Bear Creek Interactive - Music Lessons by David Pollon

12/16/2025

That day with the Tuesday group guitar class at City of Redmond - Parks & Recreation senior and community center where they asked me to deep dive on barre chords! 🤩

04/30/2025

Continuing education is important. As a teacher I keep investing in building my skills. I've just completed RCM's Piano Teacher Course for Intermediate students (RCM L5-8) to go along with my earlier completion of their Elementary Course (RCM L1-4).

Most RCM teachers are based in Canada but I've always been excited to be able to offer this path for my more ambitious students as I grew up in this program through high school.

03/28/2025

Organizing my library of books from The Royal Conservatory. I've got quite the collection...from really old school editions that my Dad used as a kid in the 1940s, to editions he used when he did his Music Degree at U of T in the 1950s to the 1968/1979 editions I used through high school to the 2022 editions that I teach from today...80 years of continuity...

02/05/2025

Snopocalypse 2025 in Woodinville. The studio is still open! 🥶🎹☕️

12/21/2024

I treasure my adult students, they’re making a serious and positive commitment to their health in many ways by taking on an instrument!

Few adults play musical instruments, and even fewer do so in a group, Caroline Mimbs Nyce writes. What health benefits might they be giving up? https://theatln.tc/oglkQfzJ

“Kids receive plenty of music education, but as people get older, they fall out of practice. Many stop picking up their instrument,” Nyce writes. “This is unfortunate, in part because plenty of research shows that adults could benefit from playing music.”

Playing music helps build larger brain networks and new pathways. “Musicians tend to have better attention than nonmusicians,” Nyce continues. “Banging on a drum or tooting a horn can also relieve stress, reduce burnout, and help with anxiety and depression. For older people specifically, research has shown potential cognitive benefits along with a possible decrease in dementia risk.”

Adults may be skipping out in part because music education is associated with childhood and coursework. And after people grow out of music education in their childhood, they tend to think that music is a special talent, Nyce writes, not something that just anybody can learn.

“Of course, people are busy; they simply may not have the luxury of sitting down to study Bach once a week, much less the money to pay for an instrument or private lessons,” Nyce writes.

Playing music in groups has additional benefits, such as allowing adults to feel more trusting of and connected to one another, and to the world in general. But while it’s easy to go to a park or gym and pull together a game of pickup basketball, “piecing together people at the same skill level to play a concerto or even just jam in a garage is another matter.”

Nyce herself recently began to play the recorder. “I plan to keep learning,” she writes, “not because it strengthens my neuropathways per se (though I certainly don’t mind that), but because making music, even when it’s silly—perhaps especially when it’s silly—is just a whole lot of fun.” https://theatln.tc/oglkQfzJ

📸: Photo Media / ClassicStock / Getty

11/16/2024

Hi students, a friend of mine is looking to pass on their Kawai upright piano to a local Woodinville family that can put it to good use. This piano would be a great upgrade for developing musicians. DM me and I’ll connect you!

09/28/2024

Here’s a link to a group ukulele class that I will be teaching in October on behalf of the City of Redmond. It’s an adult class, so much for Uke players of ANY experience level.