Piano Lessons
 
Contact Click here to go to Contact page.
 
Rate Payment each month is the same flat amount, based on 46 lessons per year. Please contact for actual rate.
 
Location Northwest Reno, very near McQueen High School.
 
Ages & Levels Ages 6 through 155 accepted (age 5 on rare occasions). Beginning through advanced students accepted.
 
Student Recitals Twedt puts on three recitals per year for students. Not only is this more than most other teachers, there is also no charge for these recitals. Recital performances are recorded digitally, and students get immediate feedback by listening to their own performances in the lesson following the recital.

When students accumulate 50-60 minutes of recorded recital time, they get their own CD chronologically detailing their progress over the years. Twedt uses his unique experience and training in audio engineering and graphic design to produce the CD professionally, which would cost a few thousand dollars to hire someone to do. The significance of this should not be overlooked. Just as you would never consider throwing away a research paper you worked on for weeks or months, why would you not want to record the music you spend weeks or months practicing? Click here to see and hear these student CDs.

Click here to see past programs of all of Twedt's past student recitals. If you would like to attend a recital, information on the next upcoming recital will be found here.

 
Piano Classes Also held three times a year, piano classes serve as a less formal way of getting performance experience in a fun group setting of 4-8 students. Some teachers have classes in place of normal piano lessons that week, but Twedt's students get classes in addition to their normally-scheduled lesson. There is no charge for classes.
 
Recordings Listening to recordings is one of the most critical parts of musical development. While in Twedt's studio, students have instant access to over 700 CDs of music in his classical CD collection. Twedt has spent hundreds of hours over the years creating an MP3 library on the studio computer from the CD collection. For example, students can listen back-to-back to five different versions of the same Chopin Prelude played by five different artists.
 
Special Events Twedt spends a great deal of outside lesson time enabling students to participate in events such as additional outside recitals, festivals, competitions and workshops, all of which are made possible by the Northern Nevada Music Teachers Association. More importantly, he ensures his students enter such events with a very healthy mental attitude: win or lose, high rating or low rating, these events are learning experiences and primarily for fun - there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Some teachers completely isolate themselves and their students from any events outside of their own studio, and this is nothing short of tragic. It is no worse for a teacher to force all students down the road of becoming concert pianists than it is for a teacher to hide the world of festivals and competitions from all of their students. Every teacher has students who are eager to be judged in festivals and competitions. Some are motivated by trophies and awards, while others simply feel it pushes them to do their best. No matter what the motivation, there are many students of many teachers out there who are being denied part of the fun and challenge they seek through music.

 
Technology Students are encouraged to spend 15 minutes per week before or after their normally-scheduled lesson using ear training and theory software on the studio computer. Twedt uses ear-training software to accomodate all ages and levels of music. When students advance beyond basic theory/ear training software, they move on to collegiate-level software that would normally constitute a two-year program for college music majors.
 
Results Many of Twedt's former students have received music scholarships after graduating from high school, and numerous students of his have gone into teaching careers themselves. In the Reno Youth Music Festival, the overall percentage of students in northern Nevada who achieve ratings of "Superior" or higher is usually between 50% and 60%. In the 2006 Upper Level Festival and in the 2007 Lower Level Festival, all 13 of Twedt's participating students received ratings of "Superior", and this was achieved by entering all capable and willing students, not just the "cream of the crop". While some teachers achieve similar results by being selective about which students they accept into their studio, Twedt is not selective. He accepts all students on a first-come first-serve basis.
 
History Twedt is one of the only teachers who gives regular assignments to research composers. There are a total of 40 composer portraits that are framed on the studio walls (five at a time), and a new composer is introduced every two weeks. The research assignments are very small and quick, and the focus of the assignments is for students to develop their own general opinions about composers and their music.
 
Adults Twedt is one of the most accomodating teachers for adult students in the area. Although he encourages all students to play in recitals, often adults do not want to play in recitals because of the excess "nerve baggage" they carry when compared to younger students. That is why adults especially enjoy the three extra group classes per year (see above).

Twedt initiated a yearly adult-only recital now put on each year by the Northern Nevada Music Teachers Association. His adult students also frequently organize their own informal get-togethers since there are a fairly large number of adult students in Twedt's studio.

 
NCTM Twedt is a Nationally Certified member of the Music Teachers National Association. He engages in further pedagogical and professional training by reading the MTNA's American Music Teacher magazine and by attending workshops and conventions. This certification is the closest a teacher can come in the U.S. to having an official "license" to teach. The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world that doesn't require a license to teach music to you or your child (but licenses are required to work on your car or your teeth!). Even though national certification through the MTNA is not as rigorous as what Twedt went through to get his Masters in Piano Performance degree, he is still proud to be part of a system that not only encourages teachers to be competent and continue their training, but also reaches out to make the public more aware of how to select a good teacher.
 
