Q. I think my voice really sucks. Ok, it doesn't suck entirely, but it certainly has it's good days and it's bad days. Can my voice improve with lessons?
A. Yes! Everyone walks through the door with positive habits and experience, whether they know it or not. The other side of that is everyone can use outside help when it comes to improving their voice. There's a ton of information online, in books, DVD's etc, however, it is impossible to get direct feedback from these. It is easy to become even more confused as to what "sounds good" or if you're "doing it right." Dude....suck it up and try a lesson out. I don't think you'll regret it ;)
Q. Someone told me I was tone deaf. Can voice lessons help?
A. Most people are not actually tone deaf, they just need help improving their relative pitch. We do this using something called the Tonic Sol Fa system. It's been around for over 1,000 years (I'm not kidding, a munk invented it,) and it works! I teach a lot of it.
Q. I try to write songs, but feel stuck when it comes to...... lyrics (words), or chords (music), or melody (tune). Is there anything I can do to help this?
A. We all get stuck creatively. I help my students get unstuck and get them writing songs they actually like. Helping people with songwriting is one of my absolutely favs!
Q. I've always wanted to learn to sing and play an instrument. Is it too late for me?
A. No way. My mom learned to play guitar at 64. As long as you're alive, it's not too late.
Q. I took piano lessons as a kid and could play by ear, but my teacher told me I had to learn to read the notes. Was I a bad student?
A. I get this question a lot, where people were told they weren't playing piano because they weren't reading notes. Jeesh! There's more than one way to do it, and reading pitches on the staff is only one way. Not to mention traditional piano lessons tend to not give us the tools for accompaning ourselves as singers or how to write songs. The way I teach piano is how to accompany yourself (or play in bands) and how to songwrite.