Private Instruction
Based on a jazz approach to learning, this service is for helping people 14yrs and above to play any style of music.
Brad Smith — Piano & Keyboard Instruction
Private lessons in jazz piano, improvisation, modern harmony, and ear training. Flexible lesson formats available at our Southern NH studio location, online via high-fidelity video, or in your home.
🎯 Who Will Benefit From These Lessons?
Our instruction is customized to meet musicians at their specific experience level and goals:
- Intermediate to Advanced Piano Students: Jazz piano enthusiasts ready to transition from reading notes to understanding harmony and spontaneous improvisation.
- Classical Piano Teachers: Teachers looking to add jazz principles, chord charts, and simplified organic methods to their studio offerings.
- Vocalists: Singers wanting to accompany themselves confidently on piano without relying on complex written sheet music.
- Church & Sacred Musicians: Pianists involved in playing and directing religious or sacred music seeking deeper harmonic versatility.
- Professional Instrumentalists: Non-pianist brass, woodwind, guitar, and bass players needing keyboard harmony tools to compose, lead, and arrange.
🚀 What Goals Can Be Accomplished?
Practical musicianship skills designed for real-world playing and teaching:
- Improvisation & Playing by Ear: Break free from sheet music. Play in a variety of styles with deep harmonic intuition instead of classical-only memorization.
- Repertoire & Fun Tunes: Master favorite standards, Beatles, Elton John, Billy Joel, show tunes, or Christmas carols with full, grooving voicings.
- Writing, Arranging & Gigs: Compose your own lead sheets, write arrangements for auditions and band gigs, and lead other musicians with authority.
- Modern Harmony & Jazz Theory: Master chords, scales, substitutions, voice leading, and rhythm mapping applicable to jazz, pop, rock, and R&B.
- College & Career Prep: Audition preparation for prospective music majors, as well as professional coaching for solo gigging and accompanist work.
📚 Instructional Focus Areas
1. Improvisation & Stylistic Freedom
Learn how to construct melodic solos, navigate chord progressions seamlessly, and play with rhythmic groove across Latin, funk, blues, and jazz idioms without being tethered to note-for-note sheets.
2. Harmony, Theory & Self-Accompaniment
Unlock the keyboard as a harmonic canvas. Learn 2-handed voicings, bassline independence, shell voicings, and accompaniment techniques tailored for vocalists and singer-songwriters.
3. Pedagogy for Classical Educators
Enhance your traditional teaching methods. Learn how to introduce chord symbols, lead sheet reading, and ear training to your own classical students to increase student retention and enthusiasm.
4. Auditions & Professional Musicianship
Rigorous preparation for music school auditions, Berklee entrance placement, professional cocktail piano sets, theater auditions, and leading rhythm sections.
5. Expressive Playing & Music as Therapy (Zero-Guilt Piano)
Many adults carry lingering guilt about practice regimens, time constraints, and homework. This focus is built entirely around playing for the sheer sake of playing—an end in and of itself. Spend a session focused on jamming and expressing yourself on the keyboard with my encouragement and guidance. No pressure, no judgment—just the therapeutic release of making music in the moment.
"Man who stand on mountain, with mouth open, waiting for roast duck to fly in....have long wait." --Confucious
"Our goal in music is to feel something, play it through an instrument and have somebody else feel it too." --Brad Smith
Where to start
Whether you want to play for fun, explore music as therapy, prepare for auditions, or expand your harmonic vocabulary, get in touch to discuss openings and schedule an introductory lesson.