Education / Honors / Experience Masters in Piano Performance, University of Nevada, Reno (2001)
Bachelors in Piano Performance, University of Nevada, Reno (1999)
Bachelors in Mathematics, University of Nevada, Reno (1999)
Minor in Computer Information Systems, University of Nevada, Reno (1999)

Recipient of the 2005 Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Grant in music composition, given to three artists in the state of Nevada each year

Recipient of the 1999 UNR Excellence Fellowship, the most competitive fellowship given to graduate students at UNR

Accompanied the University of Nevada, Reno Symphonic Chorus for two years, playing orchestral reductions to works such as the Brahms Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, etc.

Pianist at South Reno United Methodist Church since 1994, playing for two services and accompanying the choir every week with all styles of music.
 
Testimonials "I'm really grateful that you are my piano teacher - that's probably one of the best things that's happened to me. You're a great mentor!" - Former student who is now a piano teacher herself

"Thank you for showing so much effort as my teacher, especially when you are so busy preparing for your recital. By seeing the way you play, it really helps me to see the possibilities." - Inspired student

"If I never thanked you for 'encouraging' me to play in a recital, I would like to now. What I thought would be one of the worst evenings of my life turned out to be one of the BEST." - Adult student

"I want you to know how much I appreciate what you are doing for both of my children. Not only are you teaching them so well but you are inspiring them about classical music. In my view, that is the very best a parent can hope for, that their children find their passions and become inspired - keep up the good work." - Appreciative parent

 
Contact Click here to go to Contact page.
 
Warning About Music Schools and Academies
 

Do not be misled by titles such as "Smith's Piano School" or "Jones Music Academy". Such places do not offer any higher certification of music competency for students than what is offered by a private music teacher who gives lessons in their living room. In fact, try calling up a piano professor at your local university and inquire about how often incoming freshmen with piano scholarships come from some particular "music academy" or "music school". With such high enrollment rates at certain schools and academies (sometimes several hundred students per week), there should be an average of several freshmen a year going into universities with very good piano scholarships from these schools and academies. Find out for yourself if this is actually the case.

Piano professors at any college can tell you exactly where the best incoming freshmen music majors come from. There are usually a handful of private music teachers that produce the best results in town with students. Also, at music academies and schools, usually one or more of the following is true:

  1. Ridiculously high prices are charged for each lesson so that the teacher and the owner of the academy both make a decent cut of money off of the lesson.

  2. Ridiculously high prices are charged for each lesson in order to cover the overhead of running the academy (combining this with point #1 results in criminally high prices).

  3. Teachers have a lot of "experience" teaching and performing, but are not capable of bringing students up to a remotely high level of playing. Often the teachers themselves would be considered early to late advanced students and do not posess enough knowledge or skill to carry them through an undergraduate degree in music, but yet their hourly rate reflects that of someone with a bachelors or masters degree in music.

  4. People pay for less than they are getting, such as the group lesson scenario. For example, if a group lesson teacher teaches 4 students at a time, such teachers never (to my knowledge) charge one-quarter of the normal rate, even though students are only getting one-quarter of the individual attention they would receive with private instruction. Parents are led to believe they are getting a great deal (they pay less per month than someone else who studies with a private teacher) when they are actually getting far less for their money. It is an inescapable fact that A teacher cannot make a lot of money with very little effort unless that teacher's students are paying a lot of money for very little service.

I knew a teacher who would teach two private lessons simultaneously (telling one student to practice while he left the room to teach the other student), another teacher who "hired" college student musicians to teach, taking a percentage of every lesson in exchange for referrals (I guess we could call this MLM - Multi-Level Music?), and I know another teacher who teaches 8 group lessons at a time and effectively makes $120 per hour. None of these situations are in the best interest of the student. At best, the student is paying far too much for good education. At worst (and this is most common), the student is paying far too much for very mediocre education.

And, if these teachers are not developing gifts of the most talented students to their full potential, then the same is happening for the average student too. Do not buy into the idea that a teacher does not have to be very good in order to teach the ordinary piano student who won't make a career out of music. Good teaching is needed for any level of playing, beginner or advanced, talented or untalented.

Most of all, do not buy into the lie that teachers who develop the highest musical student competence are teachers whos students are having the least fun. The teachers who want you to believe this are always the teachers who are insecure about their own teaching. You will find no exception to this. As for parents who have this mentality, often they have some kind of bad childhood experience that causes them to associate competence with seriousness. These parents are allowing one experience (or a stereotype) to cloud their judgement of what teacher to select for their child. Take it from a teacher who has been known to put a remote control "fart machine" underneath the student bench (for certain students) and who regularly butchers famous classic tunes by playing one hand in the wrong key: having fun and building musical competence are NOT mutually exclusive.