Isaac Jaffe

I am committed to helping my students achieve their goals, as a teacher, whatever they may be. I find as much fulfillment out of teaching a guitarist how to play the newest Green Day song as I do build up a student for performing a Beethoven piano sonata for concert or competition. I have found that students tend to fall into two categories, though some share characteristics from each. The first kind of student comes to me with a specific goal in mind: to learn a song, a technique, or a musical style. For this student, I am goal-oriented and let the student dictate where the lessons go. If the student doesn't have any interest in reading music, that's fine. I work for you, not the other way around. The second kind of student doesn't know exactly where to begin, but has an enthusiasm for music, or perhaps their parents want to include music in their general education. For this student, I take more initiative in designing curriculum to include the classical masters, reading proficiency, theoretical understanding of how music works, and practice techniques and strategies. I am always goal-oriented and maintain practical, short-term goals in addition to a long-term road map. Over the years, I have had students of all ability, talent, and age levels. I believe that knowledge of and experience with music is valuable for everyone, and as a teacher, I know my job is to find an efficient and engaging way to connect my students with the material. Some young students benefit from longer concentrated periods of time on the instrument, while others require a different approach. I have developed many physical games that provide a break from time on the instrument while constantly reinforcing the material we have worked on. This is invaluable with many young students as attention spans vary from pupil to pupil. For instance, my younger students love to play musical twister, a variation on twister in which I set out different colored tape in five lines to reflect the treble or bass clef staff and work the student through a program of memorizing the letters for each line and space. For the youngest students unfamiliar with the alphabet, I have mnemonics keys to facilitate reading notation before they can read words. The key is to keep every lesson full of information, and full of fun. For young piano students, I use the Alfred's Basic Piano Library books as they have fun illustrations and a balanced approach to reading notes and rhythms, theory, and technique. For older students, I use several method books, but also focus on supplemental material of my own design. Upright bass students will study out of Simandl, with a large body of supplemental material as well. Read more.