Curriculum | Philosophy | Music

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My goal as a teacher are:

1)To teach a range of repertoire and technical excellence; and to connect present practice with a lifetime of opportunities for friendships, musical community, and performances. 

2) To teach creativity through musical improvisation.  To foster greater confidence through exploration and risk-taking. To develop a mindset free of self-judgement, allowing the confidence to "notice" mistakes and self-motivate to create opportunities for growth.

3) To engage students in learning as adventure, and cultivating discipline and self-awareness for individual goal-setting. Mistakes are just information we can use in our quest for improvement- not evidence for value judgments about our playing. 

YOUTH LESSONS

In 2016, I  switched most of my beginners to the online subscription curriculum FiddleQuest in 2016. Developed by a longtime teacher in Ashland, OR, Fiddlequest enables teacher and student to use a multimedia approach to learning the instrument.  Students learn by ear, practice with backing tracks, and can make videos to track their progress and share with the FQ community, and with family/friends. 

For older and more advanced students, I teach a fiddle repertoire that continues to offer a mix of styles. I focus on tunes often played in the Boston area, tunes selected to teach more advanced techniques, and/or repertoire from the Mark O’Connor Method Books III and IV. 

I love to teach classical repertoire to beginners and intermediate students who are interested, mainly using the Doflein Violin Method Books and the Barbara Berber Solos For Young Violinists collections.

GROUP WORKSHOPS

 I teach workshops at Powers Music School's workshop week, Fiddle Hell, and other local events. I also currently run group workshops for my advanced fiddle students to learn group playing and other musical skills such as harmony, timing, chords, and arranging. 

I often use exercises from the Creative Ability Development method from Alice Kanack. This method teaches creativity through the use of musical improvisation, improvisation games and exercises for all levels of playing.  I use CAD as the "bridge" in my teaching: whether my student is focusing on classical or fiddle repertoire, they will develop the ability to sit down with any other student and make music together through the language of creativity. 

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ADULT STUDENTS

No, it's never too late to learn the fiddle! 

For adults, I tailor my repertoire and teaching style to your experience, goals and hopes for the instrument. I mostly teach adults during the day time hours, and schedule lessons on a flexible basis - I know that we grownups all have complicated lives. 

My students include beginners, adults who "used to play" and hope to get back into the instrument, and accomplished classical musicians who want to learn the nuances and repertoire of fiddle styles.  I also introduce adult students to some of the exercises in Creative Ability Development in order to foster creativity. 

I encourage all adult students to also find a social or group outlet for the skills we learn in lessons, such as a local session,  some friends to play with for fun, or a formal group music experience. I currently run an all-ages Irish music learner's session at Powers Music School on Second Fridays of the month at 7 pm. No matter what your age, the more you play, the better you get!