With over 35 years experience, I love teaching people and helping them discover what beautiful things they can create in the world of music! Music is such a powerful way to express ourselves, and I love helping others learn how to do this and really enjoy it. I have played piano since I was three. When I was able to read at age four, I began lessons, and the rest is history. I graduated from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music with a degree in Piano Performance and completed a Master's degree in Piano Performance at the University of Redlands. I love to perform, have written several songs, produced three CD's all with original music that I perform, and have just completed a fourth CD featuring major classical piano works arranged with favorite hymns. I have also written a musical and am in the process of having it produced. I have sung in choirs of all types and accompanied them on the piano as well for many years. I have worked extensively in Musical Theater, serving both as Musical Director and Accompanist for shows such as Sound of Music, Annie, and many others. I love seeing people get touched with music and love to help others create and perform music that really speaks to the heart. It's my passion. I teach all styles of music, and love teaching children, adults, and everything in between! My goal for the students is for them to feel good about themselves as musicians and to be able to express themselves and reach the highest level of performance possible for them. The students have the opportunity to perform regularly in recitals as well as other venues, and we have a lot of fun! Lessons are a great experience for us all. *** Lesson Details *** I use a standard curriculum for students that teaches the basic concepts of music and gives them creative pieces to use in the process. I expect my students to practice, and reward and encourage them to do so. I believe that positive affirmation is the best teaching tool, so I use that as my main basis for teaching, along with discipline and being challenged appropriately. I love helping people create, so my main goal for a piece is to help the student learn to perform it in the best way possible, with plenty of technique and lots of expression, to really make it their own so they and the audience can really enjoy it. My students are usually ready to perform at least two or three major pieces of their level at the end of six months. I give them material to challenge them and encourage them to progress. Not too much, not too little! I teach self-confidence as one the biggest tools they can use to help themselves improve. Come join us in our studio! We have a great time together discovering what we can create in the world of music. *** Studio Equipment *** I teach in my own private studio with an upright Weber piano excellent for teaching beginning to advanced piano skills and spacious room for voice lessons. *** Travel Equipment *** NA *** Specialties *** Accompaniment, Arrangement and Composition, Audition Prep, Broadway Singing, Christian Gospel, Classical Piano, Composition, Gospel Singing, Improvisation, Musical Theater, Music Performance, Music Theory, Piano, Reading Chord Charts, Singing, Songwriting, Transposition.