Brooklyn Music Lessons

My daughter has been taking piano with JP Gilbert for around 15 months and we could not be happier. She is always motivated to practice and have a lesson with JP. They have a lovely teacher-​student relationship – she enjoys his company, his manner, and the music and lessons he selects. He often writes versions of songs in order to emphasize what my daughter needs to practice at a given time – and they are always delightful to hear and interesting for her to practice. We started with 30-​minute lessons one time a week and now have two 60-​minute lessons per week. I did this because I could see how the confidence, motivation, and focus she was getting from piano was impacting other areas of her life – at home and at school. I might not be able to do this forever, so I grabbed the opportunity when I saw it!
I also was very impressed by BML when I first contacted them. Bryan responded to my online questionnaire immediately – we had a lesson set up for the following week! I also like how BML handles the «transactions» so that the music teachers don’t have to. BML ultimately respects its teachers and its customers. It provides a great service to Brooklyn by making music education quick and easy to navigate.

Very happy with both the lessons and the service. Whatever questions you may have — technical or otherwise — they are quick to reply and help you. Michaela Ann is my vocal teacher and she’s been awesome! I just do it for fun but wow have I learned a lot. I never realized how much goes into singing and how much you can improve with the right guidance.
Teachers are quick and easy to review on the site so it’s easy to make a choice. Really don’t have a single complaint. More businesses should conduct themselves this way.

I wanted to learn how to play gypsy-​style viola, and I knew someone in this vast city must have this kind of expertise, but where to start? I had cold-​contacted a few people in the field but had no responses. So I came to Brooklyn Music Lessons. Bryan connected me with Emma Sky, a violin and viola teacher with a wide range of teaching interests and expertise. Emma has a unique style of teaching that incorporates the mechanics and philosophy of yoga into string practice. She is highly motivated to work with students on developing a strong foundation both technically and artistically from which to grow as a musician.

I’ve dabbled in learning music software (Ableton Live) and music theory for years, but I decided to get a little more serious and structured last year. BML was perfect for my needs — I was matched up with a teacher that understood what I wanted to learn (Bryan, who also runs BML). My lessons are structured but loose, which means I can spent my hour and a half learning theory, recreating a synth sound, or working on drum patterns. It’s sort of funny telling people I take music lessons but I’m not learning an instrument. But BML is cool like that.
Look around Brooklyn Music Lessons’ website — you’ll find full profiles of their teachers, along with where they’re located, what they listen to, who they’ve worked with before. Bryan encourages you to check out the different teachers, and even split your lesson credits among them another teacher may help you with one aspect of your learning more. The blog also tells you what projects the teachers are working on, because they’re all working musicians. I quit piano and guitar lessons as a kid because they were boring. If you’re looking for a teacher for yourself (or your child), I highly recommend BML. You’ll learn, but you’ll also have the freedom to be creative and explore.

Brooklyn Music Lesson’s strengths are its community. I think it really represents the kind of diversity in skills and styles that makes Brooklyn a vibrant and exciting place to be a musician. I found my guitar teacher, John Shannon, on BML. I read his bio and his blog entry on the site, followed links to his own website, and heard his music. With that kind of access, I knew that my teacher had the skills and the outlook that I needed to get learning right away. I also like that the lesson packages are standardized because it lets me focus on finding the right teacher for me without worrying about comparing rates. The lesson packages are, hands down, a good value.

Dear BML, thank you for going above and beyond the call of duty to find my guitar teacher. I love that your system looks at many things to determine the best match. And Bryan: thank you for the personalized attention, it was nice to feel that you were just as committed to finding me a teacher as I was!