Each lesson is one hour long. All levels of player are welcome. The student is given a practice routine for each lesson. The routine takes into account the amount of time one has to practice as well as the particular areas of music studies in which you are interested. These include the following:
You will never run out of things to study about music. That's what keeps it interesting!
If you play everday, you wake up one day and realize, wow, I play music! How cool is that?
I will help you to focus on one thing at a time and gradually begin to settle down, relax and enjoy the process of your musical journey.
| Cost: | I charge between $80 and $100 per lesson according to what you feel you can comfortably afford. |
| Contact: | Please fax me at 212-971-6044 with your phone number and I'll get back to you. Or email to peyoynd@aol.com. (If emailling, be sure to include RE: GUITAR LESSON in the subject). |
When I learned that Terre Roche was giving private guitar lessons, I asked her to explain what she teaches and how she teaches it. Here was her response:
I began to get interested in teaching when I myself went back to school to get a music degree about 10 years ago. Throughout the years I'd studied guitar and piano with different people and I noticed that the instrumentalists who played either jazz or classical music were often intimidating presences to someone like myself, coming from a singer-songwriter background. At the same time I learned a lot about music and really benefitted from studying.
In my own teaching I try to facilitate a bridging of the gap between the totally untrained and the studied musician.
Personally I'm glad to have come through my own musical journey by experimenting on my own first. I think a lot of times the most interesting thing that you might come up with is something that's unrecognizable to someone else at first - or that you might be told is incorrect according to the rules of theory. That's why one has to protect one's “muse” from the very people one is studying with.
In pop music often people opt for being totally untrained and rebellious against the rules of those who would snuff out the creative flame. What I notice is that a lot of the information that's been handed down about music over the ages is very interesting to me because I'm basically interested in exploring music. All this is a very verbose and I hope not too grandiose way of saying that my interest in teaching lies in the idea that I can be of help to anyone attempting to grow musically while not being made to feel like a dope for wanting to do so.
That's why I especially welcome beginners or at least people who are willing to start very simple and basic and develop along their own path gradually.
The following is a short description of the guitar classes Terre teaches at The New School in New York City. This description was taken from the article “Adult Education ’96. Cool Classes, Great Teachers”, by Linda Hall and Maureen Callahan, which appeared in the Aug. 5, 1996, New York Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 30.
Beginning Guitar, Terre Roche, The New School. Roche welcomes utter neophytes who aren't even sure which end of the guitar is up, yet she won't indulge you if you claim to be tone-deaf or musically inept. “I believe that anybody can play the guitar,” insists Roche, who has recorded and toured with her sisters in the folk-pop group the Roches for 21 years. “It all depends on the interest level -- every single person I've met has been able to do it.” Roche schools her students in rudiments: how to hold the pick, how to twist your arm around the fretboard, how to master at least three chords. If all goes well, after nine weeks you'll have mastered a song -- but there's absolutely zero pressure. “I really foster a noncompetitive atmosphere,” says Roche. “Because I myself have had a lot of music teachers, and I feel very strongly that people can either inspire you or turn you off completely.”
In the Oct 3, 2000, Village Voice, Terre's Guitar Class at The New School was listed as one of the best things in New York City. The following is the text of article:
best way to initiate yourself into the rock and roll lifestyle
Just got an acoustic guitar? No idea how to play it? Why not enroll in TERRE ROCHE AND MONICA PASSIN'S BEGINNING GUITAR CLASSES AT THE NEW SCHOOL, and have an internationally acclaimed musician shepherd you through those early months of agonizing ineptitude? Roche is, of course, as-in-the-Roches, and an attentive, witty, and superhumanly patient teacher who knows all sorts of tips to make you feel like an old pro even as you're struggling to remember which way to turn the tuning pegs. And Passin appears, from the evidence, to think that singing Hank Williams tunes backed up by six terrified novices is heaven on earth, for which bless her. For a new School catalog, call 229-5690