Sean - Piano tutor -
Sean - Piano tutor -

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Sean

  • Rate $43
  • Response 1h
  • Students

    Number of students Sean has taught since their arrival at Superprof

    50+

    Number of students Sean has taught since their arrival at Superprof

Sean - Piano tutor -
  • 5 (6 reviews)

$43/h

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  • Piano

Experienced tutor in Piano in Reston, Sean offers private lessons tailored to your needs.

  • Piano

Lesson location

    • At Sean's house:

    • online

    • at your home or a public place : will travel up to 20 mi. from

About Sean

Anyone can sound great on the piano!

Every time I start teaching a new student is an adventure.

I enjoy teaching my students. I am gentle, and patient -- and my students like me.

I have over 9 years of experience teaching all types of students, of all ages, and different backgrounds and learning styles.

There are many types of music, and approaches to learning and developing musical ability. I would be happy to help you go in whatever direction you want to, musically -- in whatever ways that I can offer.

I teach a variety of students, ranging from young children to adults. I teach a variety of music, ranging from simple folk melodies, pop songs, classical repertoire, and (Impressionistic) Modal music (some of which might sound like some Jazz).

It can be easy to play rich-sounding music -- particularly sophisticated-sounding harmonies -- on the piano keyboard. Sophistication can be achieved without complexity; and sophistication doesn't necessarily require difficulty. It can be easy and quick to sound great on the piano. The goal of music-making is to create music that is enjoyable for others to listen to.

I want to make learning music as rewarding as possible with the least difficulty possible for the student. One way this can be achieved is by learning by ear and establishing an intuitive sense of music, and focusing on facility -- before introducing any theory, analysis, and notation reading - which can come later, once an intuitive musical foundation is established. Introducing reading from the onset is analogous to making a new student drag 6 carts up a hill, as opposed to just 2 or 3, at a time. However, if you want to learn musical notation, I'll happily teach that, as well as theory concepts. What I teach, and how quick the progress is depends upon the individual student.

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I have made some keyboard harmony instructional videos. Here are three examples. These are easy to follow along with.

"Rock 'n Roll three chords dorian mode - draft" (concealed information) David Crosby actually drew from Modal Jazz influences. The harmonic structure can be thought of as alternating between 'F' Lydian, and 'D' dorian modes, which are relatives, by the way.

Here's another 3-chord song, that was popular in Brasil (and covered by Sergio Mendes): "Ye-Me-Le III and IV" (concealed information)

and:

"For Absolute Beginners : sound like a Jazz pianist, easily and quickly (draft)" (concealed information)

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Those videos feature, mostly, a Modal approach to harmony. One idea I have for teaching piano is to present Modal harmony alongside Tonality. For example, for a beginner, I can start the student with "Mary Had a Little Lamb" "Twinkle Little Star" and "Lightly Row" alongside "Scarborough Fair" , among other things.

I also have some simple transcriptions of arrangements that students can work towards playing:

(concealed information)

also: (concealed information)

____________________

Four (or five) years ago, when I started teaching piano -- I thought that it was best for a beginning student to avoid reading notation, as well as learning theory -- at-first. Instead, the initial focus should be on hearing and feeling the music -- as well as the facility and co-ordination aspects of playing. Once these aspects are well-established (with that well-established foundation) , the student can learn how to be a musician on other levels (learning notation, theory, etc.). That was my thinking (back) then, but experience with numerous students changes my perspective and ideas on how to approach lessons.

Many composers, songwriters, and arrangers use the piano keyboard to help create, refine, organize, and arrange musical ideas -- particularly the harmonic aspect of the music -- because the pitches are all laid out in a linear fashion on a piano keyboard. Those musicians have varying degrees of actual playing ability (facility) with the piano keyboard and don't necessarily perform/play the instrument. But it is useful as _keyboard harmony_.

I have played piano / digital-keyboards for over 20 years. I took Suzuki lessons for a number of years, in my childhood years.

Later, I graduated with a B.M. Music and Technology from Radford University.

