Paula Taylor
Teaches at Meadowood: Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri & Sat
One of Meadowood’s proprietors, Paula Taylor offers instruction in beginning upright bass for folk and bluegrass styles, beginning bass guitar, beginning violin/fiddle, and beginning acoustic guitar. Paula performs in the acoustic duo Mike & Paula with her husband, Mike Andrews, and was formerly a member of the folk trio Imaginary Friends with Meg Toia and Nancy Bell.
She also accompanied the Druckenmiller Family on upright bass for their recording Morning Star.
Paula studied music theory with Meadowood’s Gene Cullison, with string wizard Robin Bullock, and with Gretchen Benchoff at the Peabody Institute. She studied violin/fiddle with Judy Terwilliger and Ted Fenstermacher, double bass with Josh Bayer of Rockville, Maryland.
With this background, Paula introduces bass students to reading music with an emphasis on understanding the relationships among scales, chords, chord progressions, and bass accompaniment for traditional music. She does not teach bowed orchestral styles on double bass. Paula also works with beginning violin/fiddle and beginning acoustic guitar students, introducing reading skills and focusing on the style of music that interests each student.
Paula uses a mix of aural tools, demonstration, and method books and encourages students to develop both music-reading skills and the ability to play by ear.
HERE is a video of Paula performing two tunes with Mike Andrews for a 2020 program by the Santa Cruz Guitar Company.
View all lessons offered at Meadowood
Students visit Meadowood Music from communities throughout Berks County and the Lehigh Valley — including Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem, Kutztown, Fleetwood, and Boyertown — for private music lessons. We also sometimes have students who travel to us from places as distant as Lancaster, Harrisburg, the Philadelphia area, and occasionally from New Jersey, New York City, Baltimore, and Washington DC.