Gigi Sliger
My name is Gigi Sliger. I have had a lifelong love for music even before I could play an instrument. When I was 13 years old, my family was given a piano and with it came a bench overflowing with sheet music and lesson books. Because we could not afford piano lessons, I taught myself piano for a year before enrolling in formal lessons. Once lessons began, there was no stopping me. I went on to major in Keyboard Studies: Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, and Synthesizer three years later, graduating with a Bachelors and a love for Music History. I thought that I would continue on to Graduate studies with a focus on Ethnomusicology. However, life had its own ideas and I ended up becoming a full time nanny in Memphis Tennessee. While in college, I had taken some pedagogy classes and had begun teaching piano on the side. Eventually in Memphis, I continued to teach private piano lessons at a local music academy. Through the years I worked various jobs but for the most part, continued teaching piano on the side. I could not give up music. After moving to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and having my own two children, I decided to put more focus on teaching. Thus my home studio, Harmony and Balance Studio, was born. A small studio, it allows me to pursue my love of teaching children music. I am also a kids yoga teacher so I sometimes incorporate yoga breath and movement within my lessons. This aids in their developmental learning. Perhaps you can tell that I am a nerd when it comes to learning about how children learn. When I’m not teaching piano or yoga, I am traveling and working part time as a Volunteer Coordinator for Spartan Races, writing articles, and working on projects with my five year old son and nine year old daughter. All of this to say, music and creativity can be a part of your life wherever you are, wherever you come from. It has been a common thread that has run through my own life, inspiring me and helping me to be more creative in every aspect of my life. This is my purpose for teaching: to inspire creativity to each of my students and to help them carry that creativity into their life with confidence.