Individualized Teaching
Our lessons are for you, and customized to meet your specific needs and goals.
Here are some examples of special projects and accomplishment of our students have done at lessons:
Learning and Building Advanced Classical Repertoire
Learning and Building Advanced Classical Repertoire
- Fulfilled his dream to learn and perform Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2 in public recital
- Prepared repertoire for graduate program music school audition
- Learned, performed and recorded the entire first movement of Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 (solo & orchestra) to prepare for University concerto competition
- Learned to play advanced classical pieces such as Chopin Ballade in G minor, etudes, concerti inspired by the playing of characters from anime series "Nodame Cantabile", "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (You Lie in April)", and "Mori no Piano".
- Learned and performed at MTAC student recitals and Autumn Festival and received ribbons and great evaluation
- Learned relevant etudes to improve technique as transfer students and felt the happy different from previous study
- Learned how to practice effectively and improved greatly a section of music within 5 minutes.
Learning To Play Music from Popular Culture, by Ear and From Music
Learning To Play Music from Popular Culture, by Ear and From Music
- Learned and performed advanced piano music from Final Fantasy Piano Opera (all 3 books) and felt very satisfied because they were from his favorite video game
- Learned to play advanced piano cover of Anime theme songs transcribed by internet artists like Animenz, Bomb & Kou, and officially published music books such as Ghibili from Japan and felt great about their ability to do so
- Learned and performed "Comptine d'un autre été l'après midi" because she loved the music from the movie Amélie.
- Learned to play piano by using popular music style material instead of traditional classical methods and continue to enjoy building technique and repertoire (Wunderkeys)
- Learned to play Classical Pop Piano solos inspired by classical works of Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Amy Beach, Clara Schumann etc
- Figured out by ear and learned the theme music from La La Land as a challenge to herself
- Learned to play Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars because he is a big Star Wars fan
- Transcribed Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa" and practiced writing, playing and comping it, and felt really confident about ear training improving
- Transcribed the Godfather theme song, learned how to decide which instrument to follow to find the main melody, and learned to harmonize it
- Learned songs from Disney musical Wicked and felt really happy because she really liked the musical
Creating Compositions in many Genres
Creating Compositions in many Genres
- Composed piano Sonatina and obtained high score of and 4.5 and 5 (highest is 5+) in MTAC Composer Today evaluations and got invited to perform at the conference
- Composed a desert themed piano music that won honorable mention in 2018, and a pet themed piano music that won 3rd place in 2019
- Composed a song Stinky Sock and was proud of his very scary Halloween song (5 years old)
- Composed a song in memory of her pet fish who died the day before our lesson, and felt better that she could immortalize her lovely pet (6 years old)
- Composed a film score for a Shakespeare play studied at his high school English class
- Composed a trio piano piece where players switch places as music descending and ascending (three high school students collaborate on this project) and learned to work as a team and enjoyed the fun it brought them
- Learned how to use notation software to make professional looking score and felt really inspired by his own work to write more music
Having Fun with Hands On Learning
Having Fun with Hands On Learning
- Played a game to reinforce skip, step, repeat concepts and eventually learned to read and notate ledger line notes even at primer level
- Used sightreading, note-reading, ear-training apps to improve their skills and also learned to use at home practice
- Played a rhythm game "Sheep game" and improved his ability to keep steady beat
- Practiced how to perform under distraction and pressure , and minimized stage fright during real performances
Participating in Groups and Playing with Others
Participating in Groups and Playing with Others
- Learned how to play duets and duo music to foster sense of music community among studio, and promote sibling collaboration at home
- Learned to play holiday duet music and performed at nursing home holiday concert
- Learned how to to accompany his singer friend and learned the piano part from a song book , and felt enjoyed the ensemble experience
- Learned the difficult piano part from West Side Story and performed with the school orchestra in year-end concert and impressed the conductor
- Learned and performed Improvised holiday music in small ensembles (4 per group) at performance group class and gave an impromptu performance to parents at pickup and felt extremely proud and excited of the results
Organic way of Improving Musicianship and Theory via various Projects
Organic way of Improving Musicianship and Theory via various Projects
- Worked intensively on sightreading during summer quarter and passed his graduation requirement as a composition major from Oberlin Music Conservatory in flying color
- Transcribed Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 theme from third movement Adagio, and greatly improved his listening skill
- Learned to and write out 4-part harmony ,analyze the chords and harmonic movement, and was excited to see how he could use it in compositions
- Worked on harmonization exercises and improved understanding of function of chords in a scale
- Learned to decipher instrument timbre so he could transcribe a section of a symphony
- Practiced dictation and passed the music school entrance exam with high mark
- Learned to sight-sing using solfege that improved his musicianship and helped him hear music as he sightread
Improvising and Comping Music from YouTube Videos and Leadsheets
Improvising and Comping Music from YouTube Videos and Leadsheets
- Learned simple comping pattern, by using a modified regular method book music with added chord symbols, so a beginner adult student could start right away playing leadsheet style, which helped achieving his goal of playing music from his fake book
- Learned to improvise from a theme and was amazed how an idea can become something fun
- Learned how to play Happy Birthday by ear, improvise accompaniment, jazz up the song and impressed family and guest at his brothers party
- Learned to play different accompaniment patterns and play from leadsheet technique book "K-Crew and the Urban Keys" with confidence
- Transcribed and performed a anime piano cover from a YouTube clip as an ear training and harmonization exercise
- Transcribed Scent of a Woman theme song and improvised the accompaniment, felt really inspired by the sound of the piece
Performing at Special Events and Accompaniment
Performing at Special Events and Accompaniment
- Learned how to choose and perform a balanced recital program of classical and popular music to perform at nursing home and won great appreciation from the seniors
- Learned how to play the set of music requested to perform for her younger sister's wedding which made her sister, guests and families very happy
- Learned how to play at church services, gained skill in following cues, harmonizing hymns, and reading from vocal/piano score; and got paid for his work
- Learned to sing a song and how to accompany herself to pass a musical theater audition and got the part she wanted
- Learned to play her mom's favorite song to give a surprise performance for her birthday party which made her mom extremely proud and happy
- Learned and recorded a piece well prepared for lesson to email to her mom who was on a business trip that week, which greatly please both
- Learned and recorded music for the wedding anniversary of his grandparents and won praises from his grandma who is a piano teacher