By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

David Goldenberg supports the edict that if it feels good, do it.  Having a good time with music does more than help students practice through challenges.

“It’s fun to make noise,” he says with enthusiasm.

David’s progression of instruments started with piano at 7, moved on to guitar at 11 and had him picking up the mandolin at 17.

“I really enjoyed the feeling of losing myself in music,” he recalls as his early motivation for playing.  “I remember experiencing that at a very young age.  When you know something well enough, you can let your body do the work and just enjoy the outcome.”

When David switched from piano to guitar, he was following a quest for material that moved beyond the formality of the classical piano lessons he was involved with.

“I never liked when it got too formal when I was young,” he says.  “The most important thing for students is that they enjoy what they’re playing and want to keep doing it.”

Although David admits that the enjoyment doesn’t eliminate challenges, he believes that it’s the honey that keeps enticing students back to the study.  And he uses his own experiences of working through those challenges to ease the efforts.

“Being a student teaches you how to be a teacher,” he explains.  “Certain things never came easy to me so I had to figure out little tricks and ways to understand them.

“I try to remember that logic when I’m teaching.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Some of Paul Perry’s earliest memories involve his mother singing lullabies to coax him to sleep.  She even sang to encourage him to eat.

Paul believes those early experiences that linked songs to comfort were probably the sparks for his beginning interest in singing.

And then his kindergarten teacher sealed the deal.  “I remember starting kindergarten and loving all the songs she taught us,” he says.  “She played guitar and took a special interest in me…I think because I was so interested in her songs.”

It’s that child-like unfettered love of performance that Paul continues to aim for today.  “I just remember not being attached to any sort of judgment,” he recalls. 

Paul’s childhood provided an abundance of opportunities to build that feeling.  “My grandparents had a restaurant, and my mom would put me in the middle of the room so I could sing after-hours.”

Since his mother came from a family of 10 brothers and sisters, that crowd easily reached 50.

Later in life, Paul experienced challenges to that optimistic openness, however. In graduate school he developed nasal polyps.  The malady took him out of the vocal game for a year.

“I started to get into my yoga practice at that time and believe I had to go through those polyps for a reason,” he says.  “I was down on myself at first about it whereas I could have just thought ‘OK, I can’t sing – what else can I do?’”

For that reason, Paul’s advice for students -- whether piano or voice-focused -- is to keep coming back to why they originally started studying music when they feel frustrated.  It’s all about the love.  “I hope my compassion helps students drop their own self-judgment.

“It’s important to just stay positive,” he adds.  “You just have to go through things sometimes.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Greg Warren attributes his 5th-grade interest in learning an instrument to an agreement with his best friend that it would be a fun do-together thing.  “The main reason for choosing the sax was because that was the instrument my friend chose.”

A greater interest, however, evolved when he got further into it.

“I remember the day when we were allowed to look at and hear the instruments for the first time – it was so exciting.”

What he refers to as the “overall joy of the experience” is really what hooked him from that point.  “Growing up in rural Idaho, there isn’t a lot to do but I really connected to the sound of the instrument – it just fit,” he says.  “And I’ve never looked back in my 25 years of playing.”

During those years, Greg added the flute and clarinet to his list of instruments accomplished.  “I had lots of musician friends that played acoustic guitar, and the sax doesn’t really fit in an unamplified setting like a flute can.”

He picked up the clarinet in college to double with it in the big band.

“All of these instruments have a different character and can be used as such in whatever conglomeration I am playing at any given time.”

Greg started private lessons, outside of the classroom, in 10th grade.  “I’m a believer that if students show interest in music they should get lessons sooner rather than later from a professional to really get them going in the right direction.”

And although he had a lot of skill playing in college, he continued to find the benefit of delving deeper into the study with a teacher.  “I could facilitate the music I was playing but needed guidance in the subtlety of interpreting the music.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

When Denise McCoy was seven, her father gave her a keyboard for Christmas. By the end of the day she’d learned her first song: The First Noel.

She credits her father’s “massive classical music collection,” that she grew up listening to as fodder for her lifelong love of music.  That means there could be some truth to the idea that if you want your children to love music – hook them on it early.

“I loved what I heard so much that I wanted to produce the same thing,” she says.

