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YES! Music IS forever!  And it doesn't matter what instrument you play - the therapeutic benefits of making music are widely accepted -- reduced stress, social interaction, lifelong learning, personal fulfillment, and delay of many old-age diseases and syndromes, to name a few.

Peter offers private and group lessons for the accordion, at beginner or intermediate level, either at his home in Oakton, Virginia, or, in some cases, at the student's home.  Openings are limited to assure schedule flexibility for both instructor and students.  Call 703-242-2160 for details and rates, or e-mail Peter at peter@musicisforever.com. 

Instruction can be based on the popular Palmer-Hughes accordion series, or other appropriate lesson plan if the student has already begun a lesson program.  Along with the traditional methods, Peter emphasizes development of listening skills and ear training to improve understanding of the structure of music and to facilitate creativity and development of improvisation techniques.  The result is greater enjoyment and personal experience that comes with making your own music, as well as satisfaction of playing music and arrangements written by others.  Lessons focus on
        1) program course material
        2) building blocks, including scales, intervals and scale degrees, chords and chord progressions, the circle of fifths, non-harmonic tones, and
        3) developing the ability to recognize these building blocks as they occur in melody and harmony.

The English language is comprised of 26 letters and a set of rules.  The rules define how letters are combined to make words, and words combined to make sentences.  If you don't follow the rules, you end up with unspeakable or meaningless letter combinations and jumbled sentences.  We learn the language by first learning how to pronounce the letters and recognize them when spoken in words or sentences.  Music is comprised of 12 tones and a set of rules, far fewer rules than English.  Similar to language, if you don't follow the rules, you end up with unpleasant harmonies or noise.  Your ear will tell you.  Ear training teaches the student how to recognize the relationships between the tones that comprise the language of music.  Once these are understood and put into practice, the student can experience the full joy of making music.  And, compared to learning a language, it's as easy as humming a song!