"I always teach in terms of, 'How does what you do affect how the listener reacts?' There's a lot that that implies in terms of preparation and fundamentals. But the end result is simply making people feel things with your music. You can't stress fundamentals without tying them to reality. I show my students why fundamentals are important and how working on fundamentals is eventually going to get them to a place where they can make whatever music they want to in the professional world."
"For example, Harmony 4 includes a lot of esoteric concepts, concepts that are usually more important for the jazzers. You can't escape the jazz influence on those concepts, but once I present them, I try to broaden their scope. You can use them in other styles. Just because they haven't been used before doesn't mean you can't use them now. When you look beyond what these concepts are in jazz and see what's fundamental here, you can see how they can be used in other genres."
"I love music, and I love talking about music. My students are motivated and directed. They come from a variety of backgrounds. I have a high number of international students. There's a wide variety and there's a lot to be learned from all of them, stylistically, culturally. And each one approaches the music that we do here with that different background, so you can say or play something and it's not always heard the way you thought it was heard. I've always found that interesting."
