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
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Do you want to know what fine motor skills are and how they impact special needs music lessons? Fine motor skills are small, precise movements and therefore are a critical component of musical instrument lessons. Gross motor skills are also important in music. However, most instruments require a high level of finger precision, which is why in today’s post we’ll mostly focus on activities to develop finger dexterity. Keep reading “What’re Critical Fine Motor Skills for Special Needs Music” to learn how to increase finger dexterity in your special needs students. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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What’s a Melody (and How to Write Strong Ones)
Do you want to learn how to write a melody? A melody is a series of notes that sound in rhythmic sequence. In a song, it’s the musical part that the lead vocalist sings. It’s the main focus of the music, because it’s what sells the song. Keep reading “What’s a Melody (and How to Write Strong Ones)” to learn what it is and how it works. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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What Precisely Did Bach Mean by Well-Tempered Clavier
Do you like Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” (WTC) but wonder what the “well-tempered” in the title means? Bach advocated for the well-temperaments which are circular tuning systems that allow keyboardists to play in any key without restrictions, similar to equal temperament. Thus, WTC was written to showcase well-temperaments. Keep reading “What Precisely Did Bach Mean by Well-Tempered Clavier” to learn how it works. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
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What Exactly Is Attenuation for Home Recording Studios
Do you want to know what the word attenuation means? Do you need to know what the attenuation control on your soundboard does? If you want the songs and demos you produce in your home recording studio to sound good, you need to understand how your gear works. This includes volume-related equipment such as limiters, compressors, and your soundboard’s various gain and attenuation controls. Keep reading “What Exactly Is Attenuation for Home Recording Studios” to find out what attenuation is and how it works in sound recording. Estimated reading time 4 minutes.
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