What I teach

• Drumset

  Independence, groove, odd time signatures, polyrhythms, brushes and rudiments, for absolute beginners through advanced players.

  Whether you’re working on independence, interdependence, groove, odd time signatures, polyrhythms, brush technique, rudimental application, or preparing for auditions, I bring both deep performance experience and a research-based teaching method to your progress.

• Performance Anxiety & Mental Game Mastery

  Stage fright isn't a character flaw. It's a neurological response, and it can be managed with the right understanding and tools.

  Drawing on my psychology degree and years of performance experience, we work on pre-performance routines, reframing, breathing, visualization and the deeper mindset shifts that let you perform at your best when the stakes are highest. The same understanding applies far beyond the stage.

• Musical First Principles & Applied Neuroscience

  The cognitive and physical processes under all musicianship, made explicit for how you learn and how you teach.

  This isn’t a standard music theory class. Most musicians learn these principles implicitly and incompletely, if at all. We make them explicit, so you can see how you learn any instrument, why some plateaus have nothing to do with practice time, and how to pass on what you know.

• Health for Musicians

  Your body is your instrument's instrument.

  Musicians face health challenges that lessons rarely address: repetitive strain, posture, hearing protection and the physical toll of practice and performance. What happens outside the practice room matters too: sleep, nutrition and exercise either support your playing or quietly work against it. I rebuilt my own health from the ground up after addiction, so this is targeted guidance, not generic wellness advice.

• The Neuroscience of Musical Practice

  How the brain actually learns music, turned into practical strategies for your own practice.

  I translate the research I compiled to design Practicing Musician’s curriculum, including cognitive load theory, spaced practice, retrieval practice, interleaving and dual coding, into strategies you can use. You’ll understand not just what to practice, but how and why. These learning principles aren’t music-specific.

  Keep reading: If It Works in Music, It Works Everywhere

• Mindfulness Through Music

  Use your instrument, or simply your listening, as a doorway into focused, present-moment attention.

  Music is one of the most accessible doorways into flow, that state of total absorption where time disappears. We explore slow practice as meditation, listening as a contemplative discipline, and the link between focused attention and musical expression, drawing on my yoga training and psychology background. No instrument experience required.

• Why Music Is the Highest Liberal Art

  The quadrivium is usually summed up as calling music number in time. I believe that misses something: played by a body moving through space, music is number in space and time, experienced from the inside.

  The quadrivium organized mathematical knowledge into four disciplines: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Performed music is different from the rest: your body moves through space, producing mathematically structured sound that unfolds in time. For the intellectually curious, musician or not.

• Music as Yoga

  Musical practice as a meditative discipline that brings body, breath and mind together.

  We coordinate breath with phrasing, notice tension and release in the body, and develop the focused presence that turns mechanical playing into something alive, drawing on my 200-hour yoga teaching certification. Music becomes not just a skill you develop but a practice that develops you.

• Targeted Flexibility Training for Musicians

  The range of motion your instrument demands, in the joints and muscles that matter.

  Tight hip flexors affect a drummer’s pedal technique. Restricted shoulder mobility limits a flutist’s stability. Wrist inflexibility creates tension that ripples through a pianist’s technique. We find your specific limitations and work on them step by step, drawing on my yoga training and instrument-specific knowledge.

• Targeted Strength Training for Musicians

  Conditioning built for your instrument, your body and your playing goals.

  A drummer needs different conditioning than a flutist, and a pianist’s hand strength differs from a guitarist’s. I design strength routines for your instrument and your goals, building the endurance and stability that support your playing.

• Theory of Relativity in Music

  Everything in music is relative, and so is how you play when someone is watching.

  A note means nothing until it is placed beside other notes; rhythm exists only against a pulse; dynamics are heard against what came before. Relativity governs what you hear and what you can do under pressure. This topic explores both, and how understanding them changes the way you listen, practice and perform.

You do not need to play an instrument to benefit from many of these sessions.

• Music and Recovery

  Practical ways to use music for self-regulation and the daily work of building a new life.

  Music was central to my own recovery from addiction. I share both the research and my own experience, with practical strategies for using music for self-regulation and the daily work of building a new life. For anyone in recovery, or anyone who loves someone in recovery.

• Music and Spiritual Formation

  How musical practice and spiritual growth shape each other.

  Music has carried spiritual experience in every culture and age. We explore how focused attention through music becomes a form of stewardship, how playing together teaches community, and how mastering an instrument mirrors shaping a life of purpose. Grounded in my own faith and open to people of any tradition.

• Curriculum Design for Music Educators

  Build, refine or reimagine your program's instructional framework.

  I designed curriculum for 16 instruments, beta-tested it every week in 5 schools for a year, and saw the method used in 90+ countries, with educators on the platform in 831 school districts. Whether you’re starting from scratch or restructuring, we build a curriculum that’s research-based, sequential and practical.

• Homeschool Music Program Design

  Structured, progressive music programs for homeschooling families.

  As a former homeschool co-op band director and the founder of a platform that serves homeschool families, I know the challenges and opportunities of music education outside school. We design your program together: instrument choices, curriculum sequence, practice frameworks, performance opportunities, and the technology and community resources that help.

• Entrepreneurship for Musicians

  Think strategically about building a sustainable career or business around your skills.

  I bootstrapped Practicing Musician from a one-person operation without venture capital, and built and led a team of 25 alongside 150+ volunteer contributors. Whether you’re launching a teaching studio, creating digital products or growing a music business, we plan the next steps together.

• Building a Music Program from Scratch

  A roadmap for schools, churches and community organizations starting a music program.

  From budgeting and instruments to curriculum, hiring and evaluation, I’ve done it across public schools, private schools, homeschool co-ops, churches and organizations. I help you avoid expensive mistakes and build something sustainable from day one.

• Multi-Instrumental Development

  A second or third instrument, even at a basic level, can break a plateau on your first.

  Most musicians plateau partly because they’ve never explored the principles that connect all instruments. Drawing on my experience across drumset, flute, piano and percussion, and on designing curriculum for 16 instruments, I help you build a multi-instrumental practice that strengthens your overall musicianship.

You do not need to play an instrument to benefit from many of these sessions.