INTRO

Hi, My name is Joe Duignan. I am a piano instructor in Brooklyn with ten years of teaching experience and nearly thirty years of experience playing and performing.

Music has been a central part of my life since childhood, and has brought me countless hours of joy and satisfaction. As a music teacher, I consider it a privilege and a pleasure to share this joy and satisfaction with my students.

I work with students of all ages, and do my best to tailor lessons to each individual. I am a strong advocate of the idea that note reading is an essential skill for becoming a confident musician, and I work to ensure weekly progress in this area. A strong note reading foundation allows the student to gradually learn elements of music theory. While teaching these fundamental skills, I do my best to make lessons fun and engaging, paying careful attention to each student’s questions and concerns.

BACKGROUND

I began studying piano at age ten, and took private lessons through high school. During this time I also performed piano in annual solo competitions and in concerts with my school orchestra (in which I was also the concertmaster violinist), and attended annual musical summer camps. I continued my piano studies with weekly lessons while at university in St. Louis, and performed in semesterly recitals. While studying for my graduate degree in NYC I stopped taking weekly lessons, but began to watch and listen extensively to videos and audio recordings of great pianists in order to learn what nuance and meaning their playing could teach me.

Additionally, I am professionally trained and licensed as an architect, with a BS in Architecture (cum laude) from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. After working for several years as an architect, the “great recession” occurred, and I switched occupations. During my years in architecture school and the professional world, I learned to present my ideas in an extremely clear and concise way to both professional and lay people, and to respond positively to intense questioning and criticism on the fly. As I began my new career as a piano instructor, I found these hard-earned skills to be extremely useful.