Bringing passion and joy to the art,
As a Westchester piano and drum teacher, I have proudly led many of my students to professional excellence, including Grammys, industry recognition, and careers. It is always so rewarding to see the success in my students and to have played a part in their growth.
I specialize in a variety of instruments and styles, although jazz piano is a particular passion of mine. Whatever style you or your child are hoping to learn, I am confident you will appreciate my skills as a Westchester based music teacher.
Gregg Sulzer
I teach piano, drums, harmony and songwriting. I’ve been teaching for over thirty-five years.
After only two years of studying drums my elementary school teacher asked me if I’d be willing to help him out teaching his younger students at his summer music camp. I had a great time doing it and I’ve been teaching ever since. I took on my first private student at fifteen and I continue to enjoy sharing my knowledge of music to all ages of students.
I attended Purchase College as a percussion major but switched to composition after a year and finished with a BFA in music composition.
While playing drums and writing music in college, I started studying piano seriously and have studied with a number of well known jazz piano teachers including Sal Mosca, Mike Longo and Jeremy Manasia.
After graduating College I signed a semi-lucrative recording contract with my college band that I played drums in and we toured the east coast for the better part of three years. We recorded one record and were working on our second album before we left that company.
I’ve played and recorded with numerous artists including Arlen Roth (Hot Licks and Paul Simon), Capitol recording artist Amy Corriea, Alligator records artist Adam Hirsh, Touchwood records, The Erratics, Innate Records Being Don and Nothingness, to name a few.
I was an original cast member of the Off Broadway show “Fallen Angel” starring Corey Glover of Living Color, an original cast member of the Off Broadway show “Saint Hollywood”, and appeared in the house band on the Caroline Rhea television show on NBC. I’ve done multiple contracts with Norwegian Cruise lines as a member and band leader and did a tour aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, playing jazz nightly with the Ron Miller quartet.
I operated a private music studio in Westchester county New York for fifteen years and my most successful music student won a grammy in 2019 for writing and producing the track “Exactly how I feel” on the Lizzo album entitled “Cuz I love you.”
After all these years I still love teaching my students how to love music as much as I do.
Gregg Sulzer
I teach piano, drums, harmony and songwriting. I’ve been teaching for over thirty-five years.
After only two years of studying drums my elementary school teacher asked me if I’d be willing to help him out teaching his younger students at his summer music camp. I had a great time doing it and I’ve been teaching ever since. I took on my first private student at fifteen and I continue to enjoy sharing my knowledge of music to all ages of students.
I attended Purchase College as a percussion major but switched to composition after a year and finished with a BFA in music composition.
While playing drums and writing music in college, I started studying piano seriously and have studied with a number of well known jazz piano teachers including Sal Mosca, Mike Longo and Jeremy Manasia.
After graduating College I signed a semi-lucrative recording contract with my college band that I played drums in and we toured the east coast for the better part of three years. We recorded one record and were working on our second album before we left that company.
I’ve played and recorded with numerous artists including Arlen Roth (Hot Licks and Paul Simon), Capitol recording artist Amy Corriea, Alligator records artist Adam Hirsh, Touchwood records, The Erratics, Innate Records Being Don and Nothingness, to name a few.
I was an original cast member of the Off Broadway show “Fallen Angel” starring Corey Glover of Living Color, an original cast member of the Off Broadway show “Saint Hollywood”, and appeared in the house band on the Caroline Rhea television show on NBC. I’ve done multiple contracts with Norwegian Cruise lines as a member and band leader and did a tour aboard Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, playing jazz nightly with the Ron Miller quartet.
I operated a private music studio in Westchester county New York for fifteen years and my most successful music student won a grammy in 2019 for writing and producing the track “Exactly how I feel” on the Lizzo album entitled “Cuz I love you.”
After all these years I still love teaching my students how to love music as much as I do.
In my piano teaching I focus on three main areas of learning, harmony, reading, and improvisation. I teach harmony because once you understand how chords are made and how to play them, you can play almost any song. And once you learn harmony, the ability to improvise becomes much less of a mystery and more like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. And finally learning how to read music makes your ability to play with any musician an immediate reality. You don’t need to go through the lengthy process of getting to know them musically when you can just put a piece of music on the stand and be playing together.
In my piano teaching I focus on three main areas of learning, harmony, reading, and improvisation. I teach harmony because once you understand how chords are made and how to play them, you can play almost any song. And once you learn harmony, the ability to improvise becomes much less of a mystery and more like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. And finally learning how to read music makes your ability to play with any musician an immediate reality. You don’t need to go through the lengthy process of getting to know them musically when you can just put a piece of music on the stand and be playing together.
I’m a huge advocate of having good time so we spend lots of time working on fundamentals at slow tempos. One of the strange oxymorons of learning an instrument is that to play fast you need to practice slow for a long time. Playing the basic rudiments with good technique at slow tempos is the best way I’ve found of having my students play fast with clarity, quicker.
Once my students get proficient at playing basic grooves, I do my best to have them start playing to songs as well as playing with me on piano. This develops their ability to play with an ensemble early on.
And I teach jazz and rock right from the start because those are the two roots that most other music comes from and once you become familiar with jazz and rock grooves everything else is just some variation of those two.
I’m a huge advocate of having good time so we spend lots of time working on fundamentals at slow tempos. One of the strange oxymorons of learning an instrument is that to play fast you need to practice slow for a long time. Playing the basic rudiments with good technique at slow tempos is the best way I’ve found of having my students play fast with clarity, quicker.
Once my students get proficient at playing basic grooves, I do my best to have them start playing to songs as well as playing with me on piano. This develops their ability to play with an ensemble early on.
And I teach jazz and rock right from the start because those are the two roots that most other music comes from and once you become familiar with jazz and rock grooves everything else is just some variation of those two.