Testimonials

Jackie has been my son’s piano teacher for the past 18 months. She is flexible with our schedule, reliable, and professional. Our son, Finn, is 12 years old and loves music, though adding rigorous formal musical training just wouldn’t have worked for Finn. Jackie helps Finn to go at a pace that fits in with our schedule. As a former 22-weeker, Finn has to work a bit harder at school and at music practice, but Jackie makes learning easy. She praises Finn on his progress and is always willing to review lessons where Finn needs additional guidance. She is cheerful when she greets Finn, whether or not he has done enough practicing at home, and just starts where he has left off. What I love most about Jackie is that she is not only an accomplished musician, but she is also a skilled and kind teacher who knows how to keep Finn loving and learning the piano.

My 7-year-old twins have been taking lessons from Miss Jackie for the last year and a half. Initially I picked her to be their teacher because I wanted them to learn two different instruments – violin and cello – from the same teacher, and Jackie is the rare teacher who teaches both well. I have been amazed at how much they have already learned from her in just 17 months. They are both halfway through Suzuki Book 3 with their respective instruments, and relatives who hear them play are astonished at how much progress they have made in so little time. Jackie is very good with children; I have noticed that she is great at adapting to my children’s different personalities and issues, and she knows how to motivate them individually. They love her and look forward to impressing her each week with the progress they have made while practicing at home. I am very happy with the musical foundation that Jackie has given my children, and I am excited to see how they continue to develop with her.

Jackie was my voice teacher during my high school years, and I can’t begin to describe what an amazing job she did in helping me better my voice, discover my talents, increase my confidence in music, and inspire me as a person! She is kind, patient, willing to work with you, incredible at the talents she has and teaches, and the greatest teacher and friend! She is marvelous, and I highly recommend her!

While studying with Jackie I’ve been able to do more complex pieces that have helped me grow as a cellist. Under her I’ve progressed in being able to sight-read music easily and understand which notes to play. I initially chose the cello because they had too many violinists in our 7th grade orchestra. While playing the cello in orchestra I’ve been able to do solos and large group concerts. I’ve been in orchestra currently now for almost 6 years: 7th-12th grades. I graduate this year and am playing my solo ensemble piece on our program from the Bach suites for cello. My plan is to later in life major in music and work in the movie industry doing music production. Although Jackie is primarily a violinist, studying with her has helped me to be able to learn the treble clef when playing more difficult pieces. With her, I feel like I have been able to advance more in my knowledge of music and theory, and have been able to learn more about the positions in which we play the notes. I’ve also learned how to phrase musically for different parts of the music and make it sound more enriching and full. Another thing is I’ve been able to increase my knowledge to be able to know which finger patterns to use for which notes in a different position for options and variety of sound.

I have learned a lot more from Miss Jackie than from my previous teacher. Things like how to hold the bow properly, how to do extensions, read music, understand the fingerboard, and how to play the cello better with a nicer tone. I know that when I play it’s really fun now because I like the way I sound and feel better playing. I love the sound of vibrato and get excited to work on it and show miss Jackie my progress. I really enjoy watching Yo-Yo Ma do his vibrato because I think it’s so beautiful. I’ve learned so much from Miss Jackie, like how to do T-bows.

All of my friends were saying to do violin and then we can play together, and do duets. With Miss Jackie I have been able to get muscle memory. On piano I never developed it with another teacher. By doing lessons on FaceTime I have learned how to tune my violin. It has clicked, and I can hear it correctly. I can tell when strings and notes are out of tune better because I’ve learned how to tune on my own. What has helped me is learning the time signatures to become more fluid when I see certain pieces and rhythms. I’ve gained a better memory by playing the violin. I read that ELA students who play an instrument have a better memory than those who don’t. Before playing the violin my grades were lower. Now I get straight A’s! It helps me not to give up because I remember when I was playing a hard song, “March in D,” and I couldn’t get it. I took a break from it for a while, and then was able to do it. I love that Miss Jackie’s a great teacher. She’s amazing at how she plays AND keeps you going!!

I’ve never played cello before, and Jackie started me because my sister was already taking violin lessons from her. The reason why I wanted to learn to play the cello is because I was getting bored of the piano and was really interested in trying to play a string instrument. I picked the cello to be able to play with my two older sisters. One plays the violin and the other the piano. We all get together to play together and it sounds really cool. One time in church we all played together and the congregation was really moved by it. We usually just play at our house and perform in front of our parents. With Jackie, I’ve been able to learn songs and better understand rhythm and reading notes because on the piano the notes are put right in front of you, but on the cello, you have to feel where the notes are. Jackie has done a really good job of teaching me how to find the notes, how to read and interpret them and make music out of them.

Jackie is an excellent violin teacher. I’ve had many teachers over the years, but none are as patient with me nor have helped me learn as many techniques so well. She has really helped grow my love of playing.

Jackie has been able to help my son understand music theory in a fun and interactive way that has been missing from other piano teachers in the past. She is more of a mentor to my son and is able to see what he is good at, and also where he lacks. She understands music very well and is passionate about music. It is inspiring and rubs off on her students. I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for an inspiring music mentor, who thinks outside the box of the regular run of the mill music teacher.