Frequently Asked Questions

When were you born?

I was born in 1986.

How old were you when you started music?

I started piano lessons when I was 5 years old back in 1992.

Where do you live?

I live in British Columbia, Canada.

Do you teach piano in real life and what's your experience?

Yes I do, I have a private studio, and I have been teaching since 2006.

Why are you teaching piano/music for free?

I'm doing this because I believe music is a gift that everyone should be able to have access to. Some people aren't lucky enough to be able to have access to piano/music lessons even though they desperately want them. Maybe they don't have enough money? Maybe there are no teachers where they live? Maybe they're really curious but real life lessons are intimidating to start? I'm here to ignite people's passion for music and empower them to learn it! That's all I want, and if you want to learn from other teachers at the same time, I encourage that as well. Learn as MUCH as you can and follow your musical passion. I believe people contribute best to society when they're serving others through their passion. So if you're passion is to learn to play music, then I'm here to help you, with no cost to you. My payment is the joy of serving mankind to improve people's lives in a positive way. That's more valuable to me than anything.

What "secret methods" can you teach me?

In my opinion a lot of those “secret piano tricks” are just trying to tempt you into buying their product with the promise of really fast gains. The truth is, a very high skill activity requires: lots of practice time, commitment, discipline, and hard work. There are no special backdoors that magically take you to the advanced level of piano overnight, but I will be showing you every technique and trick I know of to help you on your musical journey.

Are you the best pianist/teacher in the world?

I don't think so. There are so many amazing people out there with so many incredible talents, there's always going to be someone better. I'm a simple guy who does his best to teach the information in the easiest and clearest way possible. I'm just trying to help the world enjoy music better one person at a time.

Can you teach me to play a certain song?

I'm sorry, but I don't take requests to teach a certain song. If I taught you only songs instead of principles I would be keeping you dependent on me. My philosophy for teaching is: Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; Teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. I prefer to give you the knowledge to learn the songs you'd like to learn yourself. That way I've taught and raised musically independent people and everyone can learn the songs they want! In this way, everybody wins. I do take requests on future lessons for learning how to play the piano or music theory though so send me your ideas!

How tall are you?

I'm 6'1” Feet or 1.85 Meters tall.

I tried contacting you but you didn't reply, what gives?

I'm sorry if I don't reply! I try to get back to everyone I can, but it can get pretty overwhelming sometimes, and if all I did was answer email, then I wouldn't be able to create more lessons to teach you all. If I haven't replied, please don't take offense. I try to read every message I get, but the best way for me to see your message is through twitter. If I don't reply please don't take it in a bad way; I'm honestly not trying to be rude! I love reading messages from people, it really brightens my day! Thank you for being so kind to me.

What are some of your hobbies besides piano?

Some of my main hobbies include Photography, Computers and Electronics, Professional Car Racing, Ice Skating, Tennis, Walking, Hiking, Reading, Gaming(PC), but I am really interested in so many things and I think the world is just full of incredible activities & topics to explore!

Did you perform on piano? How much?

Yes, before I taught piano, I wanted to be a professional concert pianist. I used to practice 5-8 hours a day during my teen years to achieve that goal. The last year before I got sick with pericarditis, I was lucky enough to land some recurring paid background music gigs which gave me about 5 hours of total performance time each week with audiences up to 350 people. I also had other larger scale performances including a city performance with several thousand people in a live audience, but after I got sick I had to drop out of performance due to my tendonitis issues. I still released a few songs slowly on my YouTube channel, but it was always hard on my arms. I really enjoyed and still miss performing, but it's not something my body can do easily anymore. I've given up on the idea of me being a performer again as I just don't think it's realistic.

What are your political and religious views?

I'm a bit hesitant to talk about this, since these topics tend to be very touchy, but I'm doing it for people to understand me better. I hope people will know I mean no offence to their beliefs or way of life.
As far as political views are concerned: I'm pretty neutral in politics actually. I'm fairly open minded and tend to not lean left or right too much. I care much more about the common sense of the person who leads the party rather than the party itself. I like the policies to support openness, global progress, healthy growth, positive change, protection of personal rights and equality for all.
On the religious side of things, I don't like to classify myself as any one thing. I was raised Christian and read the bible quite a bit, but I wouldn't label myself as a Christian. I do my best to keep an open mind and consider that all possibilities could be true or false (my own initial and current beliefs included). I don't presume to know without a doubt what the truth is since I wasn't present when the universe came to be in the state we observe it in now. I believe it's entirely likely that there is much more around us than we can perceive since we are limited by what we can observe or deduce from the light, auditory, and general frequency spectrum in our universe. We all do the best we can to make sense of the world around us, but at the end of it all, humanity hasn't reached the point where we can truly know where and how this all came to be. We try to make sense of our life with the limited information we have available, even if it could be wrong. That being said, I personally think it makes more sense to me that there probably is a God or some admin who created our universe, but that's not scientific fact either. Everyone is here on a journey that causes us to learn and grow through the experiences in our lifes. We're all doing the best we can with our circumstances for the most part, and I believe what I do partly because of my own unique conditions, experiences, as well as my choices on what I think of those experiences. We need to take life on as a challenge and be excited to live it! I think that life could be something that molds us and helps us become more mature for something else after our life here, but it's also possible that this is the only life we have, so we need to make the best of it.

My main life principle is to always seek to what is true, in other words, I try to be a hyperrealist. Life isn't something static, it's alive and you're moving through it. I don't think you can stay still in your beliefs, you have to choose a direction to travel, Reality or Delusion?

You're definitely welcome to believe whatever works for you, I just hope you're not hating, hurting, or killing other people over it please.

We all need to work together as we're sharing this planet together.

What do you want to accomplish in your professional life?

Ultimately when I die, I would like to be able to know that I've given back more to this world than I took. I like to think of my body like a machine that uses the energy given from our society/world and in return contributes things that are helpful and positive to humankind's growth. I will strive everyday to contribute something valuable to help human kind progress. Of course, I'm just a little guy from an obscure city in the middle of no where, but we'll see how far I get! The bottom line is I wish to help others while learning, growing through experience, and smiling along the way. I know I am teaching music now, but when I finish teaching music I will continue to find new ways to create new innovative businesses that contribute in positive ways.