John Crane

I took three quarters of a year of lessons from the church organist lady next door at the Catholic church and school where I went in 19 78 when I was 12 or 13 after begging my mother for a year for a piano or a harpsichord which I saw on Lawrence Welk and couldn't stop thinking about. I have a 6 ft almost five octave harpsichord in storage needing repairs and three old Victorian organs you pump with your feet and an upright piano and a clavacord. I deliberately quit my lessons and decided to teach myself because I wanted to learn four part harmony hymns and fast runs and big chords and ancient music and my teacher said it would discourage me, but it was discouraging not to go fast, so I became both student and teacher for myself, and I can teach others how to do the same. I can show you where to find free lessons for yourself and explain what you don't understand about them, you can get free music from imslp.org. I have five different hymnals though My Philosophy is more new age. I play a lot of Bach and have copies of the Fitzwilliam virginal book. I'm very familiar with the music of the 15 and 1600s and a little into the 1700s. I can tune a piano by ear or with a tuning app I now use. I believe in unequal temperament which has much more purity in its 5th and thirds. I played violin, I have a bamboo flute in C and several recorders including a Maplewood bass.

I play with harpsichord technique, I am not really a Pianist strictly speaking. I am not someone who overcharges and expects you to do scales and exercises for 10 years. I teach the way Johann Sebastian Bach did, with little pieces of real music. That was the way it was done and it is better. Any exercises were derived from real pieces of music. It's okay to run through some scales and arpeggios but it's better to practice real music. I cannot teach jazz or modern music I am 400 years away from it mentally but Bach seems to use every single jazz chord eventually so I have my own understanding of those things. On the other hand I feel like I can teach very quickly. The point to me is to compile all the music that you would like to play, suggest helpful ways to play it, and get you performing because that's what it's about. I performed at mostly retirement homes and some Churches half the time for pay between $50 and $65 for an hour hour and a half and I can show how that is done. Feel free to ask me anything. I will operate on a sliding scale negotiable.