Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher, it is my job to uplift the student in their goals and confidence as an artist and musician. The student acts as my guide in how I can help them best.  I am providing a service for them to receive and improve. While critiques are important in that process, it is more essential that the student will utilize those corrections.  It can feel helpless and damper a student’s confidence if all I can provide is critiques.  They must recognize what they do well to maintain their motivation, confidence, and keep doing those particular things.  Psychological research suggests that for every critique, there needs to be five words of encouragement in order for them to listen and keep their confidence.  Therefore, my goal as a teacher is to encourage as much as possible in addition to my corrections.

No matter their age, my lessons are a collaboration between teacher and student. I will provide as much guidance as necessary, but I greatly appreciate and encourage the student’s input and own words. I may describe a correction in a certain way, and once they successfully make the correction, I ask them what they felt or how they would describe the adjustment to enhance my future teaching but, also, to help them fully understand and able to replicate the correction on their own.

Finally, I strongly believe that anyone can learn anything in the right circumstances, and it is my job as a teacher to provide those correct circumstances for each individual student.  Along with this, students are people first and students second. My goal is to provide a safe place for them as a human and a student, so they can improve without stress and, more importantly, have fun.

Recommendations

We love Laura! She has been a great piano teacher for our daughter. Very kind and patient, thorough in her lesson notes, and our daughter has made great progress under Laura’s direction. The MacDonald Family

I cannot sing enough praises for Laura.  She has taught my almost 10-year-old son piano for the past year and exceeded my expectations in every way.  Her approach meets her students where they are – both in proficiency and interest.  She struck just the right balance of pushing my son technically while encouraging his creativity.  He continues to progress and be excited about the piano and that is due in no small part to Laura’s efforts, including seeking out sheet music tailored to his specific interests that has the right amount of difficulty to push him while also feeling attainable.  She is patient, knowledgeable, and caring toward her students. I can’t thank her enough for cultivating my son’s growing love of music over the last year.  She will be sorely missed in our family and a great asset to her new students. The DeMarco Family

Laura is an amazing Vocal Teacher & Coach!  She is a very patient and kind individual. She has a strong vocal background and is truly knowledgeable and can teach technique on multiple levels.  My daughter has taken lessons with Laura weekly for over a year now and she has made significant improvements with her voice and her confidence to perform.  She not only makes great song suggestions based on abilities, interests and the students’ personality but also teaches vocal exercises and technique at each session which has also helped my daughter so much.  I cannot say enough good things about Laura. She is amazing and fully supports students both inside and out of class by teaching, helping with song suggestions, audition prep, and even has been so kind to attend performances that my daughter has been in.  My daughter looks forward to her weekly session with Laura and I  highly recommend her if you are looking for a Vocal Teacher.  The Icenhower Family