After gaining a distinction at Grade 8 with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music I went on to study at Leeds Music College followed by St Andrew's University. I am a Licentiate of the Guildhall School of Music and have an Advanced Diploma in Jazz and a Cert Ed for teaching in the FE sector. I have worked as a professional pianist and as a teacher for many years and have taught pupils of all ages and abilities. In addition to my private teaching practice I taught advanced music theory for Rotherham LEA for eight years and since 2009 have taught as a peripatetic piano teacher at Sheffield Springs Academy. I have played professionally in many bands in clubs, hotels, holiday resorts etc and for the last five years have been the resident pianist at Van Dyke's Hotel near Clowne where I play for their weddings, corporate events and parties. I am the organist at St James Church Woodhouse and I run a piano class and a choir at a retirement village. I am a member of the Bright Moments Jazz Quartet and play in a classical trio.
Having taught a wide variety of pupils of all ages and from differing backgrounds I have devised a number of teaching strategies to suit the individual, but at the heart of these my basic approach is always to try to motivate the pupil to strive to reach their potential. We all have different tastes in music and a pupil will never make much progress learning to play a piece that they don't enjoy. I therefore take care to find pieces that suit the pupil and usually they find that practising becomes a pleasure rather than a chore. Although I encourage pupils to learn to read music from the beginning, I do find that in the early stages pupils generally make good progress learning to play by rote. It is important to understand that these two skills develop at different rates and not to worry about playing from memory, indeed this is a very valuable skill that needs to be encouraged. Later on some pupils are very motivated by graded examinations while others are not. I regularly enter pupils for either traditional or jazz piano graded examinations and more advanced pupils also take music theory examinations. I do encourage all pupils to take any opportunity to perform whenever they can, even if this just involves playing to family members at home.