Piano Lessons With Collette

The most important element of meeting a new student and meeting them is to meet their needs and find out why they want to take piano lessons and what their goals are.  I am open to teaching all types of music.  I have been mostly classically trained but I also play keyboards in a Rock band which plays original music and some covers!

Recently I was invited to NYC to play in a Summer Intensive Program at Juilliard lasting several weeks.  This was so fun and inspiring!  On the other hand, I spend about 6 hours a week playing with my rock band, so I feel like I can offer a lot of diversity in meeting the student's needs and wants from piano lessons!  I have my master's in classical performance and teaching but also have a very broad palette of music I am interested in and do not feel confined by my classical roots.  Although, I LOVE Classical music!

I work on a sliding scale--I do not want cost to interfere with a student's ability to learn music.  If you are interested, call me and we can talk price!

I have studied piano since I was 6 years old --BEGGING my parents for a piano! I gave my first solo recital at age 8 and started teaching neighborhood kids when I was in high school.  I have learned and grown SO much over the years from those early days of teaching and I love to share my knowledge with my students.

I have taught students privately from ages 5-92!  I was the director of the Denver School of the Arts Piano Program for many years right out of grad school and these kids are playing at college level (Talk about intimidating!) From there on I was hired to teach at several universities over the years teaching (private lessons, theory, group lessons, ear training and music history) and have continued my private teaching at home.  I love teaching beginners through advanced students.

I will name 2: (very different in scope)

1.  Our band played at the Hi Dive with a touring band called Greg Hoy.  We were honored to be asked to play with him, however it was a Sunday night (right before school started) so our hopes were not high to have a sell out show.  However, we did have lots of friends show up and although it wasn't packed it was so so much fun!

2.  I was teaching a 5 year old girl the first week school started for her this year, so as you can imagine by 4:40, she was pretty tired and antsy.  I realized this so we spent the majority of her lesson doing movement activies and singing her assigned pieces. She didn't have to sit down or hold still--which she had been doing all day, we were able to take in the music holistically with our bodies, dancing and singing and she learned that particular song quicker with more excitement and enthusiasm than any song we'd worked on before!  Now movement it is part of my teaching curriculum for the younger kids.

I would suggest that you make sure they are formally trained, as with any activity/instrument, if you learn bad habits early on they are hard to break.    I would also hire a teacher who is very experienced and open to all genres of music.  Kids can easily get turned off if they are forced to learn a certain genre of music.  I think incorporating many styles makes for a happier, well- rounded musician with more choices later in life!

What are the teacher's expectations for practice and participation in recitals?

Ask to see the teacher's studio policies.

What type of music do you want to study and is this teacher a good fit?

Does the personality of the teacher seem to fit well with the student (and family)?