Katie McShane

Teaches: Cello, Little Roots, Beginner Piano

Pronouns: She/her

Core Teaching Values:

  • Fostering a strong creative spirit and the technique to support it.

  • Developing an intrinsic motivation to participate in music in a variety of ways.

  • Developing the internal tools to play what you’re hearing, to write what you’re imagining, to read what’s handed to you, and to play and listen collaboratively.

  • Exploring and growing through play.

  • Building a rich at-home practice bolstered by good emotional support, with the goals of consistency and a warm relationship to learning.

  • Listening to and experiencing music in context.

  • Learning concepts through multiple inputs, utilizing movement, composition, improvisation, ear training, dictation, transcription, sight reading, and more.

  • Following the threads of interest and developing a shared repertoire.

  • Sharing with your community.

Playful Beginner Piano: Ages 4.5-10

I teach young people using the Piano Safari Method.   The Piano Safari website self-describes their method as “a holistic approach combining ears, eyes, and imagination that allows children to become musically literate at the piano.”  It provides a great mix of learning by ear and reading, while setting students up with excellent technique in an engaging way.

Learn more in this intro video.

Piano, with its ease of sound production, is a playground for the young, and an easy choice as a vessel for broad-natured exploratory learning.   As children grow, my goal is to set them up to be able to launch into whatever direction they choose, and to support them in that transition when the time comes.

Cello: All Levels & Ages

My cello teaching is rooted in studies with Elizabeth Simkin (Ithaca College), a pupil of Janos Starker. Her lessons of rich tone through good body use were passed onto me and now form the core of my cello practice.   My cello curriculum combines these studies with lessons from both studies in education at Ithaca College and my studies in other musical practices at New England Conservatory

Musical Influences:  Deerhoof, Henry Threadgill, Brahms, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lassus, Steeleye Span, Ruth Garbus, Blonde Redhead, Tommy Jarrell, my teachers Elizabeth Simkin and Anthony Coleman, and most of all my close friends and collaborators.

When I’m not making music:  Working on my house in Bath or hanging out with my friends and family.

Current projects: I’m currently playing cello here and there for various events.  I also play with and write music for my four-piece rock band “pond one thousand.”  In the recent past, I toured playing synthesizer with dance-rock band “Guerilla Toss’ and co-composed the score for NYT best selling author Wendy MacNaughton’s episodic children’s show “Draw Together.”

Favorite Place in Maine:  Two Lights State Park at sunset.