Private Piano Lessons
How It Works
I offer private piano lessons that are 30, 45, or 60-minutes in length and available to musicians of all ages and skill levels. Lessons are weekly at your designated time slot.
Lessons are currently being offered via Zoom. When it is safe to do so, lessons will be held either in my home studio or in the comfort of your home.
The schedule for lessons is divided into four terms:
-
January – March
-
April – June
-
July – August
-
September – December
When you sign up for lessons, Melissa will send you a welcome package that includes information about cancellations, payments, rates, and term schedule.
What I Teach
My teaching niche is beginner to intermediate levels. I am comfortable in a variety of styles such as classical, pop, folk, and jazz.
Some of the methodologies I have used for teaching piano are:
-
the Royal Conservatory of Music
-
Bastien Publications (Piano Basics; All In One Piano Course)
-
Faber & Faber (Piano Adventures Series)
-
Alfred’s Publications
-
FJH Music Company Inc. (Sight Reading & Rhythm Every day, Succeeding with the Masters, etc.)
These methodologies contain graduated lessons that are skillfully arranged to help develop your child’s ability to read music and their overall musicianship.
Teaching the Whole Musician
To provide a well-rounded musical education to my students, I also foster development in the following areas using my own curriculum:
-
Playing-by-ear
-
Ear training
-
Creativity
-
Functional Harmony
-
Theory
-
Composition
-
Piano Technique
-
Music History
Why Are These Subjects Important?
As a musician and someone who values holistic education, it’s important to make connections between various elements of music. The skill that is most taught to beginners is how to read, when in fact, it’s one of the last skills they should be learning.
If we think of music as a language, we learn to speak before we learn to read and write. We practice this speech in our homes with our families and caregivers every day in many situations or contexts. We work on pronunciation, tone, rhythm, syllables, syntax, all without reading a single word or knowing our letters.
If your child is given the opportunity to learn music in a similar way to how we learn a language, the very first connection they will have is to their ear.
Music is an aural art form and it’s the ear-brain connection that is most important to develop as a musician. There is a similarity to how we learn our mother-tongue language with one’s ability to actively listen and connect to the sounds that it hears.
Contact
Melissa's Home Studio
2-50 Parkdale Road
Toronto, ON
M6R 1E2