Success Music Studio Resume
Objective
- To provide quality instruction in reading, writing, and performing music
Summary
- Over 35 years experience teaching music in both private lesson and group environments
- Over 8,000 hours experience teaching LD and special needs students
- Experienced at teaching guitar, bass guitar, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, keyboard, piano, singing, sound recording, and songwriting
- Accomplished in conveying instrumental techniques and interpretation strategies to students with traditional and non-traditional learning styles
- Progressive methods for teaching music notation to students with learning disabilities, giftedness, and select special needs students
- Proficient in composition, music theory, music history, musical acoustics, and MIDI
Experience
- Included in Marquis Who’s Who biographies (2021)
- Produced two videos for Berklee College of Music’s On-line ABLE Assembly (2020)
- Presenter at Berklee College of Music’s ABLE Assembly – a special needs arts conference (2019)
- Instructor for the Lincoln-Sudbury Adult Education Department (2018)
- Invited to speak at the International Conference of Autism, Cerebral Palsy, and Neurodevelopment Disorders (2015)
- Consultant to the Special Ed teacher at ChiArts (Chicago High School for the Arts) (2010)
- Director of the Boston Songwriters Workshop (2002 – 2008)
- Instructor at Action Music and Sound (2000 – 2005)
- Instructor with the Music Teachers Collaborative (1998 – 2001)
- Arranger for Cornerstone Christian Music Worldwide, Inc. (2001)
- Directed the musicals Star Quest, Mt. Extreme, and Ocean Odyssey (1998 – 2000)
- Developed F.B.C. Sudbury’s Kids Music Club program (1998 – 1999)
- Career Counselor for the Berklee College of Music Career Fair (1998 – 1999)
- Wrote the theme music for the Eastern Mass. Royal Family Kids Camp (1997 – 1999)
- Member of the Praise Team for the B.C.N.E.’s 1998 Music Conference – directed by international recording artist Juan Manuel Saa
- Leader of the Lowell Campus Ambassadors Music Team (1991 – 1995)
- Vice President of the Lowell Chapter of the National Assoc. of Jazz Educators (1990)
Achievements
- Earned the Music Award from R.F.K.C. for the song Great Adventure (1997)
- Won second place in the Instrumental category of the 1997 V.O.C.A.L. Song Contest
Publications
- The Successful Music Student Blog
- Published in Musiczine, American Songwriter Magazine, the BSW Newsletter, the Songwriters of Wisconsin International Newsletter, the Minnesota Association of Songwriters Newsletter
- Wrote a series of articles in the Dyslexic Reader on teaching children with LD to read music
- Interviewed for the book the Savvy Musician by David Cutler
- Interviewed by the Sudbury Town Crier
Education
- BA Music, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA
- Studied guitar with William Buonocore (University of Massachusetts, Lowell)
- Studied piano with Marilyn Roth (University of Massachusetts, Lowell)
- Two years private study in jazz composition, arranging, and guitar techniques with Shawn K. Clement (A Hollywood television and movie composer)
- Over three years private study in voice with Sue Ellen Kuzma
Success Music Studio Resume: A Musical Biography
Youth
My education in music started at an extremely young age. My grandmother, who had a masters degree in baroque violin performance, started to teach me violin. However, I kept trying to flip it over and play it like it was a guitar. (I wanted to be a cowboy.) I was around four or five years old when I started guitar lessons with a lady at the church that I grew up in.
I wrote my first song in second grade. I was eight years old at the time. The song was about Johnny Appleseed. My class was learning about him, and we had just taken a trip to an apple orchard. My teacher had me teach the song to the whole class, which was scary for me at that age. I can still remember, mostly, how it goes.
Adult
I studied music at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, formerly the University of Lowell. Composition and music history were my particular areas of interest. I took guitar and piano, with guitar as my main instrument, but I also sang in a vocal ensemble. My piano instructor could trace her musical lineage all the way back to Beethoven by way of Czerny.
I started teaching on and off after high school, but in 1998 I joined the Music Teachers Collaborative and began teaching full time. Around that time, I met the student who would change my life. He had LD, and that made teaching him a great challenge. It was a struggle to get him to learn anything.
It was this experience that laid the foundation for the methods I now use: diagnostic teaching and multisensory teaching techniques. The teaching strategies have developed to the point where a student with learning disabilities can be playing immediately. Some students start the process of reading “unaided” as early as six months. By the time they reach intermediate material most will have started the process of reading an un-adapted score.
The students have fun, learn, make progress, and achieve success in their musical experience. Join me for in-person or online lessons today!
-Geoffrey Keith
Understanding Basic Diction in Modern Singing
Do you want to know what diction in singing is? In any vocal style, diction is central to a good performance, at least if you want your audience to understand you. However, if you’re not careful, you can overdo it and make your performance sound stiff and artificial. Keep reading “Understanding Basic Diction in Modern Singing” to learn what it is and how it works. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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How Easy (or Difficult) Is it to Play Accordion?
Do you want to know how easy it is to play accordion? The accordion is a versatile instrument that’s a dominant force in folk and ethnic music around the world. However, the playing difficulty depends on which type of instrument you’re talking about. Keep reading “How Easy (or Difficult) Is it to Play Accordion?” to learn more. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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What Precisely Is the Purpose of a Clef?
What precisely is the purpose of a clef? It’s the symbol to the left side of the staff that helps you know how to play the sheet music’s notes. The three most common are: treble, alto, and bass. Keep reading to learn what they are and how they work. Estimated reading time 2 minutes.
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What’s a Groove? (Including How to Write Hot Songs)
Do you need to know what a groove is? Do you want to learn how to write incredibly cool songs? The groove is the part of your song that makes you want to move to the beat. However, writing successful songs isn’t magic - it’s a skill that can be learned. Keep reading “What’s a Groove? (Including How to Write Hot Songs)” to learn how to write a killer groove. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
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