Meet Sameul - Piano Teacher

I'm a pre-med honors student at Arizona State University's Barrett Honors College, but music has been just as central to my life as science. For over seven years, I've been teaching piano and vocals to youth students at Phoenix Ghanaian SDA Church — and honestly, those lessons have shaped me as much as any classroom. I learned early on that no two students learn the same way, so I made it my habit to build lesson plans around each person, track their growth carefully, and keep adjusting until something clicks.

The way I see it, teaching music means teaching a language — and you don't learn a language by memorizing a few phrases. I want my students to understand the system: how scales and keys connect, how rhythm works, how chords talk to each other. When that foundation is there, something really exciting happens — students stop waiting for me to hand them the next song and start figuring things out on their own. That independence is the real goal, and theory is what gets them there.

But I've also learned that no amount of theory keeps a student coming back if they're not having fun. So I let my students pick the songs they actually want to learn. A kid who's obsessed with a video game theme, a teenager who's been humming the same pop song for weeks, an older adult who's always wanted to play a song from their past — that's where we start. The song becomes the reason to show up; the theory becomes the reason they can play it well. When both are working together, lessons stop feeling like homework and start feeling like something they look forward to.
I speak English and Twi fluently, with an intermediate level of Spanish, which helps me connect with students and families across different communities. I carry a 4.0 GPA while juggling research, tutoring, and volunteer work — not to list credentials, but because it reflects how seriously I take showing up for people. Music has always been how I invest in others, and I'd love to bring that into every lesson.