I believe that our personal musical tastes should not influence the way we teach, and that we should not impose our preferences or prejudices on our students. Our role as teachers should be encourage students to explore as wide a

Despite the best efforts of those of us within the profession, and many outside it too, classical music still suffers from an image problem. It is perceived by many as high-brow, exclusive and riven with snobbery, largely the result of

During a conversation in a recent lesson with one of my students, she told me that her previous teacher would stop her every time she made a mistake and ask her to correct the error before continuing. She admitted to

Some years ago I read a fascinating book by French psychoanalyst and University of Paris literature professor Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, in which the author makes a very good case for freeing ourselves from

We gather music along the way and it forms a personal soundtrack to our lives, evoking memories of times past, and a few bars of a significant song or piece of music can create an instant reaction, a ‘tingle’.

Were Your Childhood Music Lessons Fun? If you, like me, had piano lessons as a child, I expect there were rather too many times when you sat at the piano and wondered what this thing called “music” was all about?

I play both violin and viola, and I’d never have it any other way. Yes, remaining proficient on both takes more practice time, and yes, it’s more expensive to pay for upkeep on two instruments and bows…but it’s totally worth

We are constantly being reminded of the importance of having “goals” in our lives in order to achieve certain things, from getting fit to winning a half-marathon or setting up a business. We believe that having goals motivates us to