Scot Hawkins Piano Studio

I have been taking lessons through Scot for a year and a half now. I had always been interested in learning to play the piano but never had the chance until recently. As an adult, I thought it might be too difficult to pick it up but have been pleasantly surprised. Learning with Scot has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience. I highly recommend him to anyone considering trying out the piano!

As an adult student, it has been my pleasure to study classical piano with Scot for five years. I find him to be very skilled in individualizing instruction and he creates an exceptionally positive and empathetic learning environment.

Scot has been our family's piano teacher since 2009 (two young adults and a middle-aged mom). The magic of Scot's teaching is his uncanny ability to be both patient and demanding. He is warm and kind and makes everyone feel comfortable, but at the same time knows exactly how to help each student advance, step by step, to greater levels of challenge and accomplishment. Each lesson helps us refine our techniques, while also keeping us focused on the basics. Scot has helped us with a wide range of musical genres (Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Coldplay, Guns 'n Roses, Simon & Garfunkel, etc) and is a master of teaching improvisation. He has a delightfully wry sense of humor and we always look forward to our lessons (and even to practicing).

There are three comments I would like to make about piano lessons with Scot Hawkin’s Piano Studio, all good and no bad. The most important aspect to his teaching is consistency. His method for helping me learn how to play has not changed at all since we began. He has a set of principles that articulate the fundamentals of piano playing that has worked for every situation that I have faced. Not only does the method help me improve, they have been used and re-used so many times that I can apply them outside of my lessons. This is particularly important for me, because as husband/father/full-time worker, I cannot make a lesson every week. Sometimes months go by without a lesson! Yet because the method is clear and repeatable, I can apply the teaching at home between lessons and do not feel like I am missing out on making any progress. Additionally, I have an erratic schedule, and am constantly requesting a change of time or day for the lesson. Dr. Hawkins always obliges and offers me the flexibility I ask. I cannot thank him enough for that! Lastly, I cannot recall a lesson that was not productive. There have been times, luckily not that many, when the amount of practice I was able to get in between lessons was paltry. I would go into the lesson thinking that I would have to retrace steps from the last lesson as a result. But the opposite happens, we use the time to move me forward in different areas. Dr. Hawkins is constantly able to point out further refinements to my playing, even after 6 months of working on a piece. He is a wellspring of good and creative ideas. I have never felt like I have wasted my time (or his!). I have been with Dr. Hawkins for 4+ years. He has helped me to achieve this life’s dream of mine to play the piano. Now we are working on getting me to performance level, something I never thought could happen.

Scot knows how to translate his learning and expertise as an excellent pianist into terms that us regular people understand. He starts from where you are, and in a warm, humorous, accepting style, teaches you how to play the piano. For me it was unlearning 12 years of mediocre lessons that ingrained some bad habits and building from there. Also he really knows how to reach the adult learner, though I imagine he'd be great with kids as well because he likes kids. He understands that adults who normally are proficient in their every day lives can have a particularly hard time feeling inadequate or less proficient. He shares his knowledge about music theory, history, styles, and works this into the lessons.