Holly Havis Music Studio

I am a musician and piano teacher, living in the country in Virginia. I have taught piano since 1990, and have performed on piano and electric bass for many years. I have developed programs for teaching improvisation and composition and teach a wide variety of styles of music. Having a degree in Ethnomusicology, I have a unique take on the world of sound, and I love to share with my students the different perspectives that different cultures and different eras have had. Art, dance, history...one can't separate music from life. I teach music from a composer's view, from the inside out, so that as we work together you have a thorough understanding of your experience.

I love to work with children. If a child wants to play, he or she should begin lessons around the age of 6.5 because it is important to establish hand coordination before the bifurcated brain becomes united. But lessons should not start before the child had understood the concept of symbols.

The musical notes on the page are just a shadow. When you play a piece, a spirit, or "genie," can live, i.e, every piece holds a living being. As you get to know the piece, the genie shows you more and more about its personality. Eventually, your personality merges with its personality, and something wonderful and magical happens. There's a connection, a message. This is the experience I try to help you attain.

I play jazz piano and bass, but my compositions are not really jazz. They are kind of exotic and electronic and non-western sounding with some weird sounding chords and pretty melodies. It's music I like to listen to.

One thing I've very fond of doing is playing for musicals. Whenever I get a chance to play piano or bass for a musical, I'm there. I have written two plays for my piano students and written music for them. I enjoy this very much. I would like to do more of this, if given opportunity to do so.

I teach beginners through advanced, children through adults. I have a B.A. in Piano Performance, an M.A. in Ethnomusicology, and a Ph.D in Music Education and Composition.