I offer lessons in:
Piano and other keyboards.
Guitar and other fretboards.
General musicianship.
Until the book is ready, the lessons are only available in East Anglia, but we would be pleased to answer an email if you have any practical problems putting together notes, harmonies, chords and basses.

Suppose you wanted to learn to draw, and someone told you that for every picture you want to draw, you must buy a booklet costing several pounds, which tells you exactly what to draw and how to draw it, what shapes, colours and positions - everything! Imagine, you must never pick up a pencil and doodle, only do what the booklet tells you! That doesn't sound much like art to me, and it's certainly not CREATIVE art, yet the same type of argument is used all the time for music, and many people seem to think that you can't play properly if you don't have music in front of you.

How could anyone compose new music if they didn't have the booklet to tell them what to write? Did Mozart buy a booklet which told him how to find his inspiration? No! He learned how music was put together, and used that knowledge to create things himself, from his inspiration. He used paperwork to write it down for others to read, but the music came first, not the paper! Irving Berlin was the most prolific Russian-born composer, yet he was a terrible pianist, and couldn't read a note of music, he just had a natural talent for songwriting. Errol Garner was one of many famous musicians who composed, played and improvised without any bits of paper to guide him.

I'm not famous, but I was brought up in a family to which making music was as natural as breathing. That doesn't mean it was always good, but it was creative, and nobody ever discussed keys signatures, bits of paper, or even names of notes. To be part of these family parties (or "jam sessions" as people might call them now) I had to join in and learn as I went along, although I had the advantage that my Dad was the principal musician of the bunch. He didn't teach me much theory because he didn't know much of it himself, he just played lots of different instruments, especially the banjo, at which he excelled.

The music they played was mainly the popular music that his generation was brought up on, but all the rules of music were in there somewhere, and I found it easy to apply them to learning the current popular music that was around in the sixties, and right through to the new millennium.

Over the past forty-odd years, I have worked on trying to write down the rules of music as I see them, and I have put together a course which goes through them in a logical sequence, so that no-one is expected to do things they haven't learnt yet, and one skill is learned at a time, as opposed to the system which expects complete beginners to read music, work out which notes it represents, find them on the keyboard, and play two hands all at once!

Mine is not a quick or easy method, but it is a CREATIVE one. Being good at music requires a lot of time and effort, and you need to have the type of mind which asks questions and seeks answers. Unfortunately, because most people hear music for years before they start to play, you will have to start by playing things which seem very simple and boring, but that is true of learning anything thoroughly. I also go through a lot of practical exercises before attempting to deal with reading music.

If you want to learn to be a CREATIVE musician, I can help!

BREATHE IN!
Have you noticed that when someone wants to squeeze through a small space, they often say "breathe in"? Many amateur singers adopt the same approach when they take a breath, raising their shoulders and sucking their stomachs in.

It is difficult to see any logic in this, and a moment's thought should tell you that in order to take in air, you need to expand your lungs, not contract them.

Lungs are quite long, extending from the shoulders right down past the ribs, but at their top ends, they are in a restricted space, with very little room for expansion between the bones. In order to breathe properly, you need to expand the bottom of the lungs, and this is done with the aid of your diaphragm.

Experienced singers should be able to increase their waistline by several inches, and this is easy to spot when a good singer is breathing in. Good tone and good projection depend upon good breathing!

Another thing about tonal quality is the need to operate your throat in such a way that the sound does not all come through your nose. Try singing with your nostrils held shut, and see what you learn from the experience.