The Keyboard

Whether you are a young primary school child, a teenager or a retired person taking up a musical instrument can be a very rewarding experience. One of the most versitile instruments is the electronic keyboard. With todays technology it can be very easy to sound good after only a few lessons. I firmly believe that you are never to old (or young) to learn and I do have a lot of patience with pupils of all ages 6 to 60. I prefer to teach complete beginners or recent starters as I find it easier to teach with a "clean slate" rather than have to try and correct bad habits. Having said that I am always willing to help out if a pupil has tried to teach themselves and has come across problems.

A lot of players nowadays use the "one finger technique" on the left hand and there is a lot of merit in doing so. I tend to start my pupils off with this as it is the quickest way of progressing and aquiring confidence. Before long, though, this can be a little limiting so I then teach my pupils to play with "full chords" and in so doing they can play a much wider range of music.

While I encourage the art of "playing by ear" I do feel that it is beneficial to be able to read music so I do teach the theory of music as we go along. This isn't as daunting as it seems as I only teach enough theory to enable the playing of a certain standard i.e. as the pupils playing ability expands so does the theory and vica versa.

Although I do teach according to a structured pattern I feel that music is there to be enjoyed and so I try and make each lesson as much fun as possible. Once my pupils have managed to overcome the initial nervousness of the keyboard I do encourage them to suggest pieces of music that they would like to play, whether it be Classical, Rock, County & Western etc. As you can read on my home page, I do have a lot of experience in playing a whole range of music.

The Keyboard

The Accordion The Guitar