Mr Dominic Teo

I believe that the purpose of music education is not simply to produce technically accurate performances, but to cultivate musicianship—the capacity to think, hear, understand, and create as a musician. Inspired by Jorgensen’s conception of musicianship, I view performance as the visible outcome of a rich process in which aural understanding, technical fluency, theoretical knowledge, and musical expression interact. As a teacher, my role is to guide students in the development of these interrelated dimensions.

My teaching is grounded in a constructivist philosophy that places the learner at the centre of the learning process. I seek to foster ownership by helping students discover patterns, make connections, and build understanding through active engagement. Drawing on Music Learning Theory, I prioritise the development of audiation alongside harmonic fluency, technical facility, and reading skills. Pattern recognition, transposition, improvisatory thinking, and an awareness of tonal relationships are integrated into lessons so that students develop transferable musical understanding rather than isolated repertoire-specific skills.

I believe learning is more effective when concepts are revisited in increasing depth. Through a spiral curriculum, technical exercises, learning sequence activities, harmonic work, and repertoire continually reinforce one another, allowing students to connect new ideas with prior knowledge.