Ms. Melody Gocher is an amazing piano teacher. I've been taking lessons with her for 8 months now I have already learned more than I ever thought I could play and it has truly been such a pleasure.
She attended the Eastman School of Music where she majored in Piano Performance. (To put this into perspective .. Eastman is one of the greatest music conservatories in our country. It is notoriously selective in accepting students. While it's selectivity and instruction rivals those of the Julliard School, Eastman ranks as the country’s #1 conservatory in Piano Performance, according to the U.S. News.) Ms. Gocher gives lessons in her home. There is a very professional, beautifully furnished studio room with two pianos. She has a grand piano and a digital piano and her students can use whichever one they want to use that day. Ms. Gocher has an incredibly vast library of music. She has two ceiling-high shelves bursting with paper music and she’s also got an even more vast library of music in her head. It’s as if she knows every song ever made. Even if you forgot the title of a song, if you just describe its melody or where you heard the song, chances are she’ll know what it’s called and she can probably find and copy you an arrangement of the song from her library that’s suitable for your playing level. Occasionally, when you start to practice a new song she might play it for you on the piano just to show you how it goes .. you will be floored. When she plays the piano, the way she plays the music is .. it is like nothing I have ever heard before. It’s enchanting. The absolute loveliest thing ever. You have to hear it to believe it.
She is the most level-headed teacher I have ever met. There’s not an ounce of anxious pushiness .. she is just this perfect constructive balance of calm and alertness. Her attention is sharp as a whip and she’ll step in to correct you when you make mistakes while playing, but she always, always waits and gives you ample time to correct yourself first. It seems that her philosophy of teaching is to allow the student’s actual interest in playing be the motivation. She doesn’t pressure her students to practice, or guilt-trip students who didn’t practice before their lesson. If you show up to lesson and it turns out you didn’t practice, she’ll just wonder if it happened because you just didn’t have the time for it, or if it was because you’d rather switch to a different more interesting song. She makes learning piano so much fun. I’ve had one piano teacher and three violin teachers over the course of six years during my childhood .. Ms. Gocher is like no teacher I have ever had before. She literally never makes you feel bad if you play a wrong note. She just helps you to find the correct note, and wonders if she confused you in any way, tries to explain it better, marks up the music to make it easier to read..
She is one of the kindest people I have ever met. She is pleasant at every lesson, even if you are her last lesson of the day! She’s got so much energy. I think she’s got more spring in her step than I do. She makes my young, able-bodied, healthy-as-horses, 20-something-year-old fellow classmates in college look like sloths. She always greets the door with a brilliant smile. She’s excited to teach, every day.
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