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I love classical music! And I love to teach classical music! But a few years ago I started noticing that some students were beginning to become bored with some of the music that I was teaching them. They wouldn't practice, they were not excited about learning the classical & traditional methods, and some started dropping out of lessons because of it. That's when I realized that classical music might not be for everyone. My students' parents pay me to teach their kids music; how could they learn music if they didn't like what they were learning?
That's when I decided to start teaching improv. Improvisation is when a student learns music by ear, by picking out the melody and adding chords with their own creativity. Improv frees up the pianist to learn just about any song on the planet, whether they can read music or not. Students pick out songs off of the radio that they want to learn, burn it onto a CD for me, and the next week I bring the lyrics & chords to them and teach them how to play it. It doesn't matter if the original recording doesn't have a piano part in it, I teach them how to pick out the melody and chords and then show them how to play along.
The best part of learning improv is definately the Rock Recital in the spring. Each improv student picks a favorite song to work on and perfect, and in the meanwhile I hire a drummer and guitarist to learn the songs that the kids have chosen. For the Rock Recital, the kids get to play along with the band! They love it, and the parents are happy that their kids are excited once more about music!
As a teacher, I realize that sightreading and theory are important too, so most of my improv students are still receiving a well-rounded musical experience through their lessons. But overall, I realize that music is about having fun and expressing yourself. After all, who doesn't love music?!
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Why do I teach music?
Not because I expect you to play or sing music all your life . . .
Not because I expect you to be a professional musician . . .
But . . . so you will be human,
. . . so you will recognize beauty,
. . . so you will be sensitive,
. . . so you will be able to bring joy to others
. . . so you will find personal fulfillment
. . . so you may bring out something in yourself that you didn’t even know was there
. . . so you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness
. . . in short, more LIFE!
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Improvisation Lessons 
