Teaching is just as much fun for me as performing. Teaching jazz to students of any instrument, vocalists as well, helps me pass my passion for having fun playing music to other people. Piano is my main instrument, but jazz is not as much about how to play your instrument as it is a language. Your instrument is your voice and your improvisation and playing with other jazzers is conversation in the language of jazz.
Jazz Piano Lessons (and other instruments)
Contact me if you’re in the Bellingham/Vancouver/Seattle area and want to take face-to-face jazz lessons or jazz piano lessons. If you are too far away for in-person lessons, we can get together for lessons via Google Hangouts or Skype. One of my strengths is the fact that I came from a classical background so I know what classical pianists are going through when they struggle with getting into jazz.
Classical to jazz is not impossible, it just takes a bit of a paradigm shift, and I can certainly help you with that.
Be sure to check out LearnJazzPiano.com, a free site I put up in the mid 90's for lessons, forums, and almost 25 years of jazz piano related information.
Jazz Vocal Lessons
I've played with professional vocalists for decades and if you're a vocalist who wants to be a professional, or a pro vocalist who just wants to work some stuff out, my experience in this area can help you get to the next level. I know what it takes for a vocalist to get hired on a regular basis, because not only do I play with a lot of vocalists, I hire vocalists for gigs.
Some of the ways I can help a vocalist is simply talking about what it's like out there as a professional, repertoire that you need to have in your bag, ways of opening up music, engaging the audience, and more. If you want to travel the world singing in lounges to preparing for a recording or just get better, working out with a pianist who has a lot of experience with vocalists is a must.
The International Music Improvisation Curriculum
The International Music Improvisation Curriculum (IMIC) is one of my pet projects and has been created to help bridge the gap between reading music and making music.
IMIC does this by treating music styles as languages and improvisation as conversation. The IMIC curriculum can be taught to music students of all ages and experience levels and is equally effective with any instrumentation or musical style. It is perfect for classical pianists who are looking for a way into jazz.
Publications
The "Jazz Piano Notebook" series are books about things jazz pianists like to play, things they do while they are playing, tricks of the trade, and more. These books will give you ideas that you can use in your playing right now. Please see the "Books and Publications" page for more information.
