Piano Teachers

Casey McCann

I've been teaching lessons full-time for almost ten years, with a bit of time in there for writing, performing, and, these days, being an administrator.

I grew up in a musical family, although my formal education didn't start until I was eleven years old. My dad has a basement band that has been meeting every week since I was in the womb, and my uncle is a classical pianist who used to practice at our house late at night. So, one night I might fall asleep listening to Scarlatti and Chopin, and then the next night it would be "Cinnamon Girl" and "Love in Vain." My school is called Eclectic Music for a reason!

What I enjoy most about teaching is giving students the skills to succeed on their own - my goal is for my students to not need me! I like to teach students how to practice, how to figure stuff out by ear, and how to set goals for their own progress.

For more about me, please visit caseymccann.com.

Jennifer Christie

Music has always played an important role in my life. I grew up listening to contemporary Christian music and was inspired by artists like Sandy Patty, Amy Grant, and Larnelle Harris. I performed solos by many of these artists at an early age. I began taking voice lessons when I was thirteen and performed in musicals and solo and ensemble contests. In addition to my high school choirs, I sang in the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, Ohio All State Choir, and Clermont Honors Choir. After high school, I attended Millikin University where I completed a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. In December 2007, I completed a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University.

As a voice teacher, I would say that I am more of a technician than a vocal coach. Rather than working on stylistic nuances, I focus on building a strong technical foundation. I help students to develop a strong, effortless, pleasing tone while communicating a meaningful thought or emotion. To achieve this means, I use a number of vocal exercises designed to widen the vocal range, engage the breath, relax the articulator muscles, and improve resonance and agility. While I build upon the same general principals with each student, I treat each person as an individual. Every person enters the voice studio with a unique skill set and personality. Therefore, I take a slightly different approach with each person. Because I was once a shy person, I particularly relate to the shy student and enjoy watching singers develop confidence and freedom of expression. Most importantly, I believe the process of learning to sing should be fun. While I teach voice using songs from the classical and musical theatre repertoire, I also encourage students to bring in their own favorites. That means if you walk by my studio, you’ll often hear this classical guru attempting to sing a rock song – or even the occasional Hannah Montana or High School Musical song.

In addition to my vocal training, I’ve had over ten years of piano lessons and eight years of private flute study. While in high school, I performed in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and was first chair flute in my high school concert band. I continued my training on flute and piano while I was a student at Millikin University.

I’ve been teaching beginning piano students for four years and use both the Alfred and Faber and Faber piano methods. While I work with students to develop a technical mastery, I also try to keep the learning process fun and rewarding. As with my voice students, I continually use new approaches depending on the unique interests and inherent gifts of the students. I supplement the books with both rote songs and repertoire that most appeals to the individual student. I am a stickler about counting and learning the notes, and I encourage all of my piano students to sing. Just as playing an instrument makes us better singers, so does singing make us better instrumentalists!

"After trying two other arrangements for piano lessons, we are so pleased to have found Eclectic Music. Jennifer has inspired our daughter to practice, and the difference we see in her progress is amazing. She can't wait to show off for relatives and guests, which tells us how proud she feels of herself. We recommend Eclectic Music to our friends and neighbors looking for a great musical experience for their children."

Allyson, mother of Klara, 7
Virginia-Highland

Jessie Davis

“Everyone moves to their own beat. Some go fast, some go slow.” As a musician and teacher, this saying rings true. I like to teach each individual student differently based on their personality and learning styles. The most important lesson I strive to pass on to my students is to have fun, and to discover what it is that they love about music. To teach music to a child is to share the gift of artistry, discipline, and life-long passion. I have taught private and group piano lessons for 5 years to both young children and adults. To me, the most rewarding thing in the world is watching a student learn a song for the first time. It’s that moment, after weeks or months of frustration and confusion, when everything finally clicks and the student can smile and say “I get it!” that makes me love teaching.