Denise very possibly embarked on her musical career because of that Christmas gift.  “I love the piano.  My Dad knew that very early on when I was singing along to Beethoven’s piano concertos.”

She encourages exploration with different instruments to experience different ways of expressing yourself.  “I’ve loved each instrument I’ve played for different reasons and wanted to recreate classical pieces in my own way.  I wanted to add my own interpretation,” she explains.   “The difference between the instruments is just the sound.”

Denise currently sings and plays most woodwind instruments and piano.

And even though she’s loved playing for as long as she has, like a lot of music students, she has had times when she didn’t practice as much as she wanted to.  “I always felt bad because I didn’t have enough time.”

The bigger crisis than feeling bad about how much time you have to work on your lesson at home, however, is letting that fear stop you from experiencing the joy music study provides.  Denise continues to find new delights in her own study – from the challenge of learning a new song to the satisfaction of hearing her interpretation of it.

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

When you feel unmotivated to practice that instrument that once inspired you, Tung Pham suggests you do like he does: go to a live performance.  The experience can re-trigger your interest and re-awaken your inner musician. 

And being challenged to achieve new heights can brighten your attitude.

Tung started playing flutophone at five and later added trumpet, trombone, French horn, euphonium and tuba.  “Early on I chose the trombone because it was big, and I wanted to play loud,” he says.  “What stands out for me from when I first started was feeling excited about playing.

“I thought it was super cool – making music seemed really fun.”

Finding and nourishing the joy of playing music is one of Tung’s missions with students as well as with himself.  “My advice is to ‘follow your bliss’ – do what makes you happy,” he adds, referring to how to choose an instrument.

In addition to trekking to live performances, Tung feeds his musical appetite by writing, arranging and booking gigs for projects.

He applies his early experiences as a student to his teaching style today.  “I liked teachers who could play really well.  It led my motivation and curiosity to play music even more.

“I also loved hearing stories about playing and working with teachers who could clearly explain ideas.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Sometimes singing or playing an instrument is the result of work; sometimes it’s a natural talent that benefits from guidance.  In Garrett Smith’s case – it’s a combination of both.

At around one and one-half years old, Garrett sang out his natural talent from the car seat.  “When NPR’s All Things Considered comes on, it plays a little trumpet-sounded jingle to announce the show,” he recalls.  “One day, the announcement came on and the jingle didn’t follow – but I sang it exactly.”

And he’s not stopped singing since.

Hearing his sister play piano a few years later inspired Garrett to follow the suggestion of his parents and add the instrument to his studies as a way to develop musicianship and intelligence.

“It took a long time to be able to be expressive on the piano,” he says.  “I started guitar in high school to accompany myself and start writing songs.  I never felt very good at it but am improving now that I perform on it.”

He credits his progress to sticking with it.  “Instruments can be frustrating but rewarding with work and consistent practice.”

Garrett acknowledges different approaches to working with different ages.  “Kids are so different each age to the next – sometimes it’s hard to get them out of their shell, fears and conceptions of what should be.

“They appreciate a firm teacher who also allows them to have a good time.

“Teenagers are super relatable, malleable and able to improve if you’re flexible with how you work with them,” he adds.

“Adults are a blast because they usually really want to be there and understand the value of hard work and focus.”

Garrett uses his experience as a music student to enhance his work as a music instructor.

“Being a teacher is just being an accelerated student,” he says.  “You’re always learning from your pupils, from yourself and from the people you perform for.  It never stops.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Aaron Bagby credits his father’s early musical pursuits as motivation for his own.  “My dad told me he used to play drums in high school so the inspiration originally came from him,” he says.

“My parents made a deal with me that I could take drum set lessons after I studied piano for several years,” Aaron explains.  And so he did – starting piano lessons at eight years old and adding the study of percussion at the age of 10.

“I actually ended up studying both for several years but eventually dropped piano to focus on percussion.

“Playing percussion allows you the opportunity to learn a variety of instruments,” Aaron says.  “Orchestral snare drum, accessory instruments – such as tambourine and triangle – timpani and drum set have been the four primary areas of my focus throughout my studies though.”

During those early years, Aaron applied himself to a variety of new learning opportunities in addition to music – from academics to sports.  “Reflecting back on my first few years of music lessons, the combination of physical skill and mental determination are two aspects of percussion I liked.”