I enjoy helping walk students step-by-step. I get great satisfaction from helping my students develop musically. I get the most joy from seeing my students progress. Myself, personally, I get great joy from rich-sounding musical material.

My start was unusual :  An image came to my mind of an on-screen piano keyboard.  I followed that vision to create instructional videos showing compositional / keyboard harmony ideas that I had been working on for years. I published those videos to YouTube on my channel called "Intuitive Jazz." I have received good feedback from viewers. Some of this feedback  included questions, as well as even an offer for paying me for an online lesson. You can find these videos by searching YouTube for "Intuitive Jazz" , as well as "Intuitive Music."

A piano teacher that I knew encouraged me to teach piano lessons.

I have gotten many students around the area using this website, as well as other websites like this one.



Besides over 30 years of playing piano keyboard, I have a Bachelor's degree in Music & Technology (B.M.).

I have years of experience providing tech support, and I have taught some web development courses, as a volunteer. I enjoy helping teach and coach and mentor (tutor) people.

I have been teaching music students professionally for over 9 years.

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About the lesson

  • All Levels
  • English

All languages in which the lesson is available :

English

How, exactly, I start depends upon the particular needs and background/situation of each individual student.

If the student has played before (even if only self-taught), I would ask the student to show/demonstrate what s/he can play, simply for the purpose of letting me have a sense of what they can do, so I can make the best lesson plan for them.

For an adult, I might ask what s/he wants to learn, musically. I'll play some examples of simple figures and chords. This will give the student some of idea of what s/he can sound like after practicing the materials that I teach.

The first thing that a beginner to piano needs to learn is to visually identify the pattern (sets) of 2, and 3  black keys on the piano keyboard. In relation to this visually-identified pattern, the letter names of the white keys can become familiar.

Establishing the proper hand and arm position and posture is very important, from the beginning.

Simple figures and concepts are introduced, which the student should practice and gain familiarity and fluency with. Additional things are added, incrementally. I think it is best to practice one hand, at a time -- and then combine hands , simultaneously, later.



I have worked with a variety of children, teenagers, and adults. Most of these students of mine are beginners. But every beginner is different. A number of these students had taken lessons with another teacher before me. Some were absolute beginners. Some of the adults were resuming lessons after years.



Even though every student is different -- and the best method / approach for teaching may vary from student-to-student,

I personally feel that one approach worth considering for an absolute beginner is to first learn without reading notation. Notation-reading can be burdening to the beginner. Early on in a beginner's progress,s/he is presented with a great deal of struggle with the other (more central and crucial) aspects of musical ability. It's better to have to drag only 2 or 3 carts up a hill at a time, rather than 5 or 6 - so to speak.



I have gotten great satisfaction from helping my online adult student learn how to play (mostly chords, of) compositions that we both love, by The Soft Machine, as well as Egg, and some John Coltrane quartet modal Jazz things ("My Favorite Things" + an earlier chordal-based (non-modal) composition called "Like Sonny" , as well). Those mostly make use of Dorian , Lydian and Phrygian modes. Those are very rich harmonic pallettes to use, in addition to Major and minor.

I get satisfaction and joy from being able to figure out music that I love by-ear.



A few things worth thinking about before reaching out
Ask yourself what music you'd like to learn how to play. (For young children, these usually are simple folk melodies such as "Mary Had a Little Lamb" : )

Do keep in mind that learning harmony (chords) on a piano keyboard can be beneficial, no matter what instrument(s) you end up pursuing, years on down the road. 

Piano lessons should not be limited soley to those who want to have lots of keyboard chops and be performing keyboard players.

I think that the best teachers are patient and flexible.

Also consider how much time and energy you are willing to put into developing your musical abilities, as well as exploring music and ideas.

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Rates

Rate

  • $43

Pack rates

  • 5h: $215
  • 10h: $430

online

  • $43/h

Details

My rate is $50 per hour -- and that includes the time I spend driving in my car to your home (not just the lesson time, itself).

If the lessons are online, obviously, there is no charge for any travel.

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