I began studying classical piano 16 years ago in Salt Lake City, UT. I went on to attend the University of Utah to study piano performance with Dr. Bonnie Gritton. Although I had a passion for classical music all of my life, I longed for more. I wanted to branch out and discover other styles of music. I attended the Berklee College of Music during the summer of 2006 and began my formal training in jazz piano. Now I am finishing a jazz performance degree at Georgia State University under the direction of Kevin Bales. I have been very fortunate over the past 2 years to be able to surround myself with other musicians, teachers, and mentors who encourage me to put my individuality into my music.

Other than being a student and teacher, I am also a freelance musician, singer/songwriter, and producer. I love to create musical magic on stage as well as in the studio. My main goal as an artist is to be innovative in everything that I do.

Laura Benjamin

I teach voice and piano; my specialty would probably be musical theatre and contemporary music. I have a BA in History from Yale University, where I was also heavily involved in the performing arts via my a cappella singing group, Out of the Blue, and periodic musical theatre. I grew up in Westchester County, NY (the distant suburbs of NYC, basically). I had a great piano teacher, who I am still friends with, despite the fact that I constantly noodled on the piano while she would instruct me during lessons, a habit which the sweeping arm of karma seems to have infiltrated into all my own students now. A just dessert, I suppose. :-)
I am a singer/songwriter/pianist/
guitarist and that would essentially be the order of proficiency as well. My musical strengths would probably be my ear and sense of harmony/blend; weaknesses include classical sightreading (when there is no "chord chart" to read) and some of the finer points of high-level theory (certain Italian terminology, etc.).
I really enjoy when I get the opportunity to work with a small group of singers and experiment with harmonies, getting the chance to share the joy I find singing with other people. I enjoy wacky vocal warm-up exercises and will insist that my voice students at least attempt to lose their inhibitions about singing when working with me.
I have an original music project called LB Collective , which I would describe as a pop-americana band. I love to read, play volleyball, exercise, and have a fantastic pooch named Sammy.

Michael Rachap

Though I'm fluent in several instruments, as a home filled with guitars and basses will attest, my musical native tongue is Piano. Specifically, I have a passion for performing (and teaching) rock and pop songs, all styles, all eras. "Eclectic" would aptly describe my tastes, but, if forced to choose, I'd cast in my lot with British And American Rock Of The Last Half-Century.

Here's how I got to be a pianovore. Formal training started before age five, prompted by my envy of an older sister's daily practice. Before long, I was being bused each Saturday morning from my home in Annapolis, Maryland to Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory Preparatory Department. And I soon discovered I could faithfully mimic the piano chops of the era's reigning pop king, Elton John. By the time I was fifteen I was performing in bands with older, wiser players at some of Washington, DC's more notorious nightclubs. (I was kept backstage between sets.)

After graduating with a business degree from Georgetown, I spent a decade and a half as an ad copywriter, much of that time on Madison Avenue in New York, before having an "a-ha" moment and returning to my first love, music. Luckily, we had never really parted.

In 1999, I enrolled in Boston's Berklee College of Music, where, in addition to their core curriculum, I studied Songwriting and Music Production & Engineering. A series of family-related events brought me to Atlanta, where I began making music with fellow Eclectic instructor Michael McGill and, later, with the school's Director, Casey McCann. The three of us still play gigs around town as The Omnivores. Catch us if you can.

Watching Casey teach piano to my nine-year-old daughter, and observing the joy it brought to both of them, I decided to accept Casey's offer to get back into teaching. (I'd taken on a few adult students after college but hadn't worked much with younger kids.) Now that I'm part of the Eclectic faculty, I couldn't be happier I gave in to Casey's cajoling.

My style of teaching is about Listening and Re-creating. I use my ears, and encourage students to do the same, as together we find what it is in a recorded performance that moves us. Though I can and do teach with sheet music, I work best by tapping the instinctive ability, in nearly everyone, to match pitches and rhythms. I love finding the stylistic and technical common ground among disparate players. A good example is in the way Chuck Berry took (stole?) much of his signature guitar style from the piano playing of Johnnie Johnson—both of whom I've seen perform live.

While I teach at Eclectic part-time, my other job also involves music. I make short, animated films for children, called Readeez , many of which feature tunes I've written, performed and produced at my home studio.
If, like me, you enjoy a great three-minute song, and you (or your kids) would like to make some joyful noise of your own, I'll be happy to hook you up.

Wesley Morgan