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Reviews
Hear it from My Students
I can’t say enough about how awesome Jonathan is!!! My son has been taking lessons for several years now and it’s amazing the progress he has made under Jon’s teaching. My son absolutely adores him and they have made a wonderful connection that is sometimes hard to find in music teachers.
I love how flexible Jonathan is and how willing he is to teach my son anything he wants to learn. From classical to MARIO theme songs, Jon can do it all and my son loves learning various songs and styles.
I also love how Jonathan is able to teach a variety of instruments. My son is learning piano, drums and bass and I have even taken guitar from him. It seems that whatever instrument we want to learn he can teach
Like I said, I can’t say enough good about Jonathan. He is an incredibly skilled musician, a patient teacher and I couldn’t imagine a better fit for my son! I hope he’s around a very long time because I have a younger son coming up that will be ready for lessons soon 😁
Jon is an amazing teacher!
He knows how to approach teaching adult students who are probably balancing various responsibilities and commitments alongside practice. He's an expert in a huge variety of styles depending on your preference - from different periods of classical music to jazz - even encouraging me to pursue some personal favourite pieces of video game music.
He's good at recommending specific pieces to develop various technical skills (especially good for students like me who tend to be undisciplined at daily technical exercises).
He's also very passionate about the artistic aspects of playing and how to bring out the "story" in a piece of music. I would recommend him without hesitation!
I can tell you why Jon is a perfect fit for teaching my 2 daughters (currently ages 11 & 14).
1. Jon has a musician’s heart. That’s essential in my book. It is so important that my daughters love & appreciate music in general, and have a teacher that models those values. With some other teachers we tried out, the teaching was more task oriented which quickly lead to burn out. Jon values the process. My daughters may not win competitions (or maybe they will), but they still enjoy playing piano and participating in orchestra in school. My oldest daughter was surprised to learn that she did so well in music theory, until she noticed all the students who did well played the piano.
2. He has a teacher’s heart. He relates to my daughters extremely well, connecting with them through humor, empathy & love of music. He’s able to recognize different learning styles (improvisation vs. classical, modern & classical music) in my daughters and adapt accordingly.
3. Jon drives to our house to teach! That’s so awesome! That makes the lessons possible for us.
I could go on (for quite a while), but this should give you a taste of what we value in Jon’s teaching.
My son has been taking piano lessons with Mr Jonathan for the past 5 years, absolutely loves working with him. My son has not only made good progress in playing the instrument, but also has developed an intuitive understanding of musical rhythms. As a teacher, Mr Jonathan provides positive encouragement and comes across as a very personable and friendly teacher - someone that students would want to work with. He also has good insights into various musical instruments and offered us sound guidance on choosing the right instrument to focus on. He also went out of his way to help us with a family musical project! Thank you for everything!
Jon has been teaching my son for years and has been an amazing teacher. My son is extremely passionate about music and has composed dozens of his own songs and even made a few bucks off of them. I don't think he could have gotten to the point he is at with any other teacher. Jon is truly one of a kind!
I simply can’t say enough good things about my son’s experience with his drum teacher Jonathan Preece.
Besides being a very talented well-rounded musician (drums, keyboards
and guitar) I am exceedingly impressed with Jonathan’s manner with the
kids and specifically with his ability to get my son to learn so much
in such a short period of time. His low key personality works hand in
hand with his exceptional intelligence to provide an outstanding
learning environment. Jonathan is encouraging and extends my son’s
love of learning, which is every parent’s dream.
Another nice aspect about Jonathan’s teaching is that we didn’t expect
our son to have music theory incorporated into drum lessons. By
seamlessly teaching music concepts alongside the drum patterns,
Jonathan scores big yet again by providing that well rounded, high
level of teaching.
On a side note, my son truly doesn’t understand what a rare treat it
is for a seven year old to "jam" with a musician of Jonathan’s
calibre, as Jonathan sometimes accompanies my son on guitar while he
drums, something my son loves. A garage band experience at 7 – yikes,
does he know how cool this is?!
A very happy Mom,
Kathy
I would highly recommend Jon to anyone.
I recently discontinued my guitar lessons with Jon solely due to the fact that I am relocating from the Seattle area to Raleigh, NC. I would like to leave my recommendation for Jon as an outstanding teacher for the following reasons.
Jon combines two gifts: the first is his ability to use music as an effective medium for conveying thoughts, moods, emotions and messages into one that appeals to a wide variety of audiences. You may be aware of his efforts to promote social justice via his musical pursuits. Jon does not proselytize for anything while he teaches, but instead helps the student to achieve her/his own level of expression as suits their respective talent levels. He also conveys great insights into how well-known musicians are able to convey their particular styles of performing. In short, Jon is knowledgeable abount many genres and thus able to tailor his lessons to the student accordingly.
His second gift is one of teaching: performing well does not always correlate to being a good instructor. Indeed, it is the mark of a great instructor that the student sometimes doesn’t realize how much s/he is learning at the time. This was true in my experience with Jon: there were many aspects of music theory that, when we first discussed the topic, Jon would emphasize the ability to perform a specific task or drill, rather than ensure I understood why we were doing it. If you remember the movie “The Karate Kid”, I had many “paint the fence” or “sand the floor” moments. In other words, at some point in a later lesson, the application of the theory to the practice would suddenly become obvious to me. This made for both enjoyable lessons while ensuring I would remember the theory for my future development.
It is also worth noting that Jon probably holds the record for the greatest disparity in his student’s ages. For several months, right after our lesson (I am 55 years old), Jon’s next student was a six-year old. For many instructors, this would be a difficult transition, to say the least, but Jon is able to relate to students of all ages and abilities quite well. I would highly recommend him to anyone.
Jonathan is such an amazing teacher, he is very talented and so patient with his students. He is very professional and accommodating. Would highly recommend him.
Jonathan is a great teacher and very passionate. I’d recommend him to anyone. I’m an older student and he has given me great instruction on the learning method I was looking for.
Jon is a skilled, excellent and patient teacher. We have used his professional services in teaching piano for many years and only have good things to say about him.
Jon has been teaching my son drums for the last 6 years.Thanks to Jon's ability to make music fun and also the inherent way he relates to any age group, my son still enjoys playing the drums. He gives the student the freedom to choose the songs the student wants to play and at the same time incorporates various exercises for practice that help improve technique. Jon's ear for music and ability to play multiple musical instruments is incredible. He also organizes recital events that gives the student a platform to perform in public. I am amazed by his level of patience and consideration he gives my son. He is one of the best out there!
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