“One of the few pop culture albums my parents had was Magical Mystery Tour,” says multi-instrumentalist Erica Quitzow, whose solo act, aptly named Quitzow, began a Pianos residency May 11 that continues through June 1.

“That album,” she continues, “is literally a collage. It’s OK to hear the cut, the editing. They were fine with that. I love that idea, that everything is OK; that you don’t have to polish your work to the point that the process is invisible. If you want to cut two songs—or three!—in the middle that are unfinished and make it all a montage, then you’re allowed to do that as an artist. That inspires me on so many levels.”

Though most of Quitzow’s recorded work—a whimsical, homemade blend of classical, electronic and pop—maintains a skeletal synth feel, her approach to songwriting heavily reflects the collage aesthetic favored that the late-career Beatles impressed upon her at a young age. In fact, her favored method of composing is to add more and more layers of tracks to a given idea using other instruments and then seeing what develops. Eventually, she begins to take away elements but, by that point, the ultimate shape of the song has still been determined by this process of addition.

The daughter of professional dancers, Quitzow grew up immersed in classical music. (Her grandfather and father were both pianists, and she remarks that the latter was self-taught and quoted 19th-century French impressionist composer, Eric Satie, as an influence.) Quitzow began formal training at the age of seven, at first on pian0—which didn’t initially grab her—and then on the violin—which to this day strikes a deep, personal chord. She describes feeling immediately natural with the instrument and thinking on first impression that it “seemed to come from a parallel dimension.”

But the seeds for her own creative urges weren’t planted until years later, when as a teenager Quitzow discovered the guitar. Quitzow was impressed by seeing people around her learning guitar informally by watching others and then feeling free to just play whatever they could. Unbeknownst to her at the time, this would set her on a path that would encompass an eclectic roster of playing experiences in various as well as multiple instruments.

“Picking up a different, unfamiliar instrument,” she says, “can break you out of theory.”

Especially for formally-trained musicians—who don’t generally take the ability to compose for granted—this experience can be a life-changing revelation. Quitzow, who currently lives and teaches music in the Hudson Valley and plays in the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, sees this phenomenon at work in the contrasting mentalities of her young students and adult classical musicians. Naturally, she finds herself in a position to impart a sense of exploration through teaching and appreciates how vulnerable creativity is.

“I’ve been having good luck with it,” she says. “My students that have been playing just a few months have been

writing little pieces. I have a method that makes sense to me. I teach them one scale, and then I have them choose three notes and play around with those notes. In doing this, they’ll create harmonies. I think it’s important to do this from the very beginning. I’ve seen too many classical musicians wither in the shadow of these great composers. They think they can’t create melody that could ever compare. I just don’t even want to let that idea get planted. When people are playing “Twinkle Twinkle,” they can come up with a melody that’s comparable.”

Indeed, Quitzow’s own music breeds in the relationship between freedom and parameters. Recording Rhodes, Moog, bass, guitar, violin, cello, drums, voice, and more all on her own poses the challenge of how to arrange the material for the stage.

“The live show and the recordings don’t have to match up,” she offers, again referencing the Beatles. “That’s a question that, as I’ve matured as an artist and been around other musicians who are maturing, they ask, ‘Am I allowed to record something that I can’t reproduce live? Do I need to make a recording that’s completely reflective of my live sound?’ And no, you don’t have to.”

For her live setup, Quitzow employs drummer Gary Levitt, whose project Setting Sun she also plays in. Both she and Levitt play samples, but Quitzow weighs the ethics of sampling heavily and has a defined sense of their role, as well as their discreet artistic value unto themselves.

“It’s an aesthetic thing,” she says. “It just feels right to me to have electronic sounds being replicated electronically and the more organic sounds happening on stage. But I’ve been breaking out of that structure because I’m so attracted to having strings involved. I really don’t have a problem having them on a track. Also, my live show has backing tracks on about 50 percent of the songs. I like to keep that contrast happening and go to something barebones. I think it makes the backing tracks more interesting. And when the intention is ‘OK, make it sound like it’s on the radio!’ I don’t feel it’s something I want to be a part of.”

May 18, June 1, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St. (at Stanton St.), 212-505-3733; 9, $8.