loading
reading
writing
saving
searching
Guitar, piano, voice, songwriting/production mentorship & instruction (Corvallis/Philomath)
offered in person
offered virtually
QR Code Link to This Post
Remote (Zoom, FaceTime) and in-studio rates:
$35 - 30 minute session
$45 - 45 minutes session
$60 - 1 hour session
In-person, in-home rates (I come to you):
$38 - 30 minutes
$50 - 45 minutes
$70 - 60 minutes
$55/hour for 2 hours or more
Programs offered -
Master Class - Advanced concepts and practicum for developing/performing musicians
For the musicians who have successfully developed a degree of embodied musical fluency, I offer a comprehensive set of tools with which to conceptualize the language and performance of music. We will explore the concept of tonality and tonal language as guiding principles with which to understand and master harmonic and melodic dimensions of music. We will also develop our rhythmic fluency and literacy as part of our embodied and conceptual knowledge base as we explore the idiomatic landscape of various musical styles. Particular emphasis on composition, arrangement, improvisation, and recording technology will be used to focus our skills in this advanced track.
Songwriter/Media Development - Applied skills in the creative process including composition, recording, and releasing music
Over the past several years, I have had the privilege of working with many incredibly talented young aspiring songwriters and performers who are well positioned to bring their artistry and unique musical voices to the world. One of the most important skills theses artists will need to be competitive in today's music industry is the ability to self-produce their own music. Self-production is an essential tool not only in expressing your music in recorded form, but also for aiding in the creative process of composition and songwriting. The principle goal of this series of transform initial song ideas into fully realized songwriter demos, which are one of the essential currencies of aspiring professional songwriters.
Artists also have access media development services aimed at increasing the exposure and availability of their music to the digital media space- the arena in which music is now primarily experienced. This service focuses on registering artists' music with a Performance Rights Organization (PRO) like ASCAP or BMI, which ensures that songwriters get paid when their music is heard. It also explores licensing opportunities for artists' so their music can be found and licensed for performance directly by the end user. The media service also helps with placing artist music on streaming platforms for maximum digital presence.
Atypical and Neurodivergent creativity - A unique approach to learning, thinking about, and creating music for atypical learners
I have had a significant degree of experience over the past decade interacting with students on the autism spectrum, as well as those presenting a range of other atypical/neurodivergent learning patterns such as ADHD, dyscalculia (difficulty with symbols, including music notation!), and dysgraphia (difficulty with transcribing material into written format). You can see how the traditional approach to learning music which is characterized by the already difficult process of reading or interpreting highly graphical notation and then ‘mapping’ the visual field onto the the body (fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, hips, legs, feet, etc.) might represent a major challenge to some learners.
Despite some of the challenges that arise, I continue to see profound levels of creative potential with atypical students that I hope to help unlock. To do this, I often keep open the option to explore music learning and creativity through dialogue and conversation through a process I call 'creative dialectic.' Creative dialectic offers a way of understanding the creative process through a much broader range of ideas and concepts such as games, athletics, language, philosophy, psychology, history, and other areas of artistic pursuit (visual art, design, etc.). This process was inspired by my time studying composition at Pacific Lutheran University with composer Gregory Youtz whose approach to understanding the creation of music was deeply embodied, freely playful, and cognitively sophisticated.
In my experience, those of us who have difficulty with the process of learning to embody music making are often extremely good at thinking about creativity, problem solving, deep learning, and their own subjective aesthetic experience on a more intellectual level. It's my personal believe that world can benefit profoundly from this perspective!
Please explore my site at www.peterbenjaminmusic.org for more information and many audio samples of my music projects, releases, music for media, collaborations, podcast, and other offerings.
- Peter B.