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Odd days and times available for tryout lessons/assessments:

OR

Why not put your name on my waiting list?

 Students learn on a Bechstein baby grand piano.

I teach children from the age of 6 up to intermediate level, adult beginners and adult returners.

Instrument

You will need a piano or a keyboard on which to practise, but remember that a keyboard is not a piano; it has a different mechanism, touch and tone and you will need to be able to adapt to using a piano for your lessons and if you play elsewhere. 

Children must be able to read and do simple maths.

Examinations

You can play for your own pleasure or work towards the ABRSM examinations if I consider that you are up to the appropriate standard and if I feel it will be beneficial. If you are not ready for the exam by the closing date, I will not enter you. There is more to an exam than just playing the three set pieces. You will be expected to learn the exam level scales by heart and to do sight reading and aural tests.  

Music

I teach classical music but students can include modern music, rags or jazz if they wish. Technique, scales and basic theory are included. 

If you've learnt before, please bring the music you've been playing, so that I can find your current level. I will then suggest the best music for our lessons. 

Practising

There is more to playing the piano than dropping notes on the keys: a great deal more. Finding the correct notes is just the beginning of learning a piece and it all involves regular practise. If you don't have time or inclination to work through the teaching for at least 30 minutes each day, then learning the piano may not be for you. Commitment to learning means applying yourself to practise and to learn and remember what I teach you at each lesson. If you are not prepared to do this or it proves inconvenient, working in blocks of ten minutes three times a day will still be helpful. Practising in small chunks may work better for you but without practise you will not move forwards. If this continues and it becomes obvious that you are coming to lessons each week and not practising in between, I shall be unable to continue to teach you. Before committing to lessons, parents and students should consider whether the amount of other activities in their lives or business commitments may prevent them from practising daily or honouring their lessons regularly.

It will help us both if you please read and do what I write in your notebooks!

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 MASSAGE FOR MUSICIANS

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Playing the piano for too long can give us aches and pains in all sorts of places, like the back, neck, head, upper arms, fingers (although I'd wager a bet few of my pupils have that problem). But I do and so may those who practise for too long without a break or who play in public.

And I have the answer to relieving the tension we build up in our muscles. Therapeutic massage! It will benefit the muscles and give a boost to circulation and lymph. And I know just the right person to do this because she specialises in Massage for Musicians.

You can contact Gill El Najar, who works with musicians, by contacting me and I will put you in touch with her. She practises in Chorlton.

  **Please note that if you suffer from allergies or have asthma, or an aversion to felines, Harry the cat, aged 20, is in residence.**

                                       Harry the Cat                                                

 

Although the above warning appears here quite clearly, you would be surprised how many people who are allergic to cats ignore it. It is very distracting for me to work in the same room as people who are sneezing, wheezing and sniffing through their or their child's lesson, then complain that they're allergic to Harry! This is Harry's home. If you are allergic to cats: please contact a catless piano teacher!