Personal Description:

Hi, I'm Crystal. I am a musician and music educator with 15 years of teaching experience. I am a classically trained pianist, keyboardist, and vocalist with expertise in music theory. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance with a minor in Psychology. I am also a singer-songwriter and pop/rock musician. I absolutely love teaching music, which is also teaching self-confidence, perseverance, and creativity!

Tutoring Experience:

I began my teaching career in the public schoolroom 15 years ago and moved to one-on-one lessons 10 years ago. I have kept students engaged in their music lessons throughout their childhoods and seen them off to universities to study music or their fields of choice as confident, creative adults. I teach beginners through advanced piano and singing, ages 6 and up online and all ages in-studio. I have much experience teaching The Royal Conservatory of Music and have helped many students successfully complete RCM exams from levels 1-8 practical and all the accompanying theory exams.

Tutoring Approach:

My approach is tailored to each individual student. For young piano beginners, I generally start with a piano method book such as the Alfred Series or Piano Adventures, and we work our way through that material until we get to a place where we can make a choice about where to go from there. Some students choose to pursue the Classical or Royal Conservatory repertoire, while others prefer to explore the pop and rock genres or just learn the songs they've always dreamed of playing. Intermediate/Advanced students can work in any of these genres in a variety of ways- reading sheet music, chording/comping, chart-reading, by ear, etc.

My vocalists learn the basics of safe, effective vocal production- intonation, tone production, breathing, posture, and ear-training. Most of my vocal students prefer the pop and musical theatre genres, but I have taught plenty of classical vocalists and studied opera myself. For my classical students, we would learn vocal production specific to the classical/operatic repertoire as well as foreign language diction.

All students learn accompanying music theory, mostly based on understanding the piano keyboard, ear-training (intervals, rhythm, etc,) and reading the staff. Even vocalists should have some basic understanding of the piano and ideally be able to play out their melodies for themselves when learning a new song.