Montcalm Piano

Now accepting a few new adult piano students!

Or anyone with morning/early afternoon availability! My peak times (3-8pm) remain full. I have just started my new fall schedule this week with current students and this has opened up some times. This is the first time in over a year I have had potential openings.

Please note these are for travel lessons at your home!

The two most common things I hear from adults again and again are variations of:

"I wish I would have learned piano".

And

"I regret quitting piano years ago".

Whether you are a complete beginner with zero musical knowledge, or have played for a few years, the truth is you can learn at ANY age. I have 30+ years playing experience and 20+ teaching.

TO INQUIRE: Please message me directly, or feel free to call/text 231-343-0525.

FAQs such as policies and rates: https://www.montcalmpiano.com/lessons

Thanks! Feel free to share!

So I made an impromptu street session down in front of my friends at 310 Lafayette (Peddlers Market) this Saturday for the Danish festival!

Thanks to all who listened and contributed to the “pizza money” fund!

Today we walked down to the historic Thunder Bay Inn! It is one of several filming locations in Marquette county for the 1959 courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Murder”. The movie was a huge critical success and is based on actual events here in Big Bay. We are actually staying right next door to the actual crime scene!

The film stars Jimmy Stewart, most of you know him as the lead in “Its A Wonderful Life”, who portrays a piano playing small town lawyer. The soundtrack and film also feature Duke Ellington, the famous jazz pianist.

Bonus pics of our huge wet burritos we had, and the lovely !

Reminder - no lessons this week!

Our family is enjoying some incredible times in Marquette and Big Bay!

Hi all! Many of you know I have been essentially full student-wise with my piano teaching for a few years at Montcalm Piano.

There are not a lot of piano teachers around, and I know many are very interested!

I wanted to introduce to you all one of my students, Cassidy! She will be a junior at GHS and has been playing piano around 10 years. Cassidy has been studying with me for about two years. She is also a multi-instrumentalist and excels at the Cello as well!

While she is an incredibly talented pianist and musician, she is looking to start teaching some students on her own in the Greenville and Belding areas. I think you all will find her to be very personable, easy to work with, and fun! She is focusing on providing high-quality, affordable lessons starting around $100-$150 a month depending on your location and lesson length.

I'm putting out a few posts to help her out. While I am helping her, I am not in any way taking any commissions etc., and she is independent of my own studio. I started teaching myself as a teenager and wanted to help her get a start as well!

TO INQUIRE: Please text Cassidy at 616-255-6417. She is only accepting 5-10 students so please get ahold of her ASAP!

When you are a piano teacher I’ve found you get some really unique gifts from time to time!

Yesterday we were given a string of watermelon plant to add to my wife’s collection! How cool! I didn’t know what it was at first but she was familiar!

Came across a more uncommon time signature today!

Taken from Bach prelude XV BWV 860.

An amazing job to our performers for my summer ‘23 recital!

Nine of my 25ish students participated and we had incredible selections ranging from the 1700s, Ukrainian folk music, Disney, video game music, and even a guitar solo! The students have been working so incredibly hard this year and it showed!

Originally planned for outside, but rain brought us into the parlor for our recital. Here are some pictures from the set up.

As I get permissions from families I may post some performance pictures as well! Bravo all!

Thanks to for all your love and help!

Color coded left and right hand!

From our family to yours - hoping everyone enjoys their 4th of July! Please remember no lessons this week!

Definitely my most unique piano decoration! Not sure where this even came from 😀

It feels like a great morning for piano!

Eleanor update: she is already a giant puppy! We stopped in Lowell tonight to play for a bit before visiting a friend later!

- “What was the secret to you getting it?”

- “Practice.”

This is a direct quote from an exchange with one of my younger students this week. He has been taking lessons for about a year and a half. I was so inspired I wrote it on his notebook right away!

We had been working on a tough rhythm on a song for about a month on and off. Left hand and right hand playing off beat from each other. I had challenged him to work on this little section and bring it up to a good level.

When I asked him how he brought it all together, I was simply curious what he would say. Everyone learns very differently. It is of course not just as simple as just sitting down and practicing, but I thought this was a really cool moment this past week!

One of my students sent me this today 😂

Piano on Wheels. 😍😍😍

Good morning my sweets!!!

I am sorry I haven’t been posting much. I’ve been so busy with my cleans, year end activities for my ladies schools, sports and well ya know, adulting! 😅

I am going to remind myself the rest of this week to take some new pictures for you all! I am so so horrible at remembering pictures! Haha. I just go to work and get in my zone 😁

I hope you all have been enjoying your week!!

And here’s a cute picture of Eleanor just for giggles 🤭

Wishing mothers everywhere a wonderful day today💕

Flowers by Lily Song

Yes.

It’s important to occasionally work in some technique! Scales are one of the foundational habits of quality pianists!

It’s a lazy Sunday for Eleanor!

One of my student’s awesome piano set up from this week!

Respect Artists. 🎶

Time to brush up on the six strings!

How many plants do you have by your piano?

World famous & all-knowing Mr. Duck is ready for another day of answering piano questions!

Meet our new puppy Eleanor! She is just 10 weeks old. She already is hanging out by the piano!

One of many songs that were sticker-certified by students this week!

338 years ago today, Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Germany. He composed over 1,000 pieces of music, which for about 50 years after his death were neglected. In the late 18th century, his work suffered another period of disregard.

Bach is now regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. 😎

Saw this today, added my personal comment as well - for those not up to speed on their music memory, the rough translation is “as fast as possible” 😎

Good morning! Who’s down for some AM practice?

Stella keenly listening to the nocturnes!

This actually happens yesterday. 🐭

Thursday morning score study! I’m trying to listen to five or so interpretations before going full steam ahead!

Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12

I was pretty excited about piano today! 😎

Possible next piece? These melodies are awesome!

Stella & Paws were my audience for some practice this morning! They were not very impressed, however.