Scott C. TakeLessons Instructor Music, Piano First Avenue, New York, NY

     I have a degree from Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA in Arranging and Composition.  I have played professionally in the New York and Boston areas.  I currently work teaching jazz band and individual students at a private high school in downtown Manhattan.  I also presently work in the legal field and so enjoy music that I am considering leaving this employment area in order to devote myself completely to teaching music.

     I have played the piano and drums since the age of seven.  As I matured, I became attuned to the jazz sound, most particularly Oscar Peterson's work, and comped some of his works by ear at the age of fourteen.  I have continued forward in my music education and professional development from then on, playing gigs in the New York metro area with local groups and composing piano works.

     Most recently, I have taught piano, arranging and music theory during my adult life, from the beginner to the upper middle level.  As an example of my teaching at the middle level of development, I concentrate my teaching largely in the jazz and improvisational music areas.  I take essential pieces of music, usually from a student's favorite style, and work from them using both the commercial audio recording of the piece and the written applied music.  Depending upon the proficiency of the student, I use various approaches to the piece, most specifically in finding the correct harmonic chord notes and getting the rhythm hits properly in synch with melodic and improvisational input from the right hand.

     I further use concurrent exercises such as scale and arpeggio practice over chord bases as a superb foundation toward improvisation, for example.  There are further exercises toward left and right hand development as well.  I teach classical pieces, such as Bach's two part inventions, with particular emphasis on the theoretical and harmonic components of the piece.  This approach is of course adjusted, depending upon the student's starting level of proficiency.

     Music is fun and instructive with a reasonably strong disciplinary component which has its own rewards.  I am patient, calm and encouraging and I take a particular interest in each of my student's musical development.  I find that I improve my own teaching insights progressively as each of my students improves in his or her musical development.

     Generally, I approach a piano lesson by instructing each student in a fashion most suitable to his or her learning style, unique abilities and capabilities and desires, and I further apply a general template approach to that situation.  For example, I determine where a student is currently when they first come to me in terms of his or her technical development.  Then, depending upon that level of development, I apply an approach that utilizes the student's interests in a particular style of music and playing, and then I relate that to a more technical level and foundation in music such as the chords used and played, scales used and played and note rhythm values within the compostion that interests the particular student.

I specialize in both jazz improvisation, arranging and composing in classical, rock and R & B piano styles

Music, Piano