Our Vision of the Studio

Throughout their years of marriage, Abigail and Cristian have realized that they have a shared passion for teaching proper piano technique. They believe in hard work and want to encourage students to share that same sentiment. They have both worked in academies and have found that academies, in general, can sometimes be too relaxed about teaching strategies and not invested in the instructors that are hired. That is why we are passionate about forming our private piano studio, so that we can provide our customers with a service that they can have confidence in.

We are striving to create a space where musical growth is expected and is not just a thirty-minute-per-week commitment that students can brush off. Sports electives require 5+ hours per week. While we don’t expect beginners to practice that much, we do hope for a similar commitment to practicing outside of class time.

We care about our students and want to equip them to be able to read and understand the rhythm and structure of any piece of music that is placed in front of them.

Our Lesson Strategies

- We do not play the homework assignments for the students. We do not do this because we strongly believe that students need to learn how to read the music on their own without relying on their ears and audiation skills. Listening to the piece that they are trying to learn in the early stages of learning how to read music is equivalent to “cheating” on their homework because they trust their ear for a vague idea of the music, rather than interpreting the real information of the written score.

- We utilize a combination of different piano curriculums and prescribe students their homework based on their strengths and weaknesses. We are not bound to one piano teaching method as every individual student has different ways of learning and each piano curriculum has a different approach. We use Faber, Thompson, Alfred, and anything else that we see that would benefit the student. Also, we introduce students to scales from the beginning of their studies since we strongly believe that scales are the foundation for all techniques in piano and for the understanding of music theory.

- We definitely expect discipline from our students and have a weekly evaluation sticker system in place for holding younger students accountable for their assignments. This provides an honest and practical feedback system for young student to know how well they did in class.

About us

Abigail Guzman is from Texas and was introduced to music and studied privately for 7 years with her composition instructor, Mike Ytturalde (Mr. Mike). During this time of growth, before she attended college, she had many opportunities to compose for her high school’s wind ensemble and handbell choir. Abigail also played in multiple jazz bands and toured twice nationally and internationally with the Celebrant Singers ministry as a pianist. She has since had the opportunity to study and grow her compositional vocabulary at Azusa Pacific University with Mike Watts, Michael Lee, Thomas Hynes, and Phil Shackleton, recently graduating in May 2021 with the Outstanding Senior Award in Music Composition. She has since been a finalist in national composition competitions. Also holding a minor in humanities demonstrates her desire to create music that reflects her deep interest in philosophy. She works as a pianist and organist in Houston churches and is currently working to grow hers and her husband’s Music studio, Guzman Piano Studio. Currently, Abigail is researching teaching methods and growing her own musicality by studying with her music theory teacher, Maestra Alena.

Cristian Guzman has been teaching piano and music since he was fifteen years old and has since been teaching for years through academies and privately. He has studied under several renowned instructors, including Pilar Leyva who holds a teaching lineage that comes from Claudio Arrau, an acclaimed interpreter of Beethoven's music in this century. From his own experience, Cristian has participated in and obtained several awards from piano contests while enjoying opportunities to perform with various orchestras. In Europe, Cristian attended the International Piano Festival in Gijon Spain and took masterclasses with notable artists. Mr. Cristian hails from Colombia and arrived in the US through his M.M. in Keyboard Collaborative Arts degree at Azusa Pacific University. With diverse experiences, including an appearance at Carnegie Hall performing alongside the Angels Vocal Arts opera program, and roles as an organist and commercial pianist. He is passionate about teaching proper technique and is skilled in helping young artists refine their musicality.