Take piano lessons with John Mark! You won't regret it! I've been going for about 8 months now after a 25-year hiatus (I took lessons as a kid). Piano lessons are now my favorite time of the week. John Mark is intelligent and quirky and a highly qualified and experienced pianist and teacher. He's always looking for new ways to help his students excel in music theory and practice. My piano technique and ability have improved immeasurably. Call him, now! read more

Johns is great. He knows what he's doing, he's got great technique, and he is flexible in his schedule.

A professional pianist who concerns himself with every level of student experience and interest. JohnMark is a gem and a wonderful teacher and piano coach. read more

You don't often find people who are both great performers and great instructors. John Mark knows how to make learning fun, and he is as patient w/ the kids as he is with older folks. read more

I took piano lessons for 6 years starting when I was 12. I decided a couple of years ago to take piano lessons again (at age 64) and found John Mark online. I learned more in a month than I learned in the whole 6 years. John Mark immediately made me feel comfortable and has continued to be encouraging, supportive and never makes me feel guilty or bad if I haven't practiced much. He's a talented and marvelous pianist and a skilled and invested teacher as well. I've watched him be so gentle and patient with kids too. I recommend him 100%. You'll be glad you contacted him! read more

My wife told me today, "You know, I've got to admit, I enjoy listening to you play." She hasn't always said that. For years she's been telling me I was hopeless - that my playing was clunky, noisy, stilted, bangy, unmusical. She wasn't being mean - just honest. I took my first piano lesson when I was eight years old. I'm made good progress for the first year or so, then stopped improving somewhere around the late second grade level. For the next sixty years, I made no significant progress, despite hundreds of lessons and tens of thousands of hours at the keyboard. Then John Mark Harris got hold of me. I've known Mark forever, ever since he and I were both piano students at the University of South Florida. He was a young talent, I an old hacker taking one more shot at learning to play the piano. If you know John Mark Harris, you know that he's gone on to become an enchanting pianist and a superb teacher. I want to elaborate on the 'superb' part. Mark and I had tossed around the idea of my taking a lesson from him for several years, but never quite got around to it. Part of the problem is that he lives in San Diego and I divide my time between Florida and the Midwest. Mark raised the possibility of doing a lesson over Skype and in March of 2016 it finally happened. In our second lesson I asked Mark why I was able to sing in tune but couldn't for the life of me play the piano. I don't remember exactly what he said - something about the keyboard being in between the notes on the page and the musical sound, and something else about the piano requiring playing more than one note at a time - and I don't understand exactly what about his answer proved so illuminating, but from that moment, I began to make progress. For sixty years I had been stuck in a pianistic limbo. Learning a new piece was a rarity, requiring an enormous expenditure of time and effort, and, once "learned", it sounded terrible - full of wrong notes and rhythmic stumbles - and it was easily forgotten. When it came to being able to include dynamics, phrasing, and pedaling - forget it. It was too much work just to play the wrong notes. In the past 21 months I've learned dozens of pieces including but not limited to most of the Goldberg Variations, a Chopin Nocturne, and movements from Beethoven piano sonatas. Better still, many of my performances are verging on beautiful. The revelation from the second lesson is just one of several transformational moments in the course of my lessons with Mark. Don't get me wrong, Mark didn't do it ALL. I've put in plenty of hard work, and the better I get, the harder I work. But the harder I work, the more I benefit from Mark's teaching. His lessons are packed with good advice. In the course of a single lesson he may offer a dozen bits of wisdom and if I'm lucky and work hard, I'll be able to internalize three or four of them before the next lesson rolls around. In my estimation, what John Mark Harris has been able to do for me is nothing short of a miracle, the realization of the dream of a lifetime. read more

Highly recommended! John Mark's enthusiasm is infectious and he has a gift for teaching. I have been taking lessons for 6 months now and have major improvements in both technique and understanding of theory. read more

John Mark is dedicated to helping his piano and composition students learn about music in an interesting and fun way. He is very knowledgeable about many types of music and is an accomplished musician/pianist himself. He's the best piano teacher around! read more

After 60 years of choral singing,the last 9 months in a choir led by JM, this week I took my first singing lesson ever. JM was patient, helpful and put me completely at ease. I am looking forward to learning more and to becoming better contributor to our choir. Thanks a million JM read more

Great instructor! Really knows how to engage my son and make piano fun! My son loves him and looks forward to his lessons. He had him at, "let's learn Minecraft songs." I highly recommend John Mark if you want your child to learn piano and have fun doing it. Plus, he is very educated and really knows his stuff! read more

John taught both our daughters through their teen years, sometimes a difficult time to keep kids engaged in lessons. He did this by letting them choose the music they wanted and worked with them to grow their skills and love of playing. For the more advanced players, he helps students compose and play their own music! I would highly recommend him! read more

My daughter and son have been taking piano lessons from John Mark for the past 5 years and slowly and steadily they have grown to enjoy playing the piano. He usually gives them a few options of music and they get to choose what they like and sometimes he would bring different versions of the music, too. He's engaging and technical in his teachings as well as easy going. My kids don't like to practice but miraculously they always opt to continue lessons with John Mark and even more miraculously they are improving in their piano skills, note reading skills and ultimately appreciate and enjoy the music they play together. Highly recommend John Mark as your piano teacher! read more

If you get to have Dr. John Mark as your piano instructor, you are a very, very lucky individual indeed! Dr. John Mark is a first rate pianist. He is also very musical and expressive and a fun person to work with. He can help any level of musician (beginner to advanced college and post-college levels). He is also a great coach for professional artists that need another set of ears to hear them play through something or work on a tricky passage. read more

I started piano lessons with John Mark a few years ago as I entered retirement. I had some music background but was basically a beginner on the piano. I have loved every minute of it. My lessons are fun because, in addition to technique, we talk about music theory, history, how pianos are constructed, and all sorts of other things related to music. He is a wonderful teacher and fun person; I recommend him for young and old alike. read more