Teaching
Dr. Jacob Skiles has taught piano for over a decade. His teaching focuses on developing students into thoughtful musicians of all levels, with an appreciation for listening to sonic colors, studying a breadth of repertoire and styles, and implementing multiple schools of piano technique.
Dr. Skiles currently teaches piano and music theory at Howard Payne University. He has taught applied piano lessons previously at Florida State University and the University of Georgia as a graduate teaching assistant, where he also taught aural skills and Class piano.
See what past students have said:
“Jacob has been a phenomenal teacher.
Jacob is very invested in my success and seeing my progress, and I confidently can say I have seen my skill sharpen
throughout this semester. He is a very dynamic teacher and is constantly offering numerous methods to help me
with my sound, memorization, warming up, technique, etc. Jacob is very attentive to detail and offers me
techniques to take with me into my practice that are not monotonous or stagnated.”
— Applied lessons student
“Jacob Skiles is one of the best instructors I have had during my time at UGA.
He is extremely knowledgeable about the content he is teaching and deeply cares to make sure that his students
understand the content. He reached out to give extra help to students who were struggling and designed class
activities to keep students engaged and expand upon our learning. He expected students to try their absolute best
and nothing less while also managing to keep our classroom environment a safe and comfortable space to learn and
grow in. I am very confident that I would not have been as successful in this course had I had another instructor. He
pushed me and because of that I was able to succeed beyond what I thought I was capable of.”
— Aural skills student