All students are taught in the European classical tradition concentrating on skills required for performance, such as sight-reading, an understanding of the basics of theory and analysis, the finger skills needed for playing difficult passages, and the practice of scales, chords, and arpeggios at a high level of execution. Almost all “Western” music, the kind familiar to most people, is built upon some core combination of scales, arpeggios, and chords. Therefore, the more familiar pianists are with these three technical skills of playing, the faster and more skillfully they can play almost any piece of music written for piano.
Whether someone intends to play piano professionally or not, the European pedagogical piano method achieves a high level of competence very quickly, and although there is a lot of emphasis on the core technical skills of playing, much emphasis is given to the proper interpretation of music from the start of lessons.
Students work with Mr. Vazopolos to build a repertoire of many pieces to intensify the skill set of the student. This allows the student to master the expression of different compositions: tempo, dynamics, phrasing, expressiveness, and musicality of the piece.