Please excuse the dust!
This website is under construction.
In the meanwhile…here is a very quick description of what this music studio provides (much more to come in time!):
Alison Gruber's Voice and Piano Studio teaches how to play the piano and to sing in the western classical tradition and transfer to any genres/styles.
Piano lessons teach both visual and aural comprehension of pitches and rhythm: reading/writing with the (Treble, Bass, etc.) staff system and chord notation translates to improved spatial temporal reasoning among other complex eye/brain/body awareness for many future studies/activities: the up/down pitch and its correlation to the right/left configuration of the piano keyboard paired with the left to right passage of time notation (rhythm), develops spatial orientation understanding that translates later to many complex eye/brain/body tasks (see article linked at end as a simplified reference to this claim). With an uplifting approach that inspires curiosity, students learn through studying theory and musical pieces how to read, write, compose, play, improvise, sight-read, sight-sing and perform -- all with the historical context for the pieces they are playing/singing.
Piano lessons are offered in 30, 45 and 60 minute increments based upon age, skill and need.
Voice lessons teach breath support and other neurological/musculoskeletal coordination that enables healthy resonance and phonation while the student is communicating text involving phonemes from various languages, most commonly: English, Latin, French, Italian, German, Spanish. Voice lessons include movement to loosen and create body awareness, vocal exercises to form a technique and coordination, and then song in which we apply our technique and coordination through folk, art song, jazz, opera, oratorio, pop, etc. to SING!!!
It is invaluable for a singer to work with a collaborative pianist (and often!) once they are ready. Voice lessons are intentionally not accompanied for the majority of our time together so that we can hear your voice.
Singers learn aural and visual comprehension of pitches and rhythms, music history, music theory, and how to perform. The voice lessons are taught so that the student develops breath support and other neurological/musculoskeletal coordination that enables resonance, phonation and overall vocal production to be produced with minimal amount of effort through healthy biomechanics. The lessons include poetic evaluation of lyrics, musical artistry in performance, language pronunciation and contextual understanding of the piece given its date of composition. Students learn how to perform in front of others while using their voices healthfully and naturally in a way that their individual voice is developed.
Voice lessons are offered in 30, 45 and 60 minute increments based upon age, skill and need.
Students who study music (voice or other instrument study) develop skills that transfer to many pursuits in life: psychosocial understanding, communicative confidence, emotional expression, mathematical reasoning (intervals, patterns, rhythmic fractions, layering of patterns to name a few), understanding of World History to name a few. While there have been many studies documenting these findings, here is a link that serves as a succinct reference:
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/piano/helps-brain-body-graphic/