About
I stand out as a private music teacher for the right reasons: excellence, understanding, patience, smiles, results, music, and student enthusiasm.
My passion for my students was the midnight-oil burning kind, spending as much as four months preparing for the first day.
My students each have different goals. We skip the scales and go right to the music. Wouldn't you? Our success depends upon my ability to know the different styles and approaches, learn brand new tunes on the market, and teach different ways for the same student.
I have been teaching private music lessons since 1970 in Mexico City, Texas, Evanston and Skokie, Illinois.
I have a degree in high school band directing (another area of my riotous success) from TCU (magna cum laude) and a master's in clarinet performance from North Texas. Before college I studied eight years of classical piano and clarinet, and since college I have studied composition, electronic composition, flute, classical guitar and trumpet. I taught myself to play the saxophone at train stations; the sax is easily my third best instrument.
Much more is available on my website jonnovimusic.com
I enjoy every single day. My work is heavenly. I teach, I write, I compose, I tune pianos, and I perform. I enjoy every student, and each is different. My students also enjoy every day with me.
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Jim O.
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
We speak over the phone for as long as it takes. The first meeting is the first lesson. We play a lot of music and I take a lot of questions. The student learns how vast music is. Fun.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Eight years of classical piano and clarinet before college, six decades of professional performances, four years for a BMEd degree, magna cum laude, and four years for a master's of music degree, subsequent private lessons in jazz piano (five teachers) voice, horn, flute, trumpet, and classical guitar. As a really good teacher, I see teachers of varying quality out there, how to teach and how not to teach.
My teaching includes three years of diercting band at my former high school, six months of the same plus electronic composition in eastern Oregon, a year at a prep school in Illinois (Spanish, band, and cooking) years at Columbia College Chicago (eleven different subjects in music alone) the American Conservatory of Music and guest teaching at Vandercook College of Music. My crown jewel is teaching music privately. At the first student recital, the kids each performed an original, a classical piece, and a rock piece. At the next recital, it was adults and spouses only. We depleted the venue's collection of French beer. The next recital was kids again, one piano, one trumpet, one saxophone, one guitarist who accompanied herself on original songs supervised by yours truly, as was her brother, who simply sat a an electronic speaker playing his superb compositions, not for dancing or whislting to, for sure.