Past and Current Students

Below are notes from some of my students. I am grateful to all my students. It is often said that a teacher can learn as much from their student as their student from their teacher. I have found there is no one way to teach as students are unique in their goals, desires, abilities and most of all, how they learn best.

Loston Harris is an international professional jazz musician:

Rebecca Buck is the best music coach I have ever worked with. She has the innate ability to see the gift inside of you. You may not see it yet .. but she will. Rebecca will tell you when are right. She will also tell you when you are wrong. With love, kindness and patience. Her focus is Your success.
I have performed at The Carlyle in NYC for two decades and also perform concerts around the World.
My passion for The Great American Songbook became very clear as we worked together. The time Rebecca spent working with me prepared me for success. Now all of my performances are stellar. Study with Rebecca Buck. Listen to her .. do the work and You will be an amazing Artist.

Loston Harris

John is a retired Patent Attorney whose love for music has always been a part of his life. He plays for himself, family and friends. His love for music will always be with him

I am a student of Rebecca Buck and have been taking singing lessons from her for the last 15 years or so. It has been a wonderful experience for me and an absolute joy to work with her. She has improved my voice dramatically such that she has expanded my vocal range to a point where I am able to reach higher and richer notes that I previously only dreamed of. She has worked tirelessly with me to improve my diction, phrasing and ability to express myself in song, the way the song was meant to be sung.

When I started taking lessons from Rebecca, I just retired as a patent attorney and was hoping to make mild improvements in my voice or at least keep it from deteriorating. Rebecca had other ideas. She saw some potential there and through her highly creative methods, pushed me to improve my voice to the best of my ability. I was close to 70 years old at that time and was surprised and flattered at how much time she took with me. She is truly a perfectionist in the best understanding of the word. I had a large repertoire of songs that I remembered--spanning the 40s, 50s and 60s and even some back into the 30s. Often I would come into the lesson humming some long forgotten song from the 40s or 50s. She would rush to the piano, find the song, discover the key that I was singing in, and work out all the notes such that the song was tailor-made for my singing voice. Watching her in action was like watching a mathematician work out an algebraic problem. Most importantly, she developed me to the point where I was able to record a whole series of songs on CDs and my family was genuinely surprised at the improvement in my voice.

Rebecca taught both piano and voice. She believed that all her students should perform and had a recital at the end of the year where the students, both young and old could perform in front of their friends and relatives. She taught young students in grammar and high school as well as adults and in the recital she had a program printed out so that the audience could see what each student was performing. Sometimes there were many as 100 people in the audience. Rebecca did a masterful job of introducing all the performers. She is truly charismatic and has a wonderful way with people. I especially was struck by her kindness with the younger people--she would encourage them if they were shy or correct them in a gentle way when they make mistakes

I’ve had a long time to observe Rebecca in all sorts of musical events. She has a magnetic personality and her students and people are generally drawn to her. I would highly recommend her as a teacher or performer. She truly has a rare talent for both.

John F. - Patent Attorney

Below are 2 letters - from both a student and her Mom. I was touched by their kind remarks.

Sofia:

I am currently 14 years old. At a young age my parents and I discovered I had a great interest and talent in singing and playing instruments. After some introductory lessons with piano and singing I started composing. It was then, at 10 years old, that my parents started searching for someone that could nurture my love for singing, teach me greater use of piano and welcome my composing ideas as part of the lessons. I was glad to have found a teacher like Rebecca. She is so energetic and enthusiastic making the lessons fun. She based her music selection for the lessons on my interests as well as my range of voice. She always received my ideas and gave input based on her experience in song composition. Additionally, while being her student I participated in recitals with all of her students. Their wide age range and experience these possessed challenged me and taught me a lot. I have hence become a more confidence performer and learned the qualities a great artist must have.

Sofia's Mom

There are two types of music, piano, or singing teachers; those who teach what they have learned but are not artists themselves or those who are creative and talented musicians who love to teach not just technique but the art of being a musician. The latter understands and nurtures the creative side of a student and are flexible by tailoring their lessons according to the students interests in music (genre). That is who Rebecca is, a well versed artist and performer. She is well versed in all types of music; blues, jazz, Disney, theater, pop, contemporary, etc. Her love for music is contagious to all her students. These qualities were critical for keeping and nurturing (instead of quenching) my daughter's Sofia interest and creativity in music. Had we taken her to a traditional piano teacher or vocal instructor, they would have applied the standard approach to voice or to piano (book levels and classical music). They also would not have been able to guide and teach Sofia through her music composing journey. Rebecca's experience, talent, enthusiasm and flexibility made the perfect match that served to nurture Sofia's talent in piano, singing and composing. In the years the 5 years that our daughter Sofia learned under Rebecca's tutelage, Sofia gained confidence in composing, singing and playing piano. Since then she has participated in countless Musicals as member of the lead cast. Currently at the age of 14 she has composed and recorded songs (not yet published) and is working on an album. She is also a member of two adult church bands and leads worship for the High School congregation at our church.

David is a current student. He's been a guitarist for about 50 years and now is taking piano and eventually voice.

David has played guitar for about fifty years - mostly playing guitar with friends, occasionally 'Open Mic' nights, but mostly for personal enjoyment:

I've been playing guitar since the late 60's. Along the way I've picked up a good foundation in music theory and a penchant for blues and jazz. My mother sang light opera and she was often at the piano and singing when I grew up. I still have her piano and recently decided to take piano lessons and consider voice lessons. I was lucky enough to cross paths with Rebecca at a favorite jazz restaurant. I began lessons with Rebecca, working on piano fundamentals. Rebecca was focused on helping me take what I knew about music from my guitar work to the piano. We've worked on rhythmic patterns (syncopation) as well as improving my reading skills, and piano fundamentals (fingering, hand positions, pedal work...). At times Rebecca wrote out arrangements specific to helping me get over some area I was having difficulties with. Rebecca doesn't take you through some beginner's book one page at a time. She first understands a students goals and then puts together a program specific to the needs of the student. I count myself lucky to have found her.