FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
I charge $70 per session. I am aware there are psychological benefits to selling, and doing the 'act now and get this discount' thing, but...I hate that stuff. $70 per lesson, simple as that. Lessons are typically 45 minutes to an hour, or a bit beyond if necessary. Placing artificial bounds on the lesson time is not ideal. You do not get a better lesson if I drag out and extra ten minutes for the sake of doing so, nor is it good to have to stop when we are on a roll, or have significantly more to discuss and go over.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
In the first lesson I usually question and get a sense of where we're starting from, and go from there. Everyone is different, and if you are not getting training specifically adjusted to you, then a large part of the usefulness of a private teacher is being neglected. Keeping with the 'training' idea - I'm not like the personal trainer who points to exercise equipment and tells you what to do without telling you why, I'm the one who wants to give you all the information I posses about kinematics and body function, so you know exactly why I'm doing everything I'm doing. The goal, as with many things, is to get the most out of you the best way possible. We want to push, but not unnecessarily stress. The ideal is to have the student trying with all their focus to do something deeply challenging, but smiling, and laughing at their mistakes when they make them. Given the stress level of the modern teenager, this can often involve being a bit of an amateur psychologist as well. One of the greatest transferable skills I gained from studying classical piano is the understanding of how to succeed at something. You know what you do first? You fail. And then you fail again. And probably again. And you practice and practice and feel like it's hopeless and impossible, but for some reason you just don't stop. And then one day, you're better, and doing this thing that seemed impossible to you once before. That's...everything, isn't it?
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I have a BA in Music from Stony Brook University. It's a very strong program that taught me a lot, but actually a lot of my knowledge and technical ability I gained after college, both working on my own, and with different teachers.