Joshua Bennetch maintains an
active teaching schedule at the University of Texas at Austin, where he
teaches class piano and private lessons to students in the School of
Music. As a private teacher, he teaches both music majors and non-music
majors.
If you are interested
in lessons, regardless of age, expertise, and
previous experience, please email
me.
Watch a video of a private lesson!
My Teaching Philosophy:
Playing the piano is not simply about learning how to reproduce music.
It is about learning to speak a language, and finding your own personal
dialect and voice within this global language. As a teacher, I teach
students how to find that personal voice and to learn to be independent
speakers who are capable of dialoguing with others in the language of
music
Practically speaking, a teacher must address two different elements in
helping students to become fluent in the language of music. First, he
must uncover the musician that is inside everyone. Music is an art
form, and just as everyone has a unique voice, I believe that everyone
has an intuitive musician within them. Learning to uncover that inner
musician is one of my primary goals as a teacher, and I accomplish this
through relating music not only to emotions, but also to patterns of
speech and movement. Second, music is a discipline and a science.
Without the ability to quantify the intuitive and exercise the mind,
the intuition is never refined. Through theoretical explanation and
technical discussion in very concrete terms, I seek to make the
abstract more concrete, only in order to allow the student to return to
a more refined intuition. Practically speaking, this also means
including training in sight reading, music theory, and music history so
that the student is introduced to the entire discipline of music.
It is important for every teacher to help their students to be
independent thinkers and listeners. The ultimate goal of piano lessons
is not to create someone who follows instructions, but to create
someone who asks questions, finds answers and comes up with their own
instructions. If they learn to think for themselves, musicians can then
be a voice in their own communities, not simply in their lessons. I strongly believe that
a teacher should not be a motivator, but an equipper. The music itself
should be the motivator, and the teacher’s job is to
introduce the student to music and sound in a way that fosters a
lifelong relationship between them. After that initial relationship is
created, music will then draw the student to the teacher. As a teacher and
performer, I have a special love for 20th century music and music of
our time. 20th century music provides a rich world of colors,
sounds, and ideas which are often neglected in classical training, and
I believe that exposure to this music as early as possible will greatly
enrich the relevance and richness of a student’s voice.
As humans, we are called to love, refine, and cultivate all that is
good in this world. Music is beautiful, music is truth, music is an
abundance of excess, and music is life. A relationship with music
allows us to see more clearly all that is beautiful, truthful, and
abundant in all areas of life. It is an art, discipline, and language
which allows us to experience beauty and dialogue with others in a
powerful way. Both teaching and studying the piano are a portal into
this world, and the fruits that come from studying piano are seen in
all areas of life.