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teaching philosophy | PARALLEL
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theory | We believe in not only teaching you how to play your instrument, but how to understand it and the music that you are producing. For this reason, we include theory in all our courses. Theory is like the stick that supports a plant to grow and stand on its own in due time. Music, in essence, is a language and by mastering theory we are able to understand musical language. This allows us to communicate with musicians all over the world and understand the meaning of current and classical musical compositions
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song | Song is the medium that music has evolved through. That is why we use song as a crucial element in our teaching process
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improvisation | A tool that will give you the ability to play with any song and musician while building creativity
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community | We love to connect our students by encouraging students to meet up and support each others growth and creations
music lessons | our instructors
duncan powell | Johannesburg
Hi I'm Duncan Powell. I am a 24 year old working full time as an architectural technologist and director of Parallel. My dream for Parallel is for it to become a platform for other talented full time students/young professionals to supplement their tuition/income, through adding value to their community by sharing their skills.
My music journey started with a friend who taught me guitar for a few months when I was 12. He built such a strong foundation and respect for the art in me, and I still try and replicate the attitude he taught with my lessons. I studied music theory and vocals at Copa Academy,
I am a professional guitar 'noodler' and have many years of live performance experience. Currently I am finding the most joy in producing music and working as a session player with local artists.
| teaching style
I believe in molding lesson plans to the individual. Finding what works, while limiting aspects that do not bring joy to the student. The goal in the beginning is to achieve a well-rounded base of knowledge and skill with which to build off of.
I hold that practice (in any form) is the route to growth. Learning songs and using them as precedent can be a strong tool to learn new techniques, add accountability, develop creativity, and act as a fun way of practicing.
I love teaching improvisation and oral training. Skills that allow you to learn songs bu ear and create music with any musician. They are tools that will help you immensely in a professional setting and at home or with friends.
craig reuben dollery | cape town
I'm Craig Reuben Dollery! A 21-year-old independent Musician and Actor! I am based in Cape Town and Currently working on music of my own.
I studied Guitar and Piano at Copa Academy and have been playing both instruments since I was 10. I love learning all kinds of new and exciting things and have a passion for sharing what I learn with
others. I have taught multiple students over the years. Some of them have gone on to play in bands of their own. I'm a quick and patient learner and love to understand who my student is so I can build on
their strengths.
So whether you are just starting piano or guitar at 10 or at 50, I have the confidence and patients to help you achieve your goals in no time!
| teaching style
I believe in building a strong foundation in theory to create a strong intuition. I teach the fundamentals of Western music theory that applies to every melodic Western instrument, i.e., guitar, piano, flute, etc. This will be the focus of most early lessons. Teamed with the basics of the instrument you are passionate about. From there we will apply the theory to your instrument and break down your favourite song as we learn how to play them and understand how they were written. With piano lessons, you will have the option to learn the basics of Sound design and synthesis. My goal is for every student to have a written song of their own within 2 months. No matter how bad you may think it sounds. Every step to growing songwriting confidence is a step to making beautiful music. And once you’re getting ready to record that music, we will cover the basics of Music production. Where we will cover topics such as Live recording, DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) Plug-ins, Loops and Samples, Basic beat making, and Mixing.
This class is for beginners and intermediate players and is taught weekly in English. Experience is helpful but not required.
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