Annabeth McNamara
Teacher
Private Lesson Offerings
Voice
Piano
Songwriting
Recording/Producing
Annabeth's Biography
Annabeth has always been a teaching artist: she was originally approached by fans at college shows to share her knowledge. Whether songwriting, performing, or recording, music has been her way to unearth and process hidden emotion. The beauty of music brings a magical, heavenly quality to life that makes the bleak mundane more bearable.
Musical exploration is an etherel unseen landscape she traverses- a harmonious and frontierless space to wander in, to become familiar with and at home within, yet always continue to discover more. There is no end to the potential towards mastery in the land of music- there’s always something more to learn if you let curiosity lead the way.
Through her music career, she has written hundreds of songs, recorded over half a dozen albums, toured the west coast and Europe, won grants and charted, been the bandleader of a girl band called Larkspur, founded a French collaboration project called This Is Alaska, successfully crowdfunded an album on kickstarter, starred in as well as produced music videos, mastered live looping, learned home recording, went on to produce and mix songs on her latest album “New the Old,” and now runs a sustaining Patreon membership to continually create for her biggest supporters.
She believes everyone’s musical journey is as unique as the musician. She enjoys helping others identify their specific dreams and goals, and helping map out and navigate a way to their next destination. With most experience in teaching piano and guitar, she has also taught banjo, ukulele, autoharp, voice, songwriting, and recording. She has also mastered live looping
Annabeth remembers when she first discovered how to harmonize as a young child at sunmer camp. She quickly became obsessed and started adding flourishes to the standards sing in church. Recently she has stepped fully into this childhood passion for singing, and is now embracing vocal technique as a way to maximize vocal ability and health, while maintaining the organic and unique sound of the individual.
Teaching background:
Annabeth took classical piano lessons growing up, loved high school choir, starred in a college Appalachian music group, and graduated with a bachelor’s in fine arts from Prescott College, a place where she fused her many passions and interests in various art forms and disciplines, minoring in ecology. She graduated and began teaching private lessons in 2012, and has been teaching some form of music ever since: from piano to guitar to banjo to ukulele to voice to songwriting to recording to performance. She especially enjoys mentoring and creatively coaching women of all ages, empowering them to chart their own course based upon their own musical passion.
While classical music formed a strong foundation for her career, as a teacher she strives to make the experience of learning music enjoyable and engaging. After all, we PLAY music! The love of music is held as sacred: its power to heal and transform is immense. To Annabeth, the musician is the primary instrument, so self-care is a priority. Harmony extends beyond the chords and into life itself.
