About
I take extra care in seeking out what best motivates my students, and what particular goals they may be striving for.
I believe the essence of learning is in the joy of self-discovery. I say self-discovery, because ultimately, any meaningful learning is self discovery, as well as discovering the mysteries or secrets of whatever it is one is learning.
As a teacher, I find joy in discovering how any particular student can be reached in a way that they begin to make their own personal discoveries. When that happens, I feel I have also made a personal discovery of my own.Thus, teaching, to me, is a creative experience, and I feel that learning is also a creative experience. And it is a communicative experience, which is creative in and of itself.
A good teacher must know the material he or she is teaching - that goes without saying. My credentials show that I certainly do know my subject, and know it well, having had many years of experience, and having been taught from some of the best teachers in the world. (For one, I graduated from one of the best music schools in the world, Mannes College of Music, in New York City)
But teaching is more than just knowing one's subject. I have known some great musicians who are not great teachers, and I have known some great teachers who are not great musicians. Then there are those who are both, and I have had the priviledge to study with some of those, including the great jazz drummer Joe Morello, and the great jazz pianist Bruce Barth. And there are several others as well I could mention, such as the great jazz arranger Don Sebesky. Leave it to suffice, I have learned from the best. And I have learned from them not only about how to play and write music, but how to teach it effectively.
However, as far as teaching is concerned, I would say I have learned the most through my own nearly 40 years of personal experience teaching. I have taught hundreds, if not thousands of private students, and I have also had years and years of classroom music teaching experience. And in that time, I have learned much about what works and what doesn't work, when teaching. The results of all this have become evident in the accomplishments of several of my students, who, due to my teaching, have gotten accepted into prestigious performing arts schools in New York City such as the Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts in Queens, and the Laguardia School of Music and the Performing Arts in Manhattan.
If you study with me, you will find that while I am a fairly easy going, friendly guy, with a sense of humor, I also happen to be very serious about teaching the essential basics and building blocks in music, and about the discilpline of daily practice. Yet, in that seriousness, I am not so rigid as to function only as a kind of teaching machine for the student. For that, he or she could probably find some online automated teaching program that teaches a student to play everything one can learn in 3 easy steps.
Attractive as that may sound, learning music is not as simple as that. And, fortunately for us, it is far more personally communicative than that, which makes it far more creative and fun, and far less rigid, for both student and teacher!