"Joyce K is a truly extraordinary teacher. After childhood piano lessons and always “sort of” playing the piano, I’ve been an adult student of Joyce’s for several years. She’s a very accomplished musician on many instruments, who records, composes, and performs. One of the gifts of learning with her is taking in her rich musical mind and experience. So much has opened up for me musically just by working on scales with her, as well as the pieces from Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, jazz. With her guidance, I’ve internalized rhythm in ways that I used to think I couldn’t do. How great to work on rhythm with a teacher who’s also a professional drummer. Touch, phrasing, how to make the music swing, how to practice: our work opening up all of these has been so much fun. I’ve always wanted to be able to improvise. With Joyce, I’m finding how to listen and hear my way into that desire. Joyce meets a student where we are and listens for where we need to go next. She has helped me to connect more deeply than ever before to my own musicality and to great and endless joy in exploring the music for myself, and to share with my loved ones and the fun musical community that Joyce creates among her students. One of my all-time best decisions was to choose to study with Joyce." - An Adult Student in Joyce's Life-Long Learning Music Community

___________________________________________________________________________

"I cannot recommend Joyce more highly. She is a wonderful, wonderful person, and an incredible multi-instrumentalist and music teacher. I have been blessed to work with Joyce for the past several years. Initially our focus was rhythm development through playing djembe, and then to learn to notate the rhythms. Next we were playing the hand pan, also known as the Hang drum, which allowed for interval training, pitch matching and notating melodies. I have recently joined a choir, so now we are on to voice training.

I have improved so much as a musician since working with Joyce. I attribute a recent very successful choir performance to specific practices we’ve put in place, and to having an overall improved sense of rhythm. It’s so satisfying, and I am so grateful.

Two examples that show how Joyce has met me right where I’m at:

(1) When I told her I was working on a math music project, she suggested readings, introduced me to her mentor Professor Jeanne Bamburger (M.I.T./U.C. Berkeley), and focused on the details such that the project is (finally) coming to fruition. With gentle kindness, Joyce revealed some important misunderstandings I’ve carried about how music works—these were hindering the project development. Joyce believes in building community, and so I recently introduced the project to a gathering of her students, where it was well received. Her guidance and encouragement have helped bring out my creativity. Again, very grateful.

(2) Joyce was so intrigued when I showed her my hand pan (which is like an inside-out steel drum, played with your hands), that she purchased one and learned to play it, then taught me. Incredible. Witnessing her process was fascinating. She made personal contact with the folks that created the drum (hand pans are handcrafted), named her drum, played it right side up, sideways, and upside down to discover how to make it sing, and improvised original music on it. She directed me to improvise on mine, and to play jazz melodies on it, something that's pretty unusual. It sounded, sounds, great. All the while Joyce’s emphasis is on how to touch the drum “just so” to bring out its essence. Did I mention grateful?

Here’s the deep thing I’m learning: when Joyce says, “Pause. Slow it down. Ready yourself.”, she’s not really talking about tempo. She’s saying: sense how the music resonates inside you, how it makes you feel. In Joyce’s world, slower means deeper inside, more in touch with what’s in you. Bring that out, everything changes. I really appreciate that.

Thanks Joyce." - An Adult Student in Joyce's Life-long Learning Community