1st lesson free
Eri
- Rate TSh 132,250
- Response 1h
TSh 132,250/hr
Contact
1st lesson free
- Piano
Experienced tutor in Piano in Walnut Creek, Eri offers private lessons tailored to your needs.
- Piano
Lesson location
About Eri
I enjoy starting 3-5 yo beginner. My big emphasis with very young beginners is perfect pitch training. My studio has Steinway B, Yamaha baby grand, and also digital piano for sight-reading self-study time. Performance and theory are both priorities. I currently have 3 level groups for group lessons (theory, ear training, rhythm exercise, music writing) on weekend, bi-monthly workshops, spring and fall recitals at Steinway Piano Gallery in Walnut Creek and Berkeley Piano Club (I am a auditioned performing member at the club).
Piano Lessons (Early music education through high school)
I am a piano teacher currently living in Concord and I am moving to Northgate area in Walnut Creek in late January. It seems that all of my 26 students are staying with me after this move, but I am interested in expanding my work hours to start working with few more very young beginner students between age 3 and 5.
Very young children can start piano lessons with weekly 15 minutes music-play sessions. During this phase, I will play with your child at the piano priming his/her mind for the concept of music, fingers for piano playing, and ears for the pitch. Once I see your young child is ready for more organized piano lessons, the student will move on to weekly 30 minutes lessons. Some of the more serious students then will move on to weekly 45 minutes lessons at some point during 1st to 4th grade. The weekly lessons are Tuesday - Friday after school hours. On weekends, I do group lessons (I currently have 3 level groups), workshops (bi-monthly), and some private lessons with older children or for duet projects. My studio has a Steinway Model B, a Yamaha baby grand, and also a digital piano (Yamaha P125) which I use mostly for pre-lesson time sight-reading for 3rd graders and older students.
The new openings only for the 3-5 yo will be:
Tuesdays: 3:45-4:00 pm
Wednesdays: 2:15-2:30 pm
Fridays: 4:00-4:15 pm
Who I am:
I am a 49 yo Japanese woman, and I live with my youngest son (a Northgate junior), my wonderful English partner, and my Dalmatian boy who loves piano music and stays in his kennel in the studio during the lesson. I have 15 years of piano teaching experience in Walnut Creek and Concord and I have always maintained good size studio with 25-38 students. Although I did not choose to study piano academically (after college graduation, I got mathematical / data analytical job at a British bank in Japan), I took 10 years of piano lessons as a child, resumed and continued my piano study as an adult after moving to the U.S., I became an auditioned performing member of Berkeley Piano Club along with 26 other highly accomplished wonderful pianists in the Bay Area in 2008, and I have performed with Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra at Lesher Center for Arts in 2009.
My studio's now and future:
For the past several years, I have been keeping my studio size smaller with 25-28 students to enjoy more relaxed time with my family. However, now that my children have grown and I have more time and energy to pursue and enjoy my work more deeply and creatively, I am now really hoping to expand my work with very young beginners of age 3-5 yo to finally start perfect pitch training.
About my Perfect Pitch training (Eguchi Method):
Perfect pitch is a very cool (and extremely rare) ability of being able to tell the pitch of any sound without any reference, and it is obviously very helpful in learning and playing music. I myself had this training when I was 3 yo back in Japan, and I can't thank my mother and my childhood piano teacher enough for giving me this gift. Ever since I started teaching piano in America, I have been always wanting to start the same training at my studio. In Japan, there is a strong belief (backed by many scientific researches) among parents that gaining perfect pitch boosts the children's IQ, and the concept is widely known and appreciated among people in general. Perfect pitch is a highly trainable ability, but it is only if the child starts training before the age of 6 1/2 (this is a pretty stiff cut-off age), and if the family really supported the children with the daily home training (2,3 minutes x 3 times, daily, for 1-3 years on average for 75% success rate at my friend's studio in Japan). So I am really hoping to meet some young families in Northgate area with very young children between age 3 and 5 with big passions for your children's early music education who would be enthusiastic to work together with me and with your child to give him/her the gift of perfect pitch.
