Azusa offers piano lessons in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. She is a board certified and full time Music Therapist working for the Hospice of Palm Beach County and teaches piano lessons on a couple evenings. Azusa was trained as a pianist in her native Japan and moved to Fredonia, NY where she attended The State University of New York at Fredonia and recieved a bachelors degree in Music Therapy and studied piano performance as well. Upon graduation she moved to Cleveland, OH. There she worked as a music therapy intern at the University Hospitals and shortly after attended Ohio University on a full scholarship as a Masters candidate in Music Therapy. Along the way she taught several piano students wherever she was living and has continued her love of teaching here in Florida.

Please feel free to contact Azusa at azusa19811102@hotmail.com if you are interested in lessons with her or Michael at
michaelbies@yahoo.com for lessons with him.

    Michael offers lessons in piano, music theory and composition throughout Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton.
     Both teachers will travel to the students home in those areas. Lessons can be 30 minutes, 45 minutes or 60 minutes depending on the age, ability and expectations of the student. A method series will be chosen that best fits the student, however, material outside of that specific method will be incorporated to give variety to the lessons. Some outside material may even include composing music to explore the creative side of the student. The rates for lessons decrease slightly as the time increases, so if a family has two students each taking 30 minutes it will be counted as one 60 minute lesson and the lesson will be divided half for the two students. Please contact us for exact rates.

    All lessons in music consist of basically two components, the technical issues of playing a specific instrument and the musical issues as they relate to the instrument. The most basic technical issues with the piano are as simple as pushing the keys to produce different sounds such as loud sounds and soft/quiet sounds. Also, playing one note with each hand at the same time, known as independence of hands as well as more than one note at a time with different fingers of the same hand known as independence of fingers. From there, rhythm takes on an important role.

    Rhythm can be defined in very simple terms as the measure of time between two played notes. It is important to first be able to play notes with an even, steady rhythm. For example, playing more than two notes with the same amount of time between each note. As a student develops technique for the piano, more intricate rhythms will be practiced and executed as well as speed of playing, also known as tempo. When a student is able to play at a fast tempo and with a steady rhythm they are ready to tackle almost any piece of music. However, it may take some time to be able to get to this point depending on the student's age, ability and length of study on the piano. The more serious and hard-working the student is, the faster they will progress. Please take a look at the teaching philosophy page for more on my thoughts about teaching piano and music in general.