Pianist, Educator, Composer
Tyler leads a lessons studio of a wide variety of students, from ages 8 to 80 and all ages and skill levels in between. He is available for teaching in-person lessons as well as Zoom or Facetime online lessons in piano, jazz improvisation, composition, and beginner trumpet. In addition to his private teaching services, Tyler also hosts masterclasses and workshops on jazz improvisation, big band & jazz combo performance techniques, and music career development. Please reach out to Tyler by completing a form through the “Contact” link at the top of this page!
This Google Drive folder represents resources Tyler has created and collected for the purposes of teaching jazz piano. Please feel free to use these for your own practice purposes. This folder will grow as time goes on.
Tyler is also certified to teach K-12 General & Instrumental Music through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
Testimonials
"Taking lessons with Tyler over Zoom has helped me immensely in my pursuit of becoming a better musician. In every session he explains and demonstrates the techniques that I am interested in learning in a clear and effective way, and provides me with useful feedback on my playing. As a result of my lessons, I have developed a finer level of musicianship and a deeper understanding of jazz as a craft."
~ Charlie J.
"Among many things that changed during the pandemic, Tyler's piano lessons over zoom were new to our son. We have seen our son make great progress in the last two years. Tyler's constant encouragement and feedback always brings out the best."
~ Priyanka K.
"In addition to his extensive knowledge and experience, Tyler brings enthusiasm, creativity, and kindness to lessons. He has been highly attuned to our son's personality and interests, customizing the lessons to both support and challenge him. As a result, our son enjoys both the lessons and making music on his own, which is what matters to our family the most."
~ Nick P.
Teaching Experiences
During his time at UW-Madison, Tyler took jazz piano lessons from experienced and respected jazz educators Johannes Wallmann and Christopher Rottmayer. Tyler also took trumpet lessons with John Aley, Alex Noppe and Jean Laurenz, and composition lessons wtih Les Thimmig and Johnathan Greenstein. Tyler participated in various locally-performing jazz combos and UW ensembles, taught private piano lessons, and performed on undergraduate and graduate recitals. Tyler hosted his senior recital in December of 2019 for which he composed and arranged the music. With this recital Tyler featured his own reduced concert band arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on which he played the famous solo piano part.
Seeing a need for a public venue for students to perform jazz at UW-Madison, Tyler founded a new student organization, “Jazz Jam at the Sett,” where he hosted jam sessions for students of all skill levels on campus with a house band made up of UW students. Tyler achieved all of this while completing his educational coursework and attending practicum sites. These experiences widened his perspectives and educational philosophies before he became a student teacher in the Sun Prairie Area School District during the spring 2020 semester.
Though Tyler's student teaching was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, he was able to complete his student teaching placements with success and maintained positive rapport with his students while transitioning to virtual instruction. Tyler's high school placement was at Sun Prairie High School, where he had the honor to teach under the tutelage of esteemed jazz educator and Essentially Ellington clinician Steve Sveum. Tyler received dual certification in teaching general and instrumental (K-12) music in the state of Wisconsin through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction after completing his student teaching placements and achieving a passing score on the edTPA educator preparation assessment.
As a graduate teaching assistant at Northern Illinois University, Tyler taught a group piano class, a jazz ensemble, and jazz piano lessons. He studied piano with Reggie Thomas and Richard Johnson, and composition with David Maki, Brian Penkrot, and Geof Bradfield. At NIU, Tyler continued his strong affinity for hosting jam sessions by being elected president of the NIU Jazz Education Network student organization in May of 2021. With NIU JEN, Tyler hosted biweekly jam sessions and organized events such as meet-and-greets, listening sessions, and the 2022 iteration of NIU's MLK Jr. Memorial Concert.
Teaching Philosophy
Tyler's educational philosophy involves showing students their expressive capabilities, fostering their musical talent, and learning from them in a way that allows Tyler to guide their passion towards enthusiasm, exploration and growth. Students need repetition and structure in order to learn productively; with this in mind, Tyler directs his attention to all of his students by addressing each of their capabilities in lessons and reinforcing positive behavior to maintain an inclusive atmosphere. As a teacher, Tyler plans accordingly so that students have all of the tools they need to be successful while participating in their own learning. This includes helping students develop their study and practice skills, memorize musical information, and express themselves effectively and efficiently.
Music as Language
Music is its own form of language and should be treated as such, especially in improvisatory contexts such as jazz music; there exist different "dialects" of music with their own grammatical conventions and syntactical tropes, and individual musicians carry different "accents" and means of speaking the language that can reveal their own experiences and intentions. With this in mind, the true way to learn any musical language is to fully immerse one's self in it, just as someone learning Spanish may travel abroad to a Spanish-speaking country to internalize the language by learning from native speakers. This means finding a way to be surrounded by music at all times including frequent active musical listening, establishing practice goals, and pursuing means of creating music by one's self and with others, by means of composition, sharing musical tastes, and/or performance.