Group lessons:
Once the child is a little older, I have group lessons for 1st through 6th graders on Sundays (once a month pace). At these group lessons, students in group of 3-4 work on music writing, rhythm training, ear training... etc to strengthen their understanding of music. For example, this school year, I have 7 students all in 3rd grade working on a theory book together in 8 lesson course. In the lessons, I also mix in the other things such as music writing, rhythm training, and ear training, but I do 5 tests in 8 lesson course to keep the level of understanding on each topic in conventional music theory by each student monitored, setting up catch up classes to avoid some students falling behind from the group.
Pre-lesson music reading time (sight-reading training):
Most of my 3rd graders and older students come to the studio 15 minutes before their weekly private lesson to learn short and simple piece of music assigned for the student for that day and the lesson starts with them playing the fresh piece of music. This helps them become more confident in reading music by themselves, and I also hope to get them prepared for more involved sight-reading in the future.
Performance opportunities (Workshops and recitals):
I see performances and other sharing opportunities as the big moments in instrument study that push the students to become musicians. So I really encourage my students to be always practicing at least one challenge piece with completely different commitment to become completely fluid and free. In order to make sure that the student will study this special piece with special passion, I pre-select several pieces of music, email the links to YouTube videos of the pieces, have them watch (listen to) the pieces at home with parents, and have them select their next recital piece. In addition to my twice a year recitals at Berkeley Piano Club (fall) and Steinway Piano Gallery in Walnut Creek (spring) I do bi-monthly workshop to keep my students motivations. Workshops are sometimes themed such as Holiday workshop, or Disney workshop. All workshop performers must play the scale and primary chord progression of the key of the music they are going to perform.
My lesson structure:
I naturally have a fluid teaching style in my private and group lessons, but I also have some set structures. Weekly private lessons are 15, 30 or 45 mins on Tuesday through Friday afternoons. Most lessons start with sight-reading correction or flashcard activity, followed by their scales or finger exercise to monitor their hand shape and smoothness in executions. Next part of the lesson is on small projects like text book songs. And then, the last and the best part of lesson is the workshop/recital pieces.
My own love and passion for music:
Always studying challenging and rewarding pieces of music is the big part of my life and has been the backbone of my annual planning for the past 10+ years, I still find great passion and joy in it. Some of my favorites composers are Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Prokofiev, Chopin, Bach... and each year, I prepare at least one major work by these composers to perform for the club. I also enjoy working on many smaller pieces to perform at smaller concerts, either solo or ensemble with other pianists or instrumentalists. My other personal passion in music is jazz. When I am relaxing at home, I always listen to Pandora jazz station. I am not a trained jazz pianist, but I like learning jazz pieces sometimes with some improvisation attempts, and each year, I find myself starting to play songs from Charlie Brown Christmas around the time of "fall-backwards" (time change).
What I want to share with my students:
I honestly deeply love my daily life with my love of piano and music. I always think very fondly of my childhood with piano lessons and recitals, and I always think to myself that I can't thank my mother and my great grandmother enough for supporting me to start taking piano lessons and buying me a real acoustic piano at age 3. I really hope to teach this joy of learning and playing music to my students through my lessons. Piano and music is something you can learn and get better if you approach with the right attitude and with well structured and caring guidance. And the better you get, the more enjoyable it becomes.
Genres of music:
My students develop into different types of pianists. I do have some students who start to enjoy playing late intermediate to early advance piano music by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy around the time they are in middle school, but many other students start to specialize in certain other types (movie, pops...etc) of piano music around the same time. Yet, some others start developing their own balance in mixed categories (perhaps a little bit like myself). Children get busy with academics and other activities especially once they are in middle school, and I would like to help them continue with their joy of piano playing by finding out how they would like to continue together with the student. They do not know how they would like to have their relationships with the music, so I try to probe and bring out what they really desire, what would work, with the students and often with their families also.
