Teaching

 Nancy Goldberg is an experienced instructor of both art and music, with an advanced understanding of music theory and practice, and an ideology that encourages students to find their own voice through which to further their knowledge. She has taught professionally in the Portland area for years, both privately and for seven terms at Portland Community College. Nancy has created numerous music curriculum designed to effectively teach students of all levels and provide an individualized experience that allows students to get the most out of each lesson. She teaches from her own method book, which she and her husband Phillip Goldberg developed based on over thirty years of shared study and knowledge. Lessons take place in her home in NE Portland unless otherwise arranged, and instruction fees are assessed based on each students level of experience. 


Contact Nancy Goldberg for a consultation to learn about a customized curriculum to best fit your needs as a student. 

    Just as the classical musician is training to find his or her own voice within the phrasing, articulation and interpretation of a piece of music, so too is the jazz musician. Practicing a combination of many technical exercises helps one to gain the knowledge of chordal movement through which to play freely and unfold one's own voice. Artistic freedom comes from practice of the language and becomes subconscious when seeing a chord on paper or preconceiving a chord within a solo. When knowledge of the language builds within the player, so does self respect and the freedom to express his or herself. Finding your own voice is the difference between discovering your creative spirit and being the musician who only imitates the Genius he admires. Indeed, a student must imitate before he can become an innovator, and the student should start with any sound he can build upon. But by being honest with ourselves, we focus on the joy of learning and find the means to grow into our true potential. It is the responsibility of the student to listen to the Master jazz musicians that came before, just as a painter studies the masters of the canon to further develop his or her own style. This process is an ocean of opportunity that is free for the heart and soul. This process takes the student on a journey that changes direction all the time and never ceases to provide new paths to explore. The student is like a flower in a garden of beauty and thistle. I wish you luck in capturing the butterfly of your creativity, to look at it, study it and then let it go, yourself now to fly.
    Sincerely, Nancy Goldberg