lessons
Individual
For children enrolled in the Piano Pups or Little Paws Piano Programs (ages 5-9), the last five minutes of the lesson is reserved for a parent conference. This allows me to show you how to best support your child at home during the week. Parental support is an extremely important factor in musical training and will help your child show continued growth and progression with piano.
Ages 6 years and under: 40 Minutes
Ages 7 years and up: 45 Minutes or 60 Minutes Available
Buddy
Buddy lessons are a great and convenient way for two siblings to receive an excellent piano education while saving time and money!
Buddy lessons are reserved for siblings close in age and ability level. In these lessons, siblings will get the benefits of individual instruction, as well as overlapping time with each other. During “buddy” time, we work on technique building, duets, theory and ensemble improvisation. I currently offer a 75-minute lesson length for buddy lessons and usually divide the time in one of two ways (depending on my lesson plan for the week):
30 minutes one-on-one + 10 minutes buddy time + 5-minute parent conference
25 minutes one-on-one + 20 minutes buddy time + 5-minute parent conference
Siblings ten and older who do not require conference time will increase their buddy time by five minutes.
Zoom
Online lessons work great for snow days, travel when you have access to a piano, or when your child is contagious, but is still feeling well enough for a lesson. My remote lessons include:
3 different camera angles
Loads of games on Google slides and PowerPoint
Software like Classroom Maestro to help relay information to students
Well designed and engaging lesson plans
examples of recent Zoom instruction:
Little Paws
Older Students
Practicing dynamics, expression and articulation
Working on keyboard navigation
Practicing Steps & Skips
Measure, lines and phrases activity
Note reading game
Warm-up (if students come up with their own creative warm-up, it gets added to the mix)
Working on syncopated pedal
Technique Exercises
Mastering major, minor and diminished chords
Note reading practice
Examining chord inversions
Chord triad practice
“I like the games we play because they are fun and help me learn. Michelle is really nice and supportive. I really love playing the piano with Michelle!”
Inara, Little paws student
“I love taking piano lessons with Miss Michelle! She has a lot of patience, which is important for when you first start learning to play.”
Amelia F. – Little paws Student
“Ms. Michelle has so many spectacular, amazing, and talented qualities! Being a student with a little experience prior to our first lesson together, she took time to understand my current skill level, studied my technique and what I enjoyed playing. She even bought sheet music specifically for me. I know I wouldn’t have gotten this far with my piano skills if it weren’t for her! She has spent so much time teaching me how to play piano well and I can’t thank her enough! As for what any new student may want to know, I have had four lessons with Ms. Michelle and learned so much already! I have learned finger, hand, and seat positions, major and minor chords, drops, the difference between curling and curving, and so much more. These are just the basics! Ms. Michelle has so many fun ways to remember what we learn each lesson! Learning to play the piano with Ms. Michelle is so much fun, and I can’t wait for my next lesson!”
Bella Alexopoulos - Older student lessons
