Teaching Philosophy
When you learn to read and write at school, you first learn how words work. Then you learn to build words into phrases and sentences. Then you learn to write paragraphs. Then you learn to write full pieces of prose.
It is this exact same “bottom-up” approach that I take to learning and teaching music. We start at the level of notes. Then we put notes in relationship with each other to form melodies and harmonies. Then we build these into sections. Then we learn to write or play full pieces of music.
At each of these levels, with both English and with music, we learn by mimicking what we hear. You must begin by imitation. Initially copying as exactly as you can. Then you can gradually make adjustments and slide along the spectrum toward “originality”, whatever that means.
The role of a teacher is to accompany you on this journey. To begin with, a teacher shows you exactly what to do, whilst explaining how to do it, and crucially providing a feedback loop of how you can improve. A teacher will then guide you how to learn from any mentor in the world, dead or alive, free of charge, by turning on Spotify and listening to the masters. As you become more original, a teacher can still give feedback and suggestions, but ultimately you will become the aesthetic judge of your work, and learn to play authentically in a way that only you can do.
But first, it all starts with that C major scale!
Tell you about it in theory. Show you an example in practice, and then give feedback on your attempt.
We start with theory, then put it into practice. Then we get feedback.
Educational Services
Private Lessons
One-on-one lessons are the most efficient way to see what learn what to do and get feedback on how you did it.
Arrangement
Arranging music is a skill I teach, but before we reach that stage often students require sheet music of the piece they want to play to read from. You can of course search online for an arrangement. I offer a bespoke serive to arrange the song you want to play to the style and complexity that you require.
Transcription
Learning to transcribe music is an essential part of learning from the masters. Whilst nothing beats doing it yourself, there are occasionally circumstances where it may be more efficient to outsource this. I can either write out as precisely what is played, or occasionally optimise for readability over accuracy.
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