For intermediate and advanced students, I often use the period-based methods of Frederick Noad while introducing the larger works in the guitar repertoire. I first taught guitar at...
I teach both in my Teaneck studio and online either via Skype or Zoom.
I work with classical and acoustic players. For intermediate and advanced players, emphasis on sight reading/crossover styles is given. Group coaching for guitar with all combinations of instruments is available.
My career as a concert musician began in the 1970's with youthful performances around the US and Canada. In early 2006, I was included in Who's Who in American Women and Who's Who in Education in America, and in 2009 was added to the roster of International Who's Who in Music. I attended Wittenberg University (sacred music) studying conducting and orchestration with John Williams and Ian Polster, New York University for humanities, and the Mannes College of Music (MM classical performance and theory), studying with Robert Secrist, Frederic Hand, Charles Kaufman, Julius Levine, Yakov Kreizberg, Leo Edwards and Marie Powers and completed my graduate library studies with Jane Gottlieb at the Juilliard School. My scholarly work has been focused on the performance, documentation, historiography and promotion of music and performing arts. As a music annotator, analyst and critic, I have worked for over 15 years with major arts agencies, technical journals and CD labels in performing arts media, technical writing, editing and proofreading, following a career as a successful classical touring musician. In 2010, after living 25 years in Manhattan, I moved back to where I was born – Bergen County. Working in my teaching studios in both Teaneck and New York, I specialize in teaching and coaching up-and-coming young musicians, college-bound guitarists, adults with backgrounds in other instruments, in classical, acoustic and crossover styles.
With the small devotion of 30 minutes a day to your practicing, I can make a novice player become a good guitarist, and a good guitarist into a great player. For beginning pre-teen students, I most often begin with the Alfred Auberge method. For those who can already read music or have played another instrument, the Mel Bay method is a good start. For adults, I often use the Frederick Noad books Segovia Diatonic scales and Giuliani arpeggios. For intermediate and advanced students, I often use the period-based methods of Frederick Noad while introducing the larger works in the guitar repertoire.
I first taught guitar at the unlikely age of ten. To my surprise, my first student became very proficient very quickly and still plays today. The idea that anyone has the potential to do something well really sold me on teaching. There are standard ways to learn this instrument, but when a reliable method falls short, it's up to a qualified teacher to get their students to achieve their goals. The guitar has a poor reputation as a serious instrument, when it fact it is quite difficult, even physically un-natural to play. Bad habits can not only set you back, but take a great deal of time and effort to un-do, and can even cause physical pain or damage. I can't understate the importance of selecting a guitar teacher who has extensive experience with physical technique, and how it can free the guitarist from sluggish learning, frustration and most musical limits in their playing.