It’s that joy of learning new things that continues to drive Aaron.  “One of the best things about studying and teaching simultaneously is the continual learning process.  I find I often learn more about myself, whether it be character traits or refining my own practice techniques, when I’m teaching.”

He admits that he’s more demanding of himself than he is of his students.  “Of course I want them to improve but I also want them to enjoy their lessons, making music and practicing.”

As a music instructor, Aaron models his style after his own early percussion teacher.  “The patience he demonstrated with his students has always stayed with me.”

Aaron teaches all age groups – children, teenagers and adults.  “With adults I enjoy the process of trying to relate music to non-musical aspects of life in a way teenagers or children often wouldn’t understand.

“The positive attitude and enthusiasm of children are two of my favorite aspects about working with them,” he adds. 

“I relate well to teenagers as this was the age I really developed a love for playing.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

The power of peer modeling may be what started Robyn Yamada’s interest in studying music but it’s her passion that’s held her attention all these years.

“My second grade teacher taught piano lessons to lots of the other kids in my class, and I wanted to play like they all did,” Robyn recalls.

Melting into the unique sound of the French horn convinced her to take on the additional instrument when she was 10 years old, noting that another appeal was that not many people played it.

And then as a teenager, she decided to study voice.  “A friend suggested that I was the only person who could sing the songs I wrote with the intended emotion,” she says, adding that she instantly fell in love with vocal studies.

Seemingly on a path of adding as many instruments as possible to her repertoire, Robyn started playing trumpet in a high school band because “the trumpet got really cool jazz leads.”

It was obvious that the joy that was fed by her musical studies surpassed most other experiences in her early years.  From the beginning, she felt driven to play all the time, saying that her parents had to tell her to take breaks and go outside to play.

What’s the difference between being that student starting out at the age of 6 years and her work as a music instructor?  “One thing is the study process,” she explains.  “Teachers are studying and practicing 24/7 – it never shuts off.

“Also, the teacher stays in analytical mode during the lesson.”

It’s that analytical approach that separates adult students and teen-agers from children, according to Robyn.  “Adults and teens are often more left-brained in their approach to music study and they’re often much more self-conscious than children.”

Feeling fortunate that she has loved all of her own music teachers, Robyn works to be that kind of an instructor for all of her students – regardless of their age.

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

“The more people you play with, the better musician you become,” says Josh Kossman.  “You absorb their styles and attitudes and get better and better.”

Playing as much as possible with as many different people as possible also helps musicians develop their own style.

To keep his own music fresh and his creativity inspired, Josh recently started working with a new band that plays funk-oriented, danceable music. “I’ve been getting more into guitar as well as mandolin lately,” he says.  Following his own advice, he makes a point of playing with as many people as he can.

Josh is also focusing on taking his musicianship to a new level – from someone who reads music to someone who composes for himself and other musicians.

As a writer/composer, he works with students who also want to be songwriters.  He helps them realize tendencies and popular chord progressions their favorite artists use.  Once those are learned, students can take the knowledge a step further and interject their own style into the music.

Josh refers to Bob Dylan and David Grisman as musicians who've inspired him. 

“Bob Dylan has many different styles and yet he’s stayed true to his own feel.  You can always tell when he’s singing – he has an identity.

“His drive, especially in his early career, and his motivation kept him honing his songwriting year after year.  He never did anything else and he never will have to now."

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Although he’d been studying and performing several concertos by the age of 16, Paul Miller recalls hearing Alban Berg’s violin concerto as one of the more poignant experiences of his musical journey to that point.

“Berg’s work was unlike any I had heard before because it had a larger range of emotion than I had known until then,” Paul recalls.  “It also employed a twelve-tone row, which everyone had told me was a sure sign of musical academicism, incomprehensibility, degeneracy and chaos.”

His own impression, however, took a different stance.

“I found Berg’s concerto to be one of the least academic and most directly intelligible pieces I had heard up to then.”

A message in Paul’s difference of opinion is a reminder to everyone that not only is beauty in the eye of the beholder – it’s also in the ear of the listener.

As further proof of the idea, Paul recalls more music that inspired him.

