Piano & Voice · Ivy, Virginia
Lessons for students of every age
Studio or Online
I delight in teaching students of all ages
to create music.
Teaching piano or voice takes more than musicianship. It takes an acute awareness of each person’s personality and how they learn. I give every student my full attention, and watching a student progress is the part I never tire of. The student’s unique mind, age, and emotional depth determine the way I teach. Helping someone find delight in music, step by step, is at the core of my teaching. For me, it is a deep mentorship: I travel with a student through what’s difficult in the moment, until they discover they can come out the other side. My hope is that each student finds the reward only discipline can give. Every high school student I have taught has found it.
I encourage students to explore and create while they learn the fundamentals — note reading, rhythm, technique, ear training, theory, and expression. With voice students, I teach healthy vocal technique alongside the work of understanding a song’s meaning and finding the truest way to express it. During lessons I often use simple movements or percussion instruments to help a student embody the rhythm of the music. Humor is valuable when we hit a particularly challenging passage.
Nearly fifty years of choral conducting trained my ear to hear a single voice within a choir of forty. That kind of listening is what I bring to a lesson: close attention to what a student is actually doing, and to their feelings — happy, proud, frustrated.
I also work comfortably with the tools that make practice easier — recording software to slow a passage down or shift a song into a better key, and notation software (Finale, and now Dorico) for arranging and writing.
On a personal note: I am the mother of three wonderful adult children and the grandmother of seven lively, unique grandchildren, and I treasure our time together. Beyond music, I write, garden, dance, walk, spend time with friends, and make things with my hands. I have studied many modalities of music and healing over the years, most recently with Grammy award winner David Darling, in a program built around childlike wonder and the pleasure of making something new.
Sharing my love of music is a gift, and I hope to inspire others to create it, appreciate it, and carry it with them for a lifetime.
Note reading, technique, and rhythm — with room to follow your own curiosity.
Breathing and support first. Healthy habits are the foundation everything rests on.
Woven into lessons, often with a workbook, so new ideas take hold.
Hearing chord progressions and intervals — especially valuable for singers.
Reinforces note reading and expedites learning new music.
Learning to play what you sing. Creating in the moment, in any style — different from jazz improvisation.
Writing your own music, and bringing familiar songs to life with unique arrangements.
Gesture, score study, and rehearsal techniques for those leading ensembles.
Sound when stretched is music. Movement when stretched is dance. Mind when stretched is meditation. Life when stretched is celebration.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
I have directed the Virginia Women’s Chorus at the University of Virginia, served as Music Director at TJMC-UU, and led numerous choirs for singers of every age.
That experience shapes how I teach one-on-one. Ensemble work teaches you to listen closely, to build confidence in people who arrive convinced they cannot sing, and to keep a room joyful while real work gets done.
Helping children learn to match pitch is one of my very favorite things to do in music. We do it through games, not drills, and nearly every child who arrives convinced they cannot sing turns out to be wrong about that.
My techniques work most easily with children, while the ear and the voice are still learning each other. If your child is hesitant about singing, now is a good moment to begin. Adults who were told the same thing as children are welcome too — it is a harder skill to learn, not an impossible one.
Most children begin piano at five or six, when they enter elementary school. If a student shows exceptional interest and attention span, we can sometimes start younger — each child is unique, and I take many things into consideration, including the physical size of their hands.
With voice, I focus on proper breathing and support for children under twelve, bringing in more technique and repertoire with older children. If the goal is simply matching pitch, the earlier the better. For the youngest ones I play games and keep lessons short.
Absolutely.
Younger children (third grade and below), or those whose attention span is short, often take a thirty-minute lesson. Forty-five minute lessons work well for most people. I often teach an hour lesson for older students and adults. Physical exercises and games keep the focus sharp throughout.
I prefer an acoustic piano — the action of the keys, the ability to shape dynamics, the use of arm weight, and the pedals all matter. But I understand the cost of an instrument, and the uncertainty of whether lessons will stick.
For the beginning years, a good-quality keyboard with weighted keys and a pedal will do.
Yes. I love helping students learn to play what they sing, and to get creative with rhythmic patterns and melodies. I strongly support students writing their own songs and exploring the registers and dynamics of the instrument.
Many of my students write words to the songs they are learning and sing along as they play.
I offer small group classes two or three times a year. They are not required, though I encourage them — students learn a great deal from one another and realize they are not alone in music-making. The sessions are positive and friendly.
Many years I host a Spring Recital. It is optional, but a wonderful chance to share what a student has learned and to build confidence in front of family and friends.
The year is organized into four ten-week semesters, which can begin at any time. Most families follow the fall, winter, spring, and summer schedule. Summer offers a more flexible schedule around vacations — some beginners study twice a week in summer and make wonderful progress.
Write to me and I will send you my studio policy along with current rates.
Encouraging and patient
Over the past year I feel like my 7 year old daughter has really taken an interest in piano since learning under KaeRenae’s encouraging and patient teaching style. It is exciting to see continual development and improvement in my daughter’s understanding of beginning theory and body-mind coordination as she works on songs old and new.
R.S.
Calm and warm
My daughter had tried piano and guitar lessons before returning to the piano with KaeRenae. KaeRenae has helped my daughter find joy in music, and I am so grateful. My daughter enjoys going to lessons now, thanks to KaeRenae’s calm and warm disposition. I am amazed at how much she has learned in such a short time.
M.L.
Made piano fun
My daughter loved her time with KaeRenae. She made piano fun for my daughter and I rarely had to ask her to practice. She loved to play and sing the songs that KaeRenae picked out for her. My daughter really improved in the two years she studied with KaeRenae.
S.S.
Tell me a little about yourself or your child, and what you are hoping to learn. I offer a complimentary ten-minute meet-and-greet session before you decide anything, and I will send along my studio policy and current rates.
Email KaeRenaeStudio in Ivy, Virginia —
ten minutes west of Charlottesville,
near Ivy Elementary School (formerly Meriwether Lewis)
In studio and online
Playing — or creating — music is sharing a universal language that goes beyond words.
KaeRenae Mitchell