Jake’s Private Studio

Most music lessons follow the same pattern: show up, learn from your teacher, do your best to mirror their demonstrations, get corrected, go home and try to remember what your teacher demonstrated, then practice mostly bad habits until next week.

My approach eliminates that cycle entirely.

I blend flipped classroom methodology with research-backed foundational learning theories — the same approach that I designed to power Practicing Musician’s private lesson program. Between sessions, I assign carefully curated video content targeting your exact needs. You watch, you practice with a clear visual model of correct technique, and you come to our session prepared. That means every minute we spend together is focused on high-value, personalized feedback — not demonstration you could have watched on your own.

When we first tested this model, our Senior Director of Education — Stephen Nelson, whose orchestras at Sprague High School won a Grammy and over 50 first-place competitions, including being named “Top High School String Orchestra in the World” at the Vienna Youth and Music Festival — was skeptical. Then his students started outpacing every student he’d taught in three and a half decades.

The result: faster progress, fewer bad habits, and dramatically more efficient use of your time and investment.

Learn more about my approach →