Laura B. says, "...and I sincerely mean every one of those 5 stars:
Taking lessons with Tristan over the past year has been one of the most rewarding hobbies I've revisited as an adult. All through elementary, middle, and high school I studied piano with weekly lessons and then played occasionally in college. For the past ten years, though, I really didn't touch it at all. I found it hard to stay in the habit of playing because the kind of music I wanted to study was a little too difficult to attack on my own, and I had no discipline without a teacher. With Tristan, not only am I motivated to practice throughout the week, but he's also coached me on techniques of play -- ways to work out fingerings, chunking the minutes I practice to focus on a few measures at a time, studying a piece to bring out its musicality -- that have brought me to new levels of skill & maturity with the instrument. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do much in a strictly virtual lesson that we conduct via FaceTime at our respective keyboards, boroughs apart, but after our first lesson it was clear that this would work out just fine. And it has!
When we started, Tristan asked what pieces I was interested in. From that basis, he has given me recommendations to build my repertoire along the way. When I've suggested a composer I'm interested in playing, but don't have a piece in mind, he offers ideas from his extensive knowledge of piano music. Usually he emails me a few suggestions to get me thinking. That exact approach landed me on Scott Joplin's "Bethena," recently, which I loved playing.
I'm a high school teacher, and I find myself observing the way Tristan teaches and actually thinking something along the lines of, "I hope I strike the same balance he communicates of great rapport, high expectations, and helpful strategies to my own students." I know good teaching when I see it. Pieces I previously thought were just too hard for me to ever play well, because I could never execute the runs or play both hands together through certain tough measures or just "get," musically, I was thrilled to finally be able to play after following Tristan's advice on how to attack what challenged me. It meant I had to put in hard work, of course, but I got there. Tristan has always maintained a "yes, that's hard...AND you can do it" teaching philosophy with me. It's encouraged me through "The Sunken Cathedral" by Debussy and Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1.
In the uncertainty of events in 2020, it's also been helpful to have a teacher who can be flexible about a few of times I've needed to change our lesson time. He was always able to reschedule. In fact, as my own work situation has evolved this year, we have seamlessly transitioned from hour-long weekend lessons to biweekly half-hour weekday lessons, and now to weekly half-hour lessons. It's meant a lot that Tristan's worked with me to make piano fit into my schedule."See more
