Emma Neal

My musical journey began when my grandmother gifted me a little 30 key toy piano from Toys R Us on my fourth birthday. Fast forward 10 years and I was performing classical pieces at competitions, but this time on Steinways. However, my true love for music wasn’t developed until years later when I performed Somewhere Over the Rainbow at my grandmother’s funeral. It was the first time I experienced the strong emotional and spiritual power of music on myself as well as an audience. I realized I had been taking too much of a serious and technical approach to music, and that skill does not equate to passion.

This epiphany influences how I teach piano as I strongly value fostering a love for music within all my students by keeping lessons fun and personalized to their interests. Despite the hardships and struggles students may be facing in their lives, I hope for music to be a comforting and beautiful escape.

I’ve been teaching piano to elementary-level students in Marin since 2019. I’m currently a piano pedagogy student at the Royal Conservatory of Music and a communications major at College of Marin. I look forward to working with my students not only to help them grow as a musician, but because I’m constantly learning from them how I can improve as a teacher.