Nichole J. TakeLessons Instructor Voice, Music theory, Beginning and Intermediate Piano E. Des Moines, Mesa, AZ

Hello, my name is Nichole and I love music. I love everything about music including listening to it, learning it, performing it, and most of all teaching it.  I love watching students learn how to express themselves in music and gain confidence in themselves.

I grew up in home with a piano and lots of siblings to teach me how to play it.  I took violen lessons for 5 years and then moved to voice and piano.

In Junior High School I was a member of "Cantemus”, a choir directed by Scott Kovacs. This choir was a featured choir at the ACDA festival in Arizona. In high school I was able to learn from Dave Perry of the music composing and arranging team, 'Dave and Jean Perry'.

In 1996 I started taking voice instruction from Valley Voice Studio with Cory George. I studied musical theater, jazz, country, pop, different decades of music and art and foreign language music. In my time with Cory I learned much about the voice.

In 1999 I began taking classes at the Mesa Arts Center, including dance, theater and improv. I was cast in the improv group Impromptu, which was a professional improv group directed by Sean Kappera.

In 2000 I was asked to be the President of the youth council of East Valley Theater Company. Then, in 2002, I was asked to be the Vice President of the company.  I performed in Bye, Bye, Birdie as Ursula (also Assistant Musical Director of the Teen Choir and a second time as Dance Captain, Assistant Musical Director and Assistant Director), Broadway Bits and Pieces as the Female Lead (also Dance Captain, Assistant Choreographer and Assistant Musical Director), The Reluctant Dragon as the Boy’s Mom twice and Narrator (also Dance Captain, Choreographer and Assistant Musical Director), Patience as Jane (also Costume Designer), and The Ark as Jane (also Lead Makeup Artist, Costume Director, Dance Captain and Assistant Musical Director).

In 2004 I was asked to assist a few friends with preparations on a few auditions, after they were cast I got a few more people interested and started teaching a few students.

In 2008 I was hired on as the voice teacher at East Valley Music Instruction in Mesa, as well as the director of the 'Disney Choir' at Voices studio in Scottsdale.

In 2008 I decided to open my own home based music studio  where I teach voice, piano, and theory. Recently I have had many students participate in musicals around the valley everything from playing Charlie Brown in "You're Good man Charlie Brown" to Hale Center Theater's "King and I".

In 2008 I was awarded 1st place of the 1A division(Women's division) which was 3rd place for ther combined 1A/4M division at the Musical Theater Auditions for NATS {National Association of Teachers of Singing}.

I am currently enrolled at Mesa Community College, focusing on a major in Choral Music Education with minors in Vocal Studies and Theater.  I expect to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in May of 2011.

In my vocal lessons we immediately start with vocal warm-ups. I take you up and down the scale using neutral vowels. We do exercises to strengthen your voice and your range. Then we do either theory or technique. For theory we use Master Theory Books and we go lesson by lesson, at the student’s pace. For the other weeks when we do technique we use worksheets to master different parts of the do-re-mi scale as well as tone and vocal agility. Then we work specific songs. I let my students choose what they sing. They can bring me music or we can pick it out together. However, since the students pick the songs, I expect the songs to be worked on at home. I understand that sometimes life happens and there are just times where it is just not possible. I try to keep a good pace and failure to practice slows down the learning.

For piano, we start each lesson with hand warm-ups, including small sight reading exercises to strengthen the hands. Each exercise is set to the student’s level. Then we do technique scales, triads, and arpeggios. After that we work on the songs. I let my students dictate the songs they work on, including contemporary new music. If the student is learning a song by ear and transcribing it, we work on the chord structure of the songs and write the song on the musical staff.

For the theory lessons, we start with aural perception. We listen to intervals, learning how to hear them and pick them out of melodies. Then we move onto more in-depth theory. We spend the time on each idea, expanding it and how we can use it for the student’s particular instrument.

Broadway, Country, Popular, Jazz, Foreign Language, and Classical

Mountain View - genereal-arts - 1999-2001 (degree received)
MCC College - Chorale Music Education Major - 2001-present (not complete)

Voice, Music theory, Beginning and Intermediate Piano