My special interest in classical music:
I must admit that I hope to work on more late-intermediate to advanced classical piano repertoires with my students in the future as I just love sharing the joy of challenging, beautiful, and rewarding classical piano music playing with bright young minds. It always thrills me when I hear my student start playing intricate pieces of classical piano music with their own thoughts and with refined technic that they earned from daily practice.
My vocational goal and flexibility in students' choice of music:
However my ultimate vocational goal is to help each of my students have great piano learning, playing, and performing experiences in their childhood, and to help them learn and find out how to continue to enjoy music in each of their lives by themselves by the time the childhood piano lessons end for him/her. So, although I definitely try to keep all my students on the classical piano training path as long as I can, when the student chooses to focus on his/her own specialized area at some point, I am happy to support his/her choice and help them maximize their joy out of the music of their choice which I really hope that they continue to enjoy beyond their childhood.
My studio families and studio culture:
Piano study is a long-term commitment and each teacher-student-family relationship could turn into a long-term relationship. So I would like set the first 1 year as trial period to make sure that we both feel right with each other before we make the commitment for the possible long-term relationship. Since I do many group events, I often find it challenging to work with families who are not good in keeping up with the email communications. I also work only with children who enjoy piano lessons and who want to learn. As a result, all my studio families are wonderful people who are easy to work with for me and among each other, and all the students enjoy coming to lessons and learning piano/music.
I look forward to hearing from enthusiastic piano/music loving parents of very young children.
See more
About the lesson
- All Levels
- English
All languages in which the lesson is available :
English
Piano lessons offered by Eri are tailored to each student's needs and level. Lessons can also be held online. Lessons are also available in Walnut Creek. The first lesson is free to define learning goals and methodology.
See more
Rates
Rate
- TSh 132,250
Pack prices
- 5h: TSh 660
- 10h: TSh 1320
free lessons
The first free lesson with Eri will allow you to get to know each other and clearly specify your needs for your next lessons.
- 1hr
online
- TSh132,250/h
Similar Piano teachers in Walnut Creek
Tomás
Brooklyn, United States & Online
- TSh 185,150/hr
- 1st lesson free
Sergio
New York, United States & Online
- TSh 79,350/hr
- 1st lesson free
Giulia
Chicago, United States & Online
- TSh 158,700/hr
- 1st lesson free
Abreu
London, United Kingdom & Online
- TSh 150,733/hr
- 1st lesson free
Antônio
London, United Kingdom & Online
- TSh 122,690/hr
- 1st lesson free
Miranda
Torreón, Mexico & Online
- TSh 52,349/hr
- 1st lesson free
Eduardo
Punta Gorda, United States & Online
- TSh 211,600/hr
- 1st lesson free
Alain
Paris 13e, France & Online
- TSh 135,588/hr
Jennifer
Paris 12e, France & Online
- TSh 135,588/hr
Lucía
Brooklyn, United States & Online
- TSh 158,700/hr
- 1st lesson free
Hanxin
Paris 9e, France & Online
- TSh 210,915/hr
- 1st lesson free
Dan
London, United Kingdom & Online
- TSh 192,798/hr
Danielle
San Francisco, United States & Online
- TSh 158,700/hr
- 1st lesson free
Valerio
London, United Kingdom & Online
- TSh 210,325/hr
- 1st lesson free
Benedict
Orpington, United Kingdom & Online
- TSh 140,217/hr
- 1st lesson free
Ezequiel
Cammeray, Australia & Online
- TSh 139,514/hr
- 1st lesson free
Elizaveta
Paris 16e, France & Online
- TSh 241,046/hr
Dr Ethan Lustig
Los Angeles, United States & Online
- TSh 264,500/hr
Louis
Paris 16e, France & Online
- TSh 241,046/hr
Vojin
Paris 14e, France & Online
- TSh 165,719/hr
-
See Piano tutors
