McCool Piano Studio - Menlo Park, California

Michelle Yi (Yulle)

I've been studying with Lydia for over a year now and am so glad I found her.

As an adult student that plays violin and mostly YouTube hacked my way around piano, I picked up all kinds of bad habits. She helped me to go back to the fundamentals and to really focus on method and technique, which I think most teachers don't have the patience for, *especially with adults*. But that's really critical to playing piano (any instrument) musically and technically in a healthy way. She also explains and demonstrates concepts in easy to understand ways (execution is still on you, the student 😅), relating it to your experiences.

If you love music and want to build a solid foundation, then you've found the right place. She really cares about her students. I'm grateful to be a student here!

Jeremy Binagia

Lydia is a fantastic piano teacher. She takes care to focus on not just playing the “correct notes”, but also playing musically and with artistry. This initially took some getting used to but now I can confidently say that the overall sound of my piano playing has greatly improved as a well. Lydia also takes great care to focus on the needs and interests of each student and to suggest material that will best help them improve and that they enjoy playing. I look forward to continuing to learn from Lydia in the future

Zhang Yuhao

From my personal perspective, I believe Lydia is a wonderful piano teacher, since she has always been really patient all the time. Each time I encountered some difficutiles, she will listen to my confusion and concerns and then show me how I can make improvements.

Regarding the padagogy, Lydia never let me practice hard on something that my technique cannot acheive. Instead, she has always been teaching me how to relax and avoid getting hurt, which is super useful and illuminating. Based on my interests, she recommended a lot of beautiful pieces of music with different styles at different eras by various composers, etc. so that I can learn about different styles of music, and also technique points in different context as well. When illustrating a concept or a gesture, Lydia will use examples from daily life, even my personal interested areas, which makes me easier to understand.

Every week I'm looking forward to meeting with Lydia, since she is very friendly, nice, and also knowledgable to help me make progress. She also usually shares some of pieces of music that she rearrages or composes, which is also a fantastic thing for piano learners. I think I have joined the studio for 1.5 years, and I would highly recommend Lydia as an execellent piano teacher.

Michael Coffin

I have wanted to play piano since I was about six years old, but other things kept getting in the way. Instead, I played classical guitar and taught myself composition. However, after retirement, I bought a piano and took the plunge. I've been taking lessons from Lydia for about a year now, and I highly, highly recommend her, especially for adult students.

Several things stand out to me. First Lydia has been very flexible about choice of material. For example, I came in knowing that I especially like contrapuntal music (Bach, Scarlatti, e.g.). Lydia helped me find a set of piano-method books that are very well suited to learning to play that style of music. She has also supplemented those method books with more varied material --- her own arrangements and compositions, for example.

Second, Lydia always emphasizes making *music*, rather than just hitting the right notes quickly. Concentrating on getting the phrasing and tone right has improved my overall musicianship a lot.

Finally, Lydia has always provided the right amount of motivation. I know from experience with guitar teachers that it is possible to err in both directions: being too demanding or too undemanding. For me, Lydia strikes the happy medium: she doesn't let me get sloppy, but she also doesn't make me feel like I'm a hopeless case when I don't get something right away.

Five stars!

Quintin Fettes

Lydia is a wonderful teacher for aspiring pianists of all ages and all skill levels!

I started taking lessons to pursue a new hobby as an adult, and she has helped me work toward my own goals in learning musicianship, music theory, and even composition skills. Her lessons are personalized to your needs/goals, and are worth every penny.

Julie L

My teen sons have taken piano lessons from Lydia McCool for 4-6 years. They had previously been with another teacher before switching over so they had some music background before joining with her. Mrs. McCool focuses on the fundamentals of music- theory, technique, hand shape, playing with purpose- more than just getting a song done or “playing to a test.” Mrs. McCool emphasizes the basics and developing a good understanding of music. She believes that the rest should fall into place.

Mrs. McCool is a dedicated teacher and has encouraged them to compose pieces, which they really enjoy. This has been a great creative outlet. So far, my kids have been doing well in their lessons, and we’ve seen their technique, ear training, sight reading and other fundamentals improve since starting with Mrs. McCool. It has been fun to see them grow as musicians. Since they both play other instruments (bass, violin), the background in piano has been very helpful. Mrs. McCool is kind, patient and truly cares about her students. My kids enjoy working with her, and I would recommend her as a piano teacher.

Kimberly Mitchell

Lydia took me on as an adult semi-beginner student a few months ago and is helping me break some old bad habits (the results of being mostly self-taught in the past). She provides much-appreciated lessons, encouragement and advice and runs a very professional studio. Highly recommend!