Jamin Coller
JAZZ AND EDUCATION
In addition to teaching music in high schools and college in Sacramento, Jamin has taught music privately since 1994 and has played with and studied under jazz greats (pianists Joe Gilman and Jim Martinez, saxophonists Mike McMullen and Dave Liebman, and Mumbo Gumbo's drummer Rick Lotter) and plays in the Sacramento area, performing frequently at the Sacramento Jazz Festival. After completing the Jazz Saxophone coursework at ARC, Jamin continued on to study jazz at Sacramento State University, where he earn his bachelor’s degree.
GOSPEL
In addition to his dedication to playing jazz, Jamin has a great deal of performing experience in contemporary Christian and gospel music. Jamin spent several years writing, arranging, and conducting as the music pastor at Lifepoints Church. He has also written, arranged, and conducted music for the Gospel Music Workshop of America and assisted in the arrangements for the Sacramento Youth Symphony. Jamin has played with Lincoln Brewster, Martha Munizzi, Tramaine Hawkins, and Joe Pace, to name a few, and plays frequently in Sacramento's MLKJ celebrations in Sacramento. If you've attended the California State Fair, you may have seen him in a regular performance with one of several of the bands that perform at Gospel Day. Recently Jamin has also assisted the music pastors and other musicians from Sacramento mega churches.
CLASSROOM
Before opening his own music studio, Jamin spent nearly 10 years as a full-time, credentialed elementary and high school teacher. In addition to teaching the core subjects to his own middle school classroom, Jamin taught a range of music classes, including AP Music Theory, Music History, Music Appreciation, and a variety of choirs. Teaching all grades from kindergarten to high-school, he has developed a wide range of teaching styles. In addition to accolades from colleagues, Jamin has received multiple commendations from WASC (the accreditation agency for western high schools and colleges.)
DRIVING FORCE
While fighting the idea of opening just another music school in Sacramento, Jamin's passions for music and for teaching united as he realized what was missing from so many music studios: teachers who care more about student goals than teacher goals. Unfortunately, it is easier for teachers to pick a set of music books, start at the beginning, and just assign the next song in the book in each lesson regardless of whether the student or the teacher are interested in doing the song or practicing its associated skills. The goal for many teachers is to become "successful" enough that they don't have to teach beginners and can focus exclusively on players who have "it", but Jamin has always more enjoyed working with people who just want to enrich their lives with music and don't have grand plans of overhauling to world of music. While he enjoys pursuing classical jazz in his personal time, he is genuinely excited to work with students on music they are passionate about and really enjoy being able to play.
"I can teach you the skill I know you need on almost any song; so you pick a song you're excited to practice, and I'll help you accidentally learn what you need."
CURRICULUM
After selling print copies of The Non-Linear Music book internationally from 2002-2012, Jamin stopped publication because the curriculum continued to expand over 14 editions and he didn't like the fact that consumers who had purchased an earlier edition were not able to access the new material. Jamin also felt growing concern that the curriculum was exponentially more powerful when the student had a personal teacher to help suggest the next concepts based on what a student had been interested in learning so far. Non-Linear Music is now available in digital form, with lifetime updates and has been re-branded as Klopol Piano Academy.
In 2013 Jamin launched LearnPianoLive.com, where he could present the concepts in live broadcasts to his students world-wide and interact with them, giving personal feedback to students and showing them how the individual lessons interact with each other. At Learn Piano Live, students learn their concepts and songs at their pace on their instrument in their home while still having all the advantages of a personal instructor.
"Best of all, we get to charge almost nothing. The teacher, the curriculum, the play-along tracks and everything else are included for twenty bucks a month, so we're really getting to the point that people who think they might be interested in music can give it a full try without spending hundreds of dollars only to find out it's not really for them. The threshold for entry into music should be a lot lower than it's been in the past, and the technology is there to finally make that happen."
KLOPOL PIANO ACADEMY
After great success in writing music education curriculum, Jamin took on the masssive project of developing his own fully-online piano school: Klopol Piano Academy, the only formal, standards-based piano certification program for kids and adults that allows students to measure their progress and compare themselves to students in music academies like Certificate of Merit or Royal Conservatory. Klopol academy has taken the best parts from each of the best standardized curricula from around the world and synthesized it into this one, world-class 12-part course.
PHILOSOPHY
"Not everyone wants to become a professional, but that is the only track most teachers will teach. Whether out of laziness, insecurity, or an over-excitement about a particular method, most teachers push all their students through the same pages of the teacher's favorite lesson books, but most students just want to have fun playing music at their pace. That's what a good teacher should do - guide students as they learn what they want to learn and at the pace they can learn it; because music should make your life more enjoyable, not more stressful."
"Since the possibilities of music are limitless, the pursuit of music is an exploration, not an accomplishment. Enjoying the journey of discovery is the only joy that really exists. No one ever 'becomes' a musician or 'masters' their instrument. We're all just swimming in this ocean of musical possibilities and while some have swum longer and harder, no one will get to experience the whole ocean in a single lifetime."