Music
Hammers & Felt
French 20th century theatre curmudgeon Antonin Artaud said "no one ever wrote anything except to claw their way out of HELL." I try for a slightly more optimistic view of creativity, but I think Artaud was onto something. Art is a great solace to the soul, giving us hope and healing in hard times through an expanded (or simplified) vision. But it's also a way to move from one place to another; spiritually, at least. And each song on this debut EP helped me to do just that; whether it brought me to a place of exultation, a new scenic perspective, or a feeling of understanding, or plain old delight. That human beings have created an instrument from a few simple materials which can do what a piano does is a miracle! And that a person can sit down at this vibrating box of wires and make it sing sounds no one had ever heard until a few centuries ago, is also a miracle. I hope these songs take you somewhere, make you feel something, trip the imagination. It's been fun playing them, and I'm excited to publish my first humble album of pieces I love to play. This is a beginning, and I hope you enjoy!
Originals & Covers
Click on the the links to go to my SoundCloud profile for more, or simply enjoy the tracks here! We’ve got a few of my original compositions for Adventure Players Live!’s online performances, a funky retro R&B style tune, and a theme song I wrote for a theater podcast. Use headphones or good speakers for the best listening experience.
Learning Piano
If you want to learn to play, I am here to help you develop the skills, knowledge, style, and vision that will carry you on your musical journey. Performing as a musician and actor has been the greatest joy of my life (although I did just become an uncle, which I do recommend.) As your teacher, I want you to learn to play the music you love and learn to love new music by playing it. It takes disciplined practice to master an instrument. But I promise the rewards are worth the time and effort. Whether you’re 8 or 80 years old, it’s not too late to start! Do you want to play for yourself? Jam with friends? Join a band? Grow up to record albums and perform live? Maybe you just want to see how your favorite music is put together. Whatever the answer, let’s give it a try!
Music As Language
“Jamming” is basically just musicians having an off the cuff conversation. Legendary bassist Victor Wooten says it best in his TED Talk: music is a language, and as humans, we acquire language by experimenting with sounds in a social context. Music works the same way. Like a spoken language, music has grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and punctuation. And just like you wouldn’t tell a baby “don’t talk to me until you figure out how to speak right,” I’ll encourage trial and error, and celebrate when you nail that tricky passage. We learn through repetition and imitation, working up from simplicity to complexity through practice.
When we work together, I will teach you to read and write sheet music. But from the very first lesson, we will also practice playing by ear and improvising! From the beginning of your piano journey, it’s important to listen closely and to express what you want to, how you want to do it. To learn to speak in your own voice.
Rates
I offer 30, 45, and 60 minute lessons for students age 7 and up. We can work in Tudor City, or if you have a piano and live on the East Side, I can travel to you. I charge $80 for 60 minutes, $70 for 45, and $60 for 30, but we can negotiate! I also teach group lessons, which would lower your cost.
Meanwhile, see below for a free lesson!
Why Avery?
I have over 25 years of music experience and about the same amount of time in stage experience as an actor. I LOVE performing! And as a professional theater teacher for about a dozen years, I’m also skilled at helping students of many ages overcome stage fright and learn to love the spotlight.
I’ve played jazz, rock, funk, soul, pop and hip hop in bands all around the Northeast. I play piano solo, and for live improv shows! In 2024, I toured as a pianist with family comedy juggernaut The Story Pirates, bringing improv and original songs from their podcast (the #1 Children & Families Podcast on Spotify!) to audiences all over the Midwest and New England. As an actor, I’ve also played live music in plays. So—if you want to play and perform, I’ve got you.
The Piano Keys
This one is yours for FREE, folks.
The piano has 88 “keys,” which are those long black and white button things. There are 52 white keys and 36 black keys on the modern piano. Each piano key plays 1 note. In western music, the notes are labeled A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Now, there are also 5 “sharps” or “flats,” which on a piano, we play using the black keys. That makes 12 notes total. What’s cool is, it doesn’t matter what instrument you play! That’s it! 12 notes that start over as you play higher or lower. Each segment of 12 notes is called an “octave.” The piano has 7 octaves, which means those 12 notes (7 white keys and 5 black keys) repeat 7 times. You get a few extra notes on the low end and the high end bringing us to…88 keys. 89, if the piano’s made by Bösendorfer. (“These ones go to 89,” as Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap would say…)
The Treble Clef
Guess what: you’ve got almost all the info you need to start reading music! In standard musical notation, we write notes into two “staves.” Each staff is made up of five lines, and notes are plotted onto those lines as well as in the spaces above and below them. As a pianist, your right hand will most often be playing what’s written in the upper staff, also known as the “treble clef.” So download and print out the image to the right. Write in the missing notes below all the white keys first. (Don’t worry yet about labeling the black keys.) Then, letter in the notes missing from the spaces in the treble clef. When you’re done, reach out to me for the answer key (or, you know, google, if you can’t wait) and bring the page to our first piano lesson. Just using white keys, you can already play melodies in the C Major scale!
Email me at averynbargar@gmail.com, or call me at 617-304-3876, and we can set up a lesson!
Videos
A medley of my original jazz arrangement of the Hebrew hymn “Ma’oz Tsur” and Jerry Ragovoy’s pop gospel tune “Ain’t Nobody Home” January 2021