Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, and Clarinet.
Lessons are taught at Dave Snider Music Centre Located at Yonge and Lawrence in Toronto ON.
www.snidermusic.com
Phone 416.483.5825
Toll Free Across North America 1.800.749.4428
eMail: snidermusic@snidermusic.com
New students can check lesson availability and existing
students check lesson times and keep track of payment on this online calander:
- Online Lesson Calendar -
Teaching Philosophy:
Charlie's own musical education has been an ongoing journey driven by curiosity and the love of creating music. His approach to teaching music aims to spark the same level of interest in his students. He works with music that students already enjoy and helps them discover different aspects of that music starting from their level of understanding and their particular musical interest. Teaching in this way keeps students interested and playing music that they like and will eventually understand. Every lesson is customized to suit each students' goals whether it be preparing for a university audition or learning to play purely for enjoyment. Charlie's lessons are well balanced covering all areas of music including technique, repertoire, melody, composition, harmony, rhythm, ear training, and improvisation and are all taught right from the very first lesson. Teaching in this way creates well-balanced musicians that have a greater more satisfying understanding of the music they create.
Book:
Over the years of teaching a wide variety of students Charlie has determined a common foundation of technique and theoretical knowledge necessary to play the saxophone at an intermediate level. All of this information has been collected, categorized and presented in a clear and concise way in "The Saxophone: A User's Manual" and is available at Dave Snider Music Centre.
The book focuses on playing in all 12 keys and contains etudes and all major, minor, diminished, whole tone, and pentatonic scales. There is also an included free online component to the book which allows students to play along with improvisational tracks and listen to examples. To see a complete table of contents and to learn more about "The Saxophone: A User's Manual" click here
Education / Awards:
Charlie Finlay graduated from Humber College having focused on jazz performance, composition and later Post Production for film and television.
After graduating He was selected to participate in the Guild of Canadian Film Composers' Apprenticeship / Mentor program where he learned from and worked alongside Robert Carli one of Canada's in demand film / TV composers.
Experience:
Charlie has played with numerous musicians in many different musical styles such a deep house funk collective, King Sunshine, KC Roberts’s funk / hip hop group KC Roberts & The Raw Blue, various jazz combos and Latin groups such as Orchestra Fantasia & Hilario Durand’s Latin Big Band. The performing situations that Charlie has been in have required him to draw on his sight reading skills, improvisational skills, theory skills and compositional skills. Charlie has also helped produce and engineer 2 albums for songwriter and guitar player KC Roberts. Currently Charlie is working with Gemini award winning film & TV composer Rob Carli, teaching privately at Dave Snider Music Centre, and performing regularly with various bands.