A bit about me…

My piano playing journey started aged 6, where I instantly found a natural ability and joy for playing the piano. A couple of years later, I started learning the violin and classical guitar and eventually went on to study voice later whilst at University. My experience with piano and violin was predominantly classical and I followed the ABRSM curriculum, completing my grade 8 piano aged 15 and grade 8 violin aged 17. During this time, I competed in many eisteddfods and piano competitions as well as playing violin in the Bristol Schools Junior Orchestras.  As a music scholar at Colston’s Girls’ School I contributed to all the musical groups and choirs and the many concerts and tours helped to prepare me to go on to study Music at The University of Manchester.

I graduated from Manchester University in 2010 with a 2:1 Joint honours degree - my major in Music.  It was on returning to Bristol, my hometown, that I decided to start teaching piano privately. Teaching immediately felt natural for me, I enjoyed it so much that it motivated me to complete a Music Education PGCE at The University of Bristol. During my time at Bristol University, I researched, studied and implemented a wide range of teaching practices and was fortunate enough to train to teach in two outstanding Bristol schools. Some of the topics I had a particular interest in and would go on to help form my piano teaching style were Inclusive Education, Educational Psychology and the impact of feedback and language on motivation.  

I completed my teaching postgraduate with an outstanding grade and immediately went onto start a Music and Music Technology teaching job in an outstanding school in Cheltenham. After a year learning the ropes, I secured a Head of Music role in a Bristol secondary school where I was given a unique opportunity to completely re-build and develop their music department. I had the most wonderful year writing engaging and exciting music curriculums helping to reengage students across the school.  I set up a programme of musical performance groups and provided regular performance opportunities for the students to participate in. After a successful year, I was then asked to help re-build and re-structure another failing department within the school. I went on to spend 