Faculty information
A program is only as good as its teachers, and at NSM we have worked to find among the best in the business.
They come from active involvements in genres that span Western classical, church music, rock, jazz, funk, mainstream pop and even film music. All of them are experienced performers and have individual strengths across the many facets of music education, performance, recording, production, management and touring. Along with their excellent individual skills on their chosen instrument, each of our faculty has a proven ability to communicate musical concepts simply and effectively, to students at various levels. Though many of them have (and continue to play) with some of India's biggest bands and musical heavyweights, they share a strong commitment as pedagogues, to enrich your musical journey by pointing to successful shortcuts they have discovered, while turning you away from pitfalls and cul-de-sacs along the way. To learn more about each faculty member's musical background, click through to their individual profiles.
"My name is Prarthana Iyer. I study in grade 8 at Mallya Aditi. I have been learning piano with Jason for three months. And over these three months I have actually covered a whole range of topics! I sort of knew the basics as I had learnt before so first Jason just made me tell him what I knew (and we started writing it all down). Once I was done, he continued from there by going over a few other basic things I had missed out. Finally, he began teaching me new things.
The whole point I wanted to learn piano here was because I didn't want to learn only classical! So along with my John Thompson's course, I've also been doing some other exercises with chords, arpeggios, transposing etc. Jason has also been making me do hearing exercises which are hard but which tell you if you really are confident with melody and even rhythm!
But still, I came here (to Jason) to also be able to play music that I actually enjoyed! So after a few classes I picked a song that had pretty easy piano notes. But Jason didn't tell me the notes! He said I ad to figure them out myself! So with a few guidelines I learnt how to locate and discover the notes with a little help.
Now it's sort of a routine. Play something from the John Thompson's book (classical), practice an exercise (basic skills) and start learning a song you want to play (fun and yet challenging)!
Up till now I've learnt easy classical pieces, modern and old-ish songs, and exercises that have helped me become confident with arpeggios, chords ,transposition, forming my own melody to go with a another melody, inversions and composition. Piano is great fun and I do enjoy going!" 