I can provide tuition in piano and music theory at my home studio in Shotton or at your home within the Chester area. Many students work through the ABRSM exam syllabus with me though some choose not to take the actual exams themselves, preferring to learn less formally.

Concerts

All my students have the opportunity to perform in front of a friendly audience of fellow students and their friends and parents every term. Ludus Cantiones translates as ‘play sing’ as I often incorporate young choirs and solo singers into my concert programmes, giving them a chance to perform at venues around Chester including Chester Cathedral (30th June ’07), Wesley Methodist Church, Chester (19th April ’08) and All Saint’s Church, Hoole(15th March ’10)

The next concert will take place in November 2010 in the Recital Hall at The King’s School, Wrexham Road, Chester

Audio recordings from recent concerts are available to listen to on my media gallery along with photos from recent events. Also video clips are available below from the most recent event.

Instruments

It is important to have an instrument of a reasonable standard to practise on either at home or somewhere that is ‘regularly accessible’ and by this I mean accessible for practise every day! I use a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-150 Digital Piano as the ‘touch’ in my opinion closely replicates that of a traditional acoustic piano and the sound is pleasing while there are the added benefits of being able to use headphones late in the evening and not needing to have a piano tuner visit every few months.

Instruments are expensive and I would recommend a Yamaha P85 as this instrument does at least have a piano sized, graded hammer-action, weighted keyboard closely replicating that of a real instrument!

Age

The minimum age is normally about six or seven though this depends upon the child and their level of maturity. I do teach younger children as well though this tends to be on a less formal basis with lots of games and requires parental support both in lessons and for practice at home.

Practise

Parents are welcome to sit in on lessons if they wish, in fact I encourage this as they are more likely to be able to help the student with their practice at home. This is also actively encouraged! I can try to enthuse students in their lessons but cannot help them with their practice.

Rewards

I have recently introduced a points based system for tracking practise levels in all my school-aged students. Pupils accrue points every lesson on a scale of 1-5 based upon how well they have achieved the targets set. There are termly points targets and the highest points earners will receive recognition and prizes at the termly concerts.

Adults

Starting the piano from scratch as an adult can be a challenge, but it can be rewarding if you love the instrument and its music. There is plenty of repertoire available to suit different abilities that is rewarding to play at even modest levels of technicality. However patience and practice are required whatever the level! Ideally you should have regular lessons for at least a few months. Some adults then find they wish to work on their own once they reach a certain plateau where their musical ambitions are satisfied. More lessons, however, can take things further. Some adults find, due to work commitments that they have to take up the piano at a slower pace and have lessons bi-weekly and I have a number of rotating teaching time slots available to account for this arrangement.