“Somewhat later I was moved by listening to Folkways recordings of Appalachian fiddlers that the Library of Congress made in the 1930s and 40s,” he says.  “These violinists were true musicians yet they acquired their craft through listening and analyzing the music they heard without any academic training.”

Challenges Paul recalls in his own study include the rhythms in Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat and learning to coordinate musical events with movements of the body with Stockhausen’s In Freundschaft.

He stresses that it is the challenges that pave the wave to better musicianship.

“The most memorable mistakes are those which I did not – at the time – learn anything from.”

Paul recommends three skills to look for in a teacher when working to find the best music to work with.  “First the teacher must know a wide range of pieces; second, he/she must possess the skills to evaluate the musical and technical requirements those pieces demand; and third, the teacher must be able to evaluate the student’s needs and personality in order to match them with a good piece to work on.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Like a lot of 8-year olds, Josh Kossman’s musical knowledge was mainly rooted in Sesame Street tunes.  His godfather changed his ear forever, however, when he gave Josh his first album, performed by Rage Against the Machine.

“It was the first time I heard real instruments be played,” he says.

Soon after that, Josh's inspiration came from groups like Nirvana with songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit – the first song he learned on the guitar.

His early experiences of learning songs by listening taught Josh a few lifelong lessons that he passes on to students today.  “I tell them to keep trying – that music is best learned from learning as many songs as possible.

“A big part of musicianship is to train your ear,” he explains.  Once you can discern the key, musical knowledge helps determine chords and a good ear fills in the song.

“We learn theory to be able to hear what’s in a chord and then know how to anticipate the next chord.”

Utilizing mnemonic devices like the NBC theme song (one-chord to six-chord to four-chord) helps a musician hear it in a song and know which chords follow which chords.

“It takes a long time to learn certain songs but it gets easier,” he adds.  “I was frustrated a lot at first but learned pretty quickly that if I worked on a song for an hour a day for about a week, I’d get somewhere.  It really taught me perseverance.”

As a result, Josh focuses on encouraging and helping students so they don’t get consumed by the frustration.

Start with what you can do not what you can’t, he says.  “I start out by picking the easiest songs that are their favorites and teaching them three chords at most to be able to play them.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Mike Furry places the Beatles at the top of the list of his influential musical mentors.  “In my opinion they’re the best band,” he says.  “Not only could they sing and play well – they could write well too.”

It was during high school that Mike got turned on to the Fab Four – decades after they first rocked the world.  He started his collection with “Rubber Soul."

“I’d go online to get the chord progressions and try to play them, and that would make me want to sing along -- it's what got me more into playing the guitar and singing.

“Some of their chord progression patterns come up in different songs,” he adds.  “It helps to learn the music vocabulary and which progressions are most common.”

And that’s how Mike recommends people get inspired by and introduced to a song they want to play.  First get the band’s studio version albums to hear how they want to sound then listen to the live version to hear more variations.

The Beatles, for example, inspired Mike to write songs that had similar sounds – the I-IV-minor-IV-I progression.

“Flash forward 15 years later, and I’m in college, hear a minor IV chord and know what to do.”

Mike started playing guitar at age 10 when his father bought him a book, promising lessons if he got through it, which he did at 12.

Learning theory presented the first challenge.  “As a kid I just wanted to jam and solo and sound like Guitar Hero,” he recalls.  “At first I felt overwhelmed by all the information but after a couple of years of playing scales I started noticing patterns, and that’s when theory got easier.”

Mike steers students toward the music they like.  “I ask what bands they like and who they want to play like – then I show them some songs.”

It’s plugging into the excitement of playing what you hear that hooks a musician.  “Once I realized I could replicate songs I listened to, it made me really love the guitar.”

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

Gary Gutierrez recalls his musical taste kicking in when his mom bought him his first album: Kiss Double Platinum.

“When you’re eight years old and you see a band like Kiss – they look like super heroes in makeup,” he says.  “I loved their musical tone and sound – it was a monumental album for me.”

Starting out as a drummer and playing in his school’s percussion section at the age of 10, Gary didn’t realize his fascination with guitar until he was in high school.  Without lessons, however, his proficiency was limited.

“Being self-taught, I didn’t know how to work out sections,” he remembers.

