Practise scales the right way Over the years I’ve found the students expect to start each lesson with a series of exercises – more often than not, scales. This is especially true of people who have previously been taught by someone else. My view is this: that not every lesson / practise has to start in the same way, and… Read more »
A duet for two solo instruments. This is a traditional melody (played on the clip below by Andrew Wallwork on violin). I wrote and added a countermelody (as second melodic part) to it and played in on guitar. The music is below for you to enjoy.
When new students first approach me about learning piano or guitar, my first point of enquiry is to establish whether they are interested in playing their instrument as a soloist or as an accompaniment to something else. Customers broadly fall into one of three camps: 1, I’m only interested in playing on my own. 2, I want to play and… Read more »
Today we had our first ever ‘Band Camp’ group sessions, in which small groups of students performed songs together. In both sessions we got the opportunity to record our work… and here are the results: In both cases, we just set up a small recorder while we played the songs live. For this reason, the balance isn’t quite right (both… Read more »
I know of many piano, guitar and singing teachers in the Yorkshire area that are constantly on the look out for new students. It’s the same old phrase I hear all the time: “I could just do with a handful more pupils on the books.” I feel lucky that I rarely experience that problem, and I mostly put my good… Read more »
I recorded the above track for one of my adult students. She wants to sing and record this song by McFly in a key a few steps higher than the original song. There are backing tracks available on YouTube for the song, but as soon as I tried to shift the pitch upwards for my student’s voice, all of the… Read more »
At the moment the only slots available for this coming week are on Saturday (27th July) – there’s time that day in the late morning and the mid-afternoon. But, if any other slots free up over the coming few days then, as usual, I will post them to my Facebook page. Lesson Duration One of the most common questions I’m… Read more »
Teaching piano, guitar, ukulele, bass guitar, singing and music theory from my home in Skipton, I take on beginners and more advanced students. You can sit lessons at regular intervals, or on a more ad hoc basis – whatever suits your schedule and learning style. This week I have a few free slots, should you wish to book yourself in:… Read more »