Jonathan Roberts
Lesson Feesfrom $40.00 / 30 Minutes
Promotions Available
About
I'm a full time professional performing musician, focused primarily on playing and studying Black American Music. I went to school in Boston, at Berklee College of music, lived and worked for several years in NYC and Philadelphia, and currently live in Portland Oregon. I have worked for over a decade as a jazz and pop pianist and trumpet player, a touring musician with songwriters, chamber music groups and hip-hop acts, a cruise boat musician, and a studio session player. I currently teach students from a wide range of ages and skills, but am a particularly good fit for those who want to learn black american musical styles like blues, gospel, hip-hop, rock, soul, bebop, or modern improvised music in any of it's many forms.
I teach directly to what my students love to listen to, and their goals in learning to play. For a majority of my students, helping them discover what they love to listen to and how they want to play is a part of the teaching process, and it is, by far, the most important piece of "learning to play music." There are certain aspects of playing piano and trumpet that I teach to everyone (tension and resolution, IV to I and V to I cadences, hearing the tonic in tonal music, the significance and application of the circle of 5ths in 12 tone music, how to recognize and express different time signatures, how to practice playing in different keys starting with scales and triads). But beyond these things, I woulds have a different approach and different repertoire for someone who loves Robert Glasper's playing on Kendrick's "To Pimp a Butterfly," vs someone who adores Glenn Gould's later recording of the Goldberg variations. And both of these would be different from someone who just wants to learn to play happy birthday for their Dad's 50th birthday party. For someone who wants to learn more about improvised music, I would focus far more on looking at and understanding the keyboard directly, without as much music reading. For someone who wants to play Bach, I would focus much more heavily on becoming a proficent reader. For someone who only wants to learn to play Happy Birthday, I would get straight to showing them which buttons to press without spending any time on either reading or a deep understanding of the musical elements at play. I think all of these are valid goals, and I'd love to help you with whatever goals you have!
Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano Performance
Studied trumpet and composition at Berklee College of Music (two years)
My top recommended text is a blank book of staff paper.
Less important but also useful: Faber Piano Adventures, The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine, The Keith Snell repertoire series, and the Real Book