Premiere Piano, Harpsichord, Organ- Lessons and Coaching

I needed 911 emergency continuo/​harpsichord guidance… also with interest in learning beyond my immediate situation in the future… Scott was amazing. He totally understood the time frame in which I was working and outlined exercises and perspective that would help me immediately… configuring something like that is not easy.. it takes skill and knowledge, plus sensitivity. plus grace… I could see that I could keep going beyond my immediate needs to learn and learn and get better… .like way better… now i’m more interested to do that! Scott struck me as an intelligent, generous, kind, experienced teacher with a real passion for the material… and technical knowledge and deep experience to back it up. .I’m rusty and need «a lot of work» but he didn’t make me feel stupid… yet still holds high standards which makes it more exciting… He fashioned materials exactly to match what I needed now… I would recommend Scott highly to anyone interested in keyboard or harpsichord or early music work… He’s fantastic… like… kind of rare… like really rare…

Scott is a fantastic piano teacher and human being. He reinvigorated my passion for the piano at a time when I thought I might never touch the instrument again.
I have never worked with a teacher who took such time and care to tailor his style to my needs. Scott methodically picked apart all the bad habits that plague my playing and taught me how to play with proper technique and confidence.
Scott is flexible and understanding of a busy schedule. His teaching style is perfect for someone who thinks their life is too busy to play an instrument. He’ll work with you to make it work.
Scott’s instruction is world class — he has encyclopedic knowledge of music history and theory. He himself received instruction from both students of Schoenberg and Cortot among others!
Above all, Scott is kind. I never thought I would receive the most world-​class, rigorous musical education from someone so unassuming and down to earth.
If you played piano in a past life and wish you had continued, then despair no more. Scott Johnson will repair your old and tainted relationship to that instrument that you love.
Go Scott!

I swore off music lessons after a bad experience in high school. My piano teacher insisted that I participate in a recital for family & friends and gave me a Mozart slow movement to play. I could get through it, but I could not play it the way I knew it should be played and my teacher did not give me special instructions to help me learn the ornaments like trills and turns. During the recital, I came to the first trill and froze. It was humiliating & I swore to never play another note – though I loved music and felt a deep loss. Listening to music became painful because I was convinced that I had no talent and would never be able to play pieces that I loved.
Many years later after I retired, a piano was left to me when a relative died. After staring at it warily for several months, I decided to try again and found a teacher who gave me Hanon exercises, a metronome and beginner pieces. But, my playing experience was frustrating despite diligent practice. My hands seemed to be stuck in first gear, and I could only play slow pieces from memory. All that changed when my piano tuner suggested that I contact Scott Johnson.
I checked out his website, saw Juilliard and Columbia in his resume and wondered if he would take on a relative beginner with my issues. It turned out that he works with people at all levels, and progress happened faster than I expected from the start because he brought such a wealth of materials & techniques – as though he had the resources of an entire conservatory in his back pocket.
In my first lessons with Scott, we threw out the Hanon and he exposed me to an amazing new world of music: Liszt’s fingering for chords, Philipp’s exercises to develop a «quiet hand» and independence of the fingers, Abby Whiteside’s discoveries about positioning yourself to play without reaching for notes, and so much more – a rich mixture of wonderful music matched to exercises for developing technique culled from the lineage of master teachers. For example, something by Beethoven would be combined with exercises by his student Carl Czerny – so we have this amazing window through Czerny on how to approach Beethoven’s music.
I suddenly realized that a lot of what held me back was fixable. After only a few weeks, my small hands were stretched enough to reach a 9^th when I had barely been able to reach an octave. And he gave me music that I never dreamed I would be able to play. Things that seemed impossible, became possible because he gave me fingering that worked for my hands and showed me strategies for learning a piece more efficiently than my old method of playing it through a thousand times until my fingers learned it by rote. I’m playing the music I love with more understanding of the musical ideas that are so compelling to my ear. Scott’s wonderful teaching approach and his uncanny ability to find just the right exercises and strategies to help you through the hard stuff will have you excited about playing – and practicing – because he shows you exactly what to aim for and you can see the progress. No matter what your level, he will take you further than you expected. He’s the best teacher I have had by far.