studio Equipment *** Yamaha full sized digital piano Fender Jazz Bass Fender Stratocaster Guitar Recording computer with Komplete 6, Ableton, etc. Rode NT1 Condensor mic Shure SM57's, Shure Beta 52 Bell set Melodica's *** Travel Equipment *** For in home lessons, it's important that students have the instrument(s) that we're working on; this could be a snare drum, an electric keyboard, piano, bass guitar and practice amp, etc. *** Specialties *** For young kids on piano, I've worked a lot with a couple of things, including James Bastien and Piano Adventures books, simple transcriptions of songs students know and want to play, simple ear training games, and things like 5 finger scales. For older students, i get them into a more disciplined routine with exercises and theory, but also cater repertoire to their interests. My playing background is pretty broad, including classical (in the broad sense of the term) study and performance (recital and competition), and rock and roll, blues, jazz performance. I get excited about teaching composition, songwriting, and any higher level theory. Drummers get the rudiments, independence practice, style study, reading, transcription, etc. I do lots of hands only work, but incorporate full kit playing as early as possible knowing that for a kid (or adult for that matter), sitting behind a drumkit is a very exciting thing and you wanna play it all. As with piano, i do transcriptions of favorite songs/beats for students often. My background on drumset and percussion is broad as well, from orchestral to rock and metal to jazz and big band, etc. in general, i like to know what music my students are into, and will try to include material in those realms in their studies.