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'Music is the medicine of the mind'

By LIANE SMITH (Contact)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

"Music is the medicine of the mind," Bonitan Theresa Miller says.

Miller, who has lived in Bonita Springs less than a year, first touched the keys of a piano as a young child, with lessons from her grandmother.

Photo by LIANE SMITH / Banner

Piano teacher and music therapist Theresa Miller teaches 5-year-old Sebastian Guzman, of Naples, notes at her Bonita Springs home.

Born in New Orleans, Miller says: "I still love red beans and rice, seafood gumbo, and Mardi Gras."

Now, after obtaining a master's degree in pastoral counseling from Athenaeum of Ohio, and a bachelor's degree in music education and music therapy from the College of Mt. St. Joseph — an all girls' college — and juggling a number of different career choices over her life, with piano teaching always a part-time factor, 55-year-old Miller teaches about 45 students of all ages and mental capacities.

She mostly teaches piano lessons, but she also specializes in teaching students with learning disabilities for music therapy. Music therapy involves all aspects of music and uses instruments like drums, tambourines, wood blocks, rhythm sticks, and triangle, as well as the piano.

"It's not how well you do something, but the approach and the relationship," Miller said.

For everything Miller teaches, she says she develops about 10 different ways of explaining the task. She also feels a relationship is built by boosting self-esteem.

"I always try to praise someone, no matter what," Miller said. When she teaches mentally challenged students, or students with learning disabilities of any level, concepts such as eye hand coordination is reinforced. At one point in her life, Miller worked part time at a bank and her piano teacher easily persuaded her to volunteer at the Minnesota State Hospital for the Mentally Ill.

"They could play on all the instruments and it sounded like a little symphony," Miller said of her first experience teaching mentally challenged students.

Photo by LIANE SMITH / Banner

Although Theresa Miller teaches all age levels, she especially enjoys working with children.

Although Miller teaches all ages, she says four is an appropriate age to begin lessons, so long as they know their ABCs and numbers.

"My success as a piano teacher is that I love children," Miller said. "I love teaching children."

A handful of Miller's students have gone on to study music in college, she says. "My main success is when a child loves music," Miller added.

Sebastian Guzman, 5-years-old, of Naples, had his second piano lesson at Miller's in-home studio last Friday. His mom, Jhyll Guzman, said she wasn't sure if her son loved music or Miller's dog, Barnie, more, but her son did come home after the first lesson already able to play a song.

"He loves Ms. Theresa, and Barnie, and the piano," Jhyll Guzman said.

According to Guzman, she wanted her son to have a well-rounded upbringing and studies show that music helps strengthen portions of the brain.

Photo by Leo Kearley / Banner

Theresa Miller's hands guide Sebastian's over the piano keys at his second lesson last Friday.

Students just starting out take half-hour lessons, while more advanced students take hour lessons, both once a week. Although Miller does hold a traditional recital once a year for her students, she also holds piano parties with about 10 students at a time throughout the year, where students gather around to play their favorite songs on the piano. The parties usually last an hour and also consist of musical games and activities, as well as refreshments.

In May, Miller's students will have a large recital at the Steinway Piano Gallery on Tamiami Trail.

Piano lessons cost $21 per half-hour lesson, and according to Jhyll Guzman, the time flies.

"To me, music seems so regimented, but with Theresa, the half hour just flies by," Guzman said, as her son sat at a piano mat on the floor with Miller. A stack of different color flashcards with a letter on each showed from Miller's hand. Beginning with the "A" then, "B," "C," "D," "E," "F," and "G" chords, Miller helped Sebastian match the card with the correct key on the piano mat.

Every once in awhile, Sebastian's eyes would drift over to playful Barnie — a 20-pound pooch — but then they would easily click back into focus with direction from Miller. "They have to want to do it," Miller said. "Not every teacher can do what I do."

To learn more about piano lessons with Theresa Miller, visit her Web site at www.theresaspianolessons.com, or call (239) 849-3315.