Our philosophy
We Believe That Learning Music Should Be Joyful.
First and foremost, music should bring joy. Teaching music certainly brings us joy, and we share that joy with our students every day. We work hard to make music fun for our students, and we love to see the smiles on their faces when they leave their lessons each week.
We utilize age-appropriate teaching methods.
Lenore created the Foundations of Music program to address the musical needs of young children, which are not served properly by traditional methods. Children should achieve musical competency aurally first, similar to how they learn a language. Once they have developed their pitch, beat, and rhythm, they are far more successful at reading and understanding written music.
Lenore’s expertise in early childhood music education informs all of the lessons we offer. Even in piano lessons, when we work with young students, we utilize books that are developed specifically for their age, and we recommend that all young learners enroll in our group classes as well. This helps ensure that every child smoothly progresses through new musical concepts.
We encourage creativity.
Creativity is the guiding force behind our group music classes. Through improvisation, students collaborate and compose their own melodies, rhythms, movement patterns, etc. This creative collaboration gives them a sense of ownership which in turn keeps them heavily engaged and invested in their learning. We believe this is essential to successful music lessons.
In private piano lessons, we also incorporate activities that nourish our students’ creativity. We teach our students how to improvise using a structured curriculum that makes improvisation approachable for all students- even those that are intimidated by the thought of creating their own music. Over the years, we’ve also worked with students on composing and arranging: skills that are not always included in traditional piano lessons.
We teach with integrity.
Students should be in lessons because they want to be, not because they are forced. We want students to look forward to their lessons every week. Piano lessons are not for everybody, and if we feel that your child would be happier in another activity, we will be the first to tell you. We firmly believe that the parents of our students are making an investment for their children’s future, and we want that investment to pay off. We are committed to helping our students make the most of their lessons through fun, self-discipline, and quality instruction.
We create well-rounded musicians.
In both our group music classes and our private piano lessons, we expose our students to a variety of musical styles. The world of music is wide, and we believe that students should be able to experience all its facets. We cover classical, pop, jazz, international songs, and everything in between, depending on our students’ interests.
We also recognize that creating music is about more than simply reading what is on a page. We focus on musical expression, proper technique, and ear training to make all of our students fluent in the language of music.
We efficiently address all students’ needs.
Every student is different. We are adept at identifying students’ strengths, interests, and areas that need improvement. This determines how we teach lessons. In both our group music classes and private piano lessons, we move at the pace that best suits each student. Our goal is to keep lessons appropriately challenging for all of our students, regardless of skill level, age, or musical background.
Most of our private students have 30 minute lessons, which makes it absolutely essential that we be efficient with our lesson time. To maximize the time we have, we incorporate materials from multiple sources and have reorganized them to ensure steady student progress.
