When I was just eight years old I remember picking out the melody for the Star Wars theme on the piano at home. Finding the patterns on the keyboard, the sounds, picking out melodies by ear fascinated me. By the time I was in fourth grade I started piano lessons and continued then for four years. Along the way I studied Violin, I took up Clarinet or the school band in 6th grade and then transitioned to Bass Clarinet. By the end of High School I had migrated back to the Piano. Studying on my own I learned several songs and started writing at the keyboard. In this time I also picked up the guitar and started learning chords.

When I went to college I thought my days of music lessons were in the past, but I discovered the music department at UNCA. I studied recording arts and undertook private lessons on Piano while I was there. At times I accompanied the Community Chorus and played with the Community Jazz band as well as solo performances of the works I studied with my instructor.

Not long after college I had the opportunity to start teaching with the Asheville Music School. The fall of 1998 I had my first students and I've been helping others explore the rich world of music since then. Over the years I've taught beginners as young as five and more seasoned students in their 80s and 90s.

I try to gauge the level of the student and pace lessons to where they are at. That much said I work to draw out more. I can't begin to count the number of times I've had a student look at a piece and say they aren't going to be able to play it only to look back and remember after they've finished it what they had said. It's fun to see people surprise themselves with what they're able to do.

Today I've moved to Naples, Florida and am starting my teaching studio again here.

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Piano Lessons for Children Report

There are so many benefits of music education on children as they grow. Studies have shown that exposure to learning music before the age of 12 actually helps to increase the pathway of communication between the hemispheres of the brain. Further, there are many studies that cite improvements in performance and grades at school as well.

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I enjoy working with adult students. Over the years I've found that every adult that comes in for lessons has a genuine desire to learn music, to learn to play the piano. They aren't there because someone else wants them to, THEY want to. That's very important. I've had some people say they wish they had learned piano when they were young, but now it's too late. It's NEVER too late to start learning.

Nocturne in C Minor

I wrote this Nocturne around 1996 during a college lecture. The pictures are from a calendar I put together around 2003 or so. I think this may be the only recording I have of myself playing this.

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