Learn Piano from a Conservatory-Trained Professional

Gabe is not your average piano teacher. He has studied piano at the university level for seven years and performs regularly for his profession. If you want the fast track to piano progress and high-level playing, Gabe is the teacher for you. (Weekly practice is required!)

Learn the secrets of music and pianism. Private piano instruction in the comfort and convenience of your home. (Rate may vary depending on travel distance.)

Private In-Home Lesson

$100/hour

Teaching Philosophy

Gabe has taught hundreds of beginners to advanced pianists of all ages and backgrounds, including at Little Mission Studio and Veksler Academy in California. While earning two concurrent bachelor degrees at Santa Clara University in Music and Psychology, Gabe also worked as a teaching assistant in music theory classes of his peers. Having now studied piano for more than twenty years with legendary teachers Jan Saito, Hans Boepple, Sharon Mann, Mark Anderson, and medal-winners of the Van Cliburn Competition, Gabe has mastered the recipe to the perfect piano lesson.

Because Gabe has come to care so deeply about piano and classical music over his life, he strives to nurture this same sensitivity and interest in his students. Gabe helps his students discover the genius and beauty of classical piano music through a new way of looking at it—one that excites students and inspires them to dive deeper into their study of music.

  • Playful, expressive, and fun

  • Practical, organized, and efficient

  • Makes learning interesting and gratifying

  • Makes music make sense, and helps students make sense of music on their own

    Emphasizes attention to detail, curiosity, and intelligent practice

  • Aims to deepen each student’s understanding and love of music

  • Helps students develop strong musical habits that build their confidence and abilities at the piano

  • Focuses on technique and dexterity, pianism, musicality, sensitivity, imagination, creativity, performing artistry, and a contextualized awareness of music history and theory

Gabe’s Teaching Method:

Gabe’s areas of musical expertise include:

  • Historically-appropriate performance practice

  • Keyboard literature from every era: Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, 20th Century, and Contemporary

  • Collaborative piano-playing with singers, instrumentalists, chamber groups, choirs, and orchestras

  • Music history since the 17th century

  • Piano pedagogy

  • Performance practice

  • How to practice

  • Learning from historical keyboard instruments like the fortepiano

  • Designing a recital program

  • Selecting repertoire

  • Advanced music theory and its practical applications

  • Appropriate methods for tonal analysis of any genre

  • Aural skills: recognition, transcription, dictation, ear-training, sight-singing, etc.

  • Alexander Technique

  • Interpreting piano works by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Bach, and Chopin

  • Interpreting Impressionist piano works

  • Bodily piano technique

  • Career paths for pianists

  • Principles and control of voicing

  • Imitating true legato on the piano: the science of decay and “hyper-legato”

  • Shaping, projecting, phrasing, and articulating melodies on the piano

  • Virtuosic technique of scales, arpeggios, and chords for speed and ease

  • How to prepare any piece of music for a successful memorized performance—particularly for a competition, exam, or audition

  • Organizing and perceiving music visually in the score

  • Conceptualizing music in different mediums: visually, aurally, physically, metaphorically, structurally—making it make sense

  • Training the ears in order to improve how the hands behave

  • How to use fingers more tactically and efficiently

  • Noticing and controlling how each finger interacts with each key

  • The foot’s important role in piano sound production