Mark Meronek Jazz Piano Lessons Online Only
Mark Meronek Jazz Piano Lessons Online Only

Mark Meronek Jazz Piano Lessons Online Only

$40
starting price


Responds in about 4 hours

Introduction
**Note: -Our lessons will be online only -Teaching serious students willing to practice at least more-or-less 4 times a week for 30 minutes -This site charges to talk with potential students so please only select me if you are seriously considering taking lessons with me but just need to, for example, try a free trial lesson, or a few lessons, to be more certain Thanks!** Hi! My name is Mark Meronek, I am a jazz piano teacher who has been teaching for 15 years privately and I would love to teach you jazz and how to improv if my teaching style is a good fit. Here is some more about the lessons and myself. (what I wrote below is in a Q&A format as if you are asking questions) ******Question 1: What will I learn and what do you teach exactly? What is your background? I will: #1 Teach you how to improv, and play jazz chord progressions and songs, and from the START of lessons (or at least soon after starting), without you having to wait forever to play them. #2 Explain in plain English to you how jazz works. #3 Teach you only music theory that is absolutely necessary for you to be able to play what you want to play and not get you too bogged down in it. I have been playing piano for 20 years and my playing experience includes that I played in a duo and as part of a trio for 4 years for bars, weddings, parties and music events in southern California playing mostly jazz chords and improv on modern (hip hop, funk) and jazz drum beats. I created a beginner jazz piano course in 2012, and 100+ tutorial videos where I teach piano have been viewed millions of times and helped hundreds, if not thousands of people learn and get better at playing piano (you can find performance videos taken from my Youtube channel in the videos section). If you take lessons with me, you will learn how to improv, jazz chord progressions, and jazz songs. Most of all, my goal is to guide you to that feeling of improvisation that you see when you see jazz pianists play. I will give you the tools to do that with chords, theory and techniques from scratch (or in addition to the ones you already know) and more so help bring out the ability to improvise that you already have. If you are interested in other genres like pop, jazz hip hop, R&B, soul, and lo-fi I can also teach those too. For the styles bebop, blues, boogie woogie, or latin jazz, however, please be aware that I can only teach their basics and some soloing techniques. ******Question 2: What is different about your lessons when compared to lessons that I have had before or seen (like online)? Three things: #1 I explain things in simple and easy-to-understand ways and am relentless about focusing on this, #2 I connect what I explain to practical, immediately usable things (chords, songs, soloing techniques) that you would want to play, and #3 piano to me is about enjoyment and self-expression, and I teach with that as a focus. To explain more on these points: I don't overwhelm you with too in-depth or too fast explanations of things like theory for your current level. What you are going to play is not going to be far-off, distant, and something that you will 'eventually' get to (for example, if you study music theory for 6 months to a year). You can have fun while you study theory, or other subjects. Of course there is a balance to this, and I can't always do this, but in the vast majority of cases while teaching, I can, and in my 15 years of experience, focusing on these three things (easy-to-understand explanations, things that are practical to use and play, and a focus on enjoyment and self-expression) can make the difference between a student hating and giving up piano, and continuing. I have heard this many times from students when they talk about their previous lessons, or experiences with learning on their own. This is part of why I teach. A student should never have to go that way, giving up if they love piano, and as a teacher I provide another way so they can continue and avoid unnecessary both difficulty and work. As the student reviews here mention, and many more past students not on this page have told me, the focusing on these three things (being easy-to-understand, practicality, and enjoyment and self-expression) makes a huge difference and has had a huge positive impact on their piano enjoyment and learning. For example, here is a review from a past student: "Mark is a very enthusiastic and supportive teacher. With me hardly having any musical background he rapidly managed to turn me into a musician. Without any boring exercise, or too much theory, he taught me how to connect to the musical side in me and express myself through the piano. I highly recommend him, he is truly amazing." Yoel G. ******Question 3: I'm worried about getting a boring teacher who talks over and doesn't listen to me. How do I know you won't? And also jazz and improv seem pretty intimidating. I'm not sure I can learn it at my level. Can I? You might be afraid to get started and I know taking on jazz can seem intimidating, but as I mentioned above I focus (relentlessly) on easy-to-understand explanations as much as possible. I am also patient and when I see a student is getting overwhelmed even slightly I know not to go over that limit from 15 years of teaching and you can expect to feel like you are learning jazz at your pace, where you are relaxed, when taking lessons with me. I have taught beginners, including people starting from scratch, and if you are one too I can teach you as well. Having a boring teacher or boring lessons and with a teacher who doesn't listen and talks over you sucks, and you can expect the opposite of that with me, someone who really listens to you and lessons focused on fun and the MUSIC. But better than me telling you that, here is a student's review to support that: "...Mark always encourages me to play music I enjoy and, when I am having trouble wrapping my head around a certain chord or scale, he is a tremendous resource. I did not think any single instructor could strike this balance of practicality mixed with musical joy but Mark somehow managed it. This is a rare and welcomed trait. I couldn't have asked for a more friendly and patient teacher. He is congenial, honest and has a passion for music that is downright infectious. I have such a supreme amount of satisfaction in not only being able to play these deep, elegant chords and musical arrangements but in working with someone that always gets me excited to play piano." Jonathan F. (I have reviews on websites other than Thumbtack in addition to the ones you see here for piano teaching, and have received many emails thanking me over the years, but have not used the Thumbtack platform as much) Of course, you do have to practice. You might not feel you have that much time or it will be enough to learn jazz, but as long as you practice at least 30 minutes ~4 times a week, that should be good enough to continue making progress (if you are not looking to be a pro and are playing as a hobby), and of course the more you practice, the faster you will progress. ******Question 4: What are some other specific details about the lessons themselves like pricing? Do you offer a free trial? The lessons are taught online and Skype is used with a clear overhead piano camera view in 1 hour lessons, with each one being $60. I offer a 30 minute free trial for all new students. ******Question 5: Ok, those are most of my questions. How do I contact you to schedule a free trial lesson? If you have any other questions just let me know, and to try out a free trial lesson, I would be happy to schedule one. Simply click the "Message" button and submit ~2-3 ideal times in your schedule, and I will message and/or text you to get back to you about setting up a lesson. Once I do and it is scheduled, you will be taking lessons, learning jazz and how to improv, as early as this week! Thank you for reading and looking forward to talking with you and teaching you jazz and improv! Mark
Overview

Hired 4 times

Serves Trabuco Canyon, CA

Background checked

16 years in business

Business hours

Sun5:00 pm - 8:00 pmMon11:00 am - 2:00 pm

Payment methods

This pro accepts payments via Cash, Check, and PayPal.

Featured Projects

6 photos

Specialties
Musical style

Reviews

Customers rated this pro highly for work quality, professionalism, and value.

Exceptional 5.0

6 reviews

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pro avatar
Arkadiy Y.
Jun 30, 2024
Mark is an extraordinary engaging and generous teacher. I felt that he genuinely wanted to make the lessons enjoyable for me, which is easy as he seems like he enjoys his job and the piano becomes a bit contagious. I felt like he wanted to get to know me and the kind of music I wanted to play and was in general sensitive to my needs as a student. I am glad that we have met :)
pro avatar
Todd Y.
Jun 28, 2024
I have been taking piano lessons from Mark for a few years now. He is very knowledgeable, patient, and knows his stuff. Mark makes the lessons fun and tailors his approach to the style of music you want to learn. I see results and have improved significantly since I started taking lessons from Mark. I can't recommend him highly enough.
pro avatar
Jonathan F.
Aug 20, 2012
In any discipline, it can be a daunting prospect to start from scratch, particularly when you need someone to show you the way. In my case, I had ached for years to learn the piano but could never muster the courage to begin. I was also nervous that any potential instructor I selected would not be amicable to teaching me the music I wanted play, that the process would be tedious and drain my passion for music. Above all, I wasn’t sure it would be fun. Fortunately I came across Mark Meronek’s website. Mark was such a breath of fresh air. He was open to helping me learn my favorite songs while at the same time, establishing a solid foundation of music theory that I could build on down the road. I have been a student of Mark’s for about a year now and my time as his student has been nothing sort of stellar. I would like to share some of my experiences with Mark. The first thing that stands out to me is Mark’s generosity. I have never once seen him concerned with the passing time or that a particular concept takes a little extra effort to drill into my stubborn head. It is not unusual for Mark to spend considerable time with me after our lessons. Whether going over the fine points of a particular piece, answering my numerous questions or simply giving friendly tips on how to practice, he has always been available to help and has a sincere interest in helping me improve. Another thing that strikes me is his teaching method. I saw Mark’s playing and unique style online but was concerned that I could never achieve the dexterity and skill to properly play his signature sound. Mark erased all those concerns. He has a knack for explaining music concepts in a simple, logical fashion. This has enabled me to approach music in a consistent manner and break down songs step by step. Where before, I was intimidated by the sheer enormity of a piece of sheet music, now, I know how to dissect measure by measure in a relaxed way. His technical abilities aside, Mark always encourages me to play music I enjoy and, when I am having trouble wrapping my head around a certain chord or scale, he is a tremendous resource. I did not think any single instructor could strike this balance of practicality mixed with musical joy but Mark somehow managed it. This is a rare and welcomed trait. I couldn’t have asked for a more friendly and patient teacher. He is congenial, honest and has a passion for music that is downright infectious. I have such a supreme amount of satisfaction in not only being able to play these deep, elegant chords and musical arrangements but in working with someone that always gets me excited to play piano. I am quite pleased with my lessons so far and am looking forward to improving as time goes on. Thank you for your time Mark! Kind Regards - Jon
pro avatar
Yoel G.
Oct 9, 2019
Mark is a very enthusiastic and supportive teacher. With me hardly having any musical background he rapidly managed to turn me into a musician. Without any boring exercise, or too much theory, he taught me how to connect to the musical side in me and express myself through the piano. I highly recommend him, he is truly amazing.
pro avatar
Joshua K.
Aug 30, 2012
I think i was one of his first students that got lessons from Mark. First of all, I like to thank Mark for being one of my friend/teacher to show me some of most soulful, jazzy, spiritual and breath-taking music on earth into my life (which range from many artists starting from classical, jazz all the way to house or rock). Anyways, learning from Mark, I got all the basic and simple concepts of music theory and also got some of his playing style within my own playing. But the most important thing I got from Mark was being able to improvise and play music in any situation. This made my musical knowledge wider and more comfortable as I did not have to think of style (as in jazz, rock, dance, pop) when I'm playing but to have the freedom and the musical knowledge to play in whatever song/music. In conclusion, Mark was the starting point of my musical history as I began to start learning more about music in general and having to interact with it and having fun with it. I really recommend getting a hold of him before it is too late because 45 dollars an hour is basically a give away for how much he is going to teach you and how open he will be for question and answers. Anyways, I hope you guys really can learn from Mark if you want to have fun with music in general!
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Mark Meronek

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