Steve Pawlowski
Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, Piano
Steven graduated from Monmouth University W.L.Br., NJ with a Bachelor’s degree in Music, Television and Radio with a focus on music composition. The proximity of Monmouth to the Jersey shore’s most prominent rock bar, “The Stone Pony” made famous by countless bands including Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, The Blues Travelers and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes was not lost on him while growing up in northern New Jersey and the shore.
Steve comes from a musical family where every Sunday the family got together and spent the day eating, playing, singing and dancing at his grandmother’s house. Additionally, growing up with a piano staring him in the face allowed Steve to bang out music from an early age.
Steve focuses students on ‘their’ desired goals. For piano he uses a classical approach using methods such as ‘position playing,’ intervalic relationship between notes, using graphs, pictures, etc; ‘technique playing,’ proper hand position such as dropping to keys with rounded knuckles and arch high for strength all while embracing note-reading, melody relationship and pedal skills encouraging creativity and complete musical development for all ages.
For guitar, students are taught the CAGED system, a set of five simple open chords that don’t require complex finger movements, have relatively simple shapes that allow easy transitions and are easy to learn building student confidence. Additionally, technique is championed over theory employing ear training, warmup, rhythm, soloing, fretboard memorization, jamming, song learning and finally theory.