FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
I try to keep my price as low as possible because I want to be able to teach anybody who truly wants to learn.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
New students begin by learning Technique, which is how to create certain specific sounds on the drum. Those specific sounds will become the musical palette, or even the musical scale which will be used to play the drum. Students are assigned exercises to help them develop their technique. As soon as they reach a minimum proficiency with the technique we move directly into the Repertoire, learning to play the many different traditional and contemporary rhythms that exist in Afro-Latin music. As we play through the Repertoire we begin analyzing the organizing principles of the music. This is Theory. Finally, we learn about the specific cultures that the various drums and rhythms that we have been studying come from.
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
My career in music began with piano, and even though I have now been a percussionist for more than 20 years, not a day goes by that my foundation playing piano does not come in handy. When I began studying percussion I studied with several master percussionists and teachers who I was lucky to find in my own region. Later on I traveled throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, and I studied at the Conjunto Folkloric Nacional de Cuba in Havana, and at the Balé Folclórico da Bahia in Brazil. Over the course of nearly three decades I have performed with a wide variety of groups throughout the US and the Caribbean; and I have accompanied the classes of many renowned dancers. This extensive experience as a performing musician has been just as important as any of my formal education or training.