Rock Piano w/the Farinas

As you can imagine, out of my numerous students I've had over the past year, the entire range of personal fulfillment that could come from teaching them is fairly well-represented, naturally with a tendency towards the mediocre. That said, I do have a few students who have become so rewarding to teach that it's starting to actually be fun for me too.

One particular client I would like to mention is the Farina family. Their three boys - Max, Harrison, and Bennett - became my students through an unforeseen and unintentional change of teacher preference after I had taught them for a friend for six weeks while he was away at a conducting festival. To my surprise, I was asked to be their new teacher, partially due to scheduling conflicts with my friend, and partially due to our totally different approaches: he's a traditional classical piano teacher, while I tend to focus more on popular music, theory, and ear training.

Since then, the Farina boys have REALLY developed their piano skills, most noticeably due to their increase in passion for the instrument due to finding music they connect with. Max, the eldest, has always been a good pianist, but he's becoming even more well-rounded now. Bennett, the youngest, is still getting his feet wet with the instrument, but I'm starting to see some real progress now that he and I have developed a method for his lessons that's pretty well suited to his needs. The most recently inspiring progress though has certainly been with Harrison, the middle son, who also takes guitar lessons which up until recently seemed to be the only lessons he took seriously. Now however, I feel like I've been able to impart enough of my appreciation for and skill with rock piano playing that he's really starting to get into the music we've been working on. They've all come a long way, but Harrison's growth is perhaps the most striking as he initially seemed the most opposed to the idea.

With all three (especially the older two), we spend a large percentage of our lessons having them play rock songs while I sing along, both to simulate the rock band experience and to get them more into the mood (as improvisation is largely dependent on this). We've covered all sorts of songs, including the following:

Basket Case & Longview - Green Day
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Hey Jude & Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
One - U2
Sweet Child o' Mine - Guns N' Roses
Imagine - John Lennon
Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Beat It - Michael Jackson
Oh, Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, & Bicycle Race - Queen
Your Song - Elton John
Jump - Van Halen
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Just What I Needed - The Cars
Creep - Radiohead
Wonderwall - Oasis

There are probably a few more in there, but that's certainly no list to sneeze at either. Overall, I have a great time teaching these guys, and feel really grateful to Henry for letting me teach them in the first place and being cool with me taking over for him. If only all my students were this passionate about their lessons!