Sina - Piano tutor - Great Neck
1st lesson free
Sina - Piano tutor - Great Neck

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Sina

  • Rate $88
  • Response 1h
Sina - Piano tutor - Great Neck

$88/hr

1st lesson free

Contact

1st lesson free

1st lesson free

  • Piano

Experienced tutor in Piano in Great Neck, Sina offers private lessons tailored to your needs.

  • Piano

Lesson location

About Sina

My focus is teaching the student how to teach themselves. I'm there for a lesson, they're there for the rest of the week. The goal of my lesson is to as quickly as possible get the student to a place where they don't need instruction for all the basics and all the skills they need to imporve their skills on their own. It's a little like learning a language - the point is to be able to read new books on your own. After that the student can take lessons if they wish, but they are musically 'graduated'.

I have been playing for 24 years. My special passions are opera, music history, composition (especially as it illuminates performance) and the connection of music to other arts and sciences. A lot of music study is helped by psychology, which is another passion of mine. The history of music is so fascinating and is a beautifully reflective mirror of how European history happened. As history tells the events that happened, music is the emotional history that runs parallel to it and I have not to this day seen anyone who hasn't found it fascinating.

I have a performance degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.

I have taught music history and opera classes for 10 years.

Above all, noticing what problem the student is trying to solve that they're not aware they're trying to solve, and where their attnetion is and why, and figuring out which question will show them a way to getting passed the obstacle. Removing the obstacle is the fun part. My assumption is that the hands, or the ears, natuarally do the things they need to do once the obstacles are removed. That it's not so much learning music that's difficult, but unlearning the assumptions that the student came to it with. The student often doesn't know what that is, and it's often an assumtion that they don't know where they got from. Other times it's actually giving some infromation. I enjoy when I get better at this and notice a kind of obstacle that I never encountered before. People are interesting.

I started teaching about 3 years after starting to play myself, as a teenager, rapidly finding out that teaching is another animal altogether from playing an instrument. 



I have some background (not formal training, but study) in psychology and philosophy, which has made all the difference in my own life, study of music, and the piano. I teach with the tools that have worked for me and which have worked for students I've taught. 

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  • English

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English

Playing an instrument is like a new-year's resolution - it's a long term behavior change, so everything that affects behavior change affects playing an instrument. A goal one wishes to reach is very important for initial motivation. I begin by assessing their goal, why they want to reach this goal, and what time-scale they imagine for reaching it. I then tailor the lesson toward this goal. The obstacles and assumptions normally surface enough on assessing these things and the initial lessons take shape, as I have an idea what new habits the student has to adopt in order to progress. I then make a schedule for the goal the student wants to reach (at a maximum of one year) with intermediary goals along the way (it's very important for the studnet's sense of progress to see where they are with respect to their own ultimate goal) - the lessons are a breakdown of the skills that will bring the student to the place where they have the habits to take over the learning themselves. 

I have the student keep a very detailed practice journal where they document what their practice was like and what still needs work, and especially what the practice felt like and what obstacles made it unpleasant. These are the richest sources of learning, and the student who doesn't keep this journal will generally not have insight into their own habits, as most of their own expereince will be forgetten and a measuring stick for their progress will be unavailable to them. It's hard, if not impossible, to remember what practice was like today 4 months ago! This is a vitally important part of the new student's habit formation. 

The environment the student is in and what habits they have and have not developed in response to it (the place and time of regular practice) is the first concern with a new student. Music usually poses a much smaller obstacle itself than the environment of practice. These are as much "musical" skills as technique, as they directly affect the outcome, and progress in this feels very encouraging to the student. 



I have worked with all ages of students. The type of student is less important in my opinion than the motivation for the lessons. A mother or father who wishes they learned the piano and instead now wants their child to learn will do better to take the lessons herself/himself. The least successful lessons are the ones where a 4-year bears the burden of a parent's delayed desires. I have in the past required a parent to take lessons in place of their teenagers when the son or daughter didn't want it. The piano is not difficult to learn! If you feel it's too late for you, but not for your child, TAKE THE LESSONS YOURSELF. Your child will be much more likely to learn seeing mom or dad play and enjoy it. 



Ask the teacher, given your committed study, how long it will take before you no longer need lessons and can teach yourself. 



I went to see Benjamin Zander, the leader of the Boston Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, play a concert. It was the youth orchestra. Over 100 players between the ages of 11 and 20. The concert began with a solo flute (the piece was debussy's Afternoon of a Faun - look it up on youtube if you don't know it - it's gorgeous!). She was 15 or 16, the flute player. She played it so beautifully. When they finished Maestro Zander turned around and said: "Sometimes amazing things happen on stage and we don't tell the audience. Our flute player this morning just didn't show up! Just didn't show up! but here we don't look at what goes wrong and feel down, we say 'how fascinating!'. So our second flute player susbstituted and played the flute solo that you heard at the beginning. She has NEVER PLAYED IT BEFORE NOW!" We clapped like it was a home game winning touchdown. I was stunned. Then they went on to play Mahler's gargantuan "Titan" (his symphony no 1 - again just youtube it!!!). The very idea that 11 to 20 year olds might even PLAY this piece was stunning. But it was THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF ANYTHING I HAVE EVER HEARD LIVE. I knew the piece well and I alwyas bring the music with me to a concert if I can and was following along. It was something of a miracle. The kids had no idea how good they were because they certainly weren't old enough to have familiarity with the history of the performance of this piece. It was a testament to what can happen if the right habits are inculcated. That concert changed my life. 



A few things worth thinking about before reaching out
Think of an instrument not as music (that is a result) but as a process, a gym membership for your brain. You are changing a lot of behaviors and forming new habits by taking up an instrument. Have a clear idea of what your own goal is and what habits and kind of day you wish to have by the time your goals are achieved.

Above all, don't think about the first lesson with a teacher as your 'start'. Think about what habits you now have, what you think and understand about music (not what you don't) and what you're curious to learn about. Get a practice journal (even before you have a teacher) and write all of this down (write more than you think you need to). Figure out what questions you have about music and what you're curious about, and what you like about it. Do not wait to borrow a teacher's concept as your own before you've at least looked at why you want to play. Think that you're hiring a teacher in order to teach yourself how to play the piano. All your lessons will be more educational with this work done beforehand. 

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Rates

Rate

  • $88

Pack prices

  • 5h: $440
  • 10h: $880

free lessons

The first lesson with Sina will allow you to get to know each other and discuss your needs for future lessons.

  • 1hr

online

  • $88/h

Details

I charge $70 a lesson (1 hour), but I collect a month's fee in advance. I provisionally set a limit for studies at one year, which in my opinion should be enough for the student to have reached the stage of independence on the instrument. Knowing that the lessons are going to end in a year makes the lessons aditionally focussed and directed toward the goal. 

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