EXTREME FLUTE - Bill McBirnie

A FEW TESTIMONIALS
 

“...I have been practicing three of your licks and one of mine in 12 keys in all possible octave ranges. Great work out! Thanks for your enthusiasm, Bill. I’ll be in touch soon for another lesson. I love your approach to learning and teaching...”  Carlos del Junco, world-renowned harmonica player
 

“Thanks so much for a great and inspiring lesson. I really feel as if I now have the tools that I need to work on getting to sound like I want to. You were so helpful. I was going to go home and write down everything that we had talked about in the lesson, but you beat me to it. WOW! Talk about professional! What a great thing to do for students. I think I will adopt that policy as well.”  Dr. Lisa Lorenzino, Schulich School of Music, McGill University
 

“I have to say that I learned more with you in 60 minutes than I learned in the last year-and-a-half or two with ANY of my other instructors!”  Jim Day, Palm Bay, Florida
 

“As an adult player who has taken very few lessons in her life, I was blown away by your teaching approach. Each lesson, I always had a list of questions covering a wide range of topics. Together, we would prioritize them and then work through as many as we could in a couple of hours. As an academic myself, I really appreciate what this takes; that is, responding to a free-flow of questions, off-the-cuff, with no lesson prep. Not only did you do a terrific job but a huge surprise was a lesson summary and practice guide that showed up in my in-box the same day! As just one example of your special teaching approach, you provided me with the insight into how to navigate through a new lead sheet. You took what were often numerous chord changes and stripped them down to fundamental patterns that made improvising much easier. Finally, and really important to me, is the respect and interest you show in an adult amateur player."  Lyanne Schlichter, Toronto
 

“...Thanks for the lesson notes, Bill…I’ve already had people comment on my more expressive playing…”  John Pagnotta, multi-instrumentalist, Toronto
 

"Thank you for being such an enthusiastic and supportive teacher. I really enjoy working with you as a student. Hearing you perform is very inspiring too! I can't wait for my next lesson!"  Alheli Pimienta, Doctor of Musical Arts, University of Toronto
 

"Bill is perhaps less a teacher than a coach. But, as a coach, he always goes the extra distance, taking on my problems as his own challenges. Each lesson focuses on questions or difficulties I bring forward. And after each lesson, I have weeks of work to do! It’s a wonderfully flexible relationship with a coach—and performer—who is genuinely interested in my improvement, first. Also, I was initially dubious about Skype-based lessons. But the theory lessons, with materials sent along beforehand, worked really well. What was more surprising was how well a performance class, based on Bill’s critiquing my own playing, also served. He identified problems, illustrated them for me, and then demonstrated, in his own playing, how I could improve my own."  Tom Koch, Toronto
 

With three lessons from Bill, I had material to keep me busy for the next year. His attention to detail is wonderful. Plus, his skill at pinpointing what needs to be worked on is amazing. Finally, a jazz teacher who knows the details of flute playing and the idiom of jazz. Also, he is wonderful at teaching classically-trained flute players to really 'swing'”.  Dr. Lisa Lorenzino, Schulich School of Music, McGill University
 

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you so much, Bill. You are the best teacher I've ever had!"  Shari Tallon