“It’s common with young guitarists to be able to play bits and parts of songs really great.  I’d get guitar magazines with tabs and learn the parts I could handle but since I couldn’t put an entire song together -- with solos, bridges and chords -- I’d learn as much as I could and then move on.”

Valuable technique skills he acquired later on include learning how to block chords and put all fingers down on the strings at once rather than one finger at a time.  “This helped me learn economy of motion,” Gary explains.   

He stresses the merit of employing the least amount of movement as a goal for guitarists to be able stretch their repertoire and make fewer mistakes.  The less-is-more theory means that when the musician works less, there’s more time for developing expertise.

“Sooner or later there’s that one song that lays under your hand really well,” he adds, pointing out that once you experience it, you see how easy playing the guitar can be.

The first piece that laid easy under Gary’s fingers was Row Jimmy by the Grateful Dead.  “I really liked the song, and it was fun to play with friends.”

Today his musical taste includes Radiohead, Lotus, Jellyfish and Diana Krall.  His love for the Grateful Dead, of course, continues.

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

To some people, creativity means to abandon the norm – and in some ways that’s partly true.  If the basics aren’t learned first, however, the abandonment can easily turn into chaos.

When it comes to learning a musical instrument, Cobus du Toit encourages risk taking while attending to the basics of music: rhythm, intonation and technique.  “Lots of people try to take risks but if these aren’t in place, they can’t be as expressive as they want to be,” he says. “It’s just easier to nurture that sense of creativity once they are.”

Cobus credits Susan Milan’s version of Carl Reinecke’s Flute Sonata, Op. 167, "Undine" as the composition that inspired his early musical choices.  “I heard it when I was in the eighth grade and although I started as a pianist, this was when I switched over to the flute,” he says.  “It helped me fall in love with the instrument and gave me the idea of how I wanted to sound when I grew up.”

He refers to the risks Milan took as seductive and dark.  “The sound was elegant and seemed like she had a really good perception of the piece.  In a lot of recordings people play it the same way but she took big risks with it and made it her own.”

“Many of those big Romantic composers were pianists – this piece was an equal partnership – true interaction with a pianist,” he says, referring to the dialogue between flute and piano in “Undine.”

To hear Cobus play Reinecke’s Sonata Click Here.

Currently Cobus is listening to a wide range of music – from Emmanuel Pahud and Sharon Bezaly to Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga.  “It’s more about creativity and originality of an artist than it is about genre for me,” he explains. “Talent can be transferred to any genre.”

It’s the blend of talent, guts and the willingness to accept criticism create the foundation for creativity and originality, he adds.

When teaching, Cobus encourages students to learn the fundamentals – rhythm, intonation and technique – and take risks with how they play a piece.  “I inspire creativity by not inhibiting it,” he says.

By Elizabeth Gold, The Lesson Studio Correspondent

When E.J.Swider first heard Joseph Alessi play trombone, he knew the next steps in his journey.  “It was the first time I’d ever heard what I call a true artist and a true musician,” E.J. says.  “He’s known for flawless technique and a beautiful sound – and he inspired me to play trombone.”

Joseph Alessi, appointed principal trombonist of the New York Philharmonic in 1985, recorded New York Legends as part of a series produced by Cala Records.  For a sampling Click Here. 

“There’s nothing he plays that he didn’t intend – there are no wrong notes, and the phrasing is exactly the way he wanted it to be,” E.J. explains.

Everything he says in reference to that impression at the age of 15 points to the foundation of learning an instrument before being able to play music.  The idea sounds obvious, of course, but as a directive, it lays out the steps and the promise.

“I’m a firm believer that musicians are working toward perfecting their ability to completely express ideas through music,” he says.  “All that holds them back is the ability to play the instrument – which is a big hurdle, of course.”

E.J. recalls the first large piece of music he prepared to compete for high school honor bands (concerto for bass trombone by Thom Ritter George).  His recommendation when tackling pieces of this magnitude is to take it slowly with plenty of time with a teacher who knows the piece.

“I worked on that piece for eight months with a teacher every week.”

What’s E.J. currently listening to?  “The Penguin Café Orchestra is a group of classically trained musicians who follow a motto to inspire ordinary people to do magnificent things,” he says.

As another recommendation he mentions Sufjan Stevens as “a really intelligent songwriter and a beautiful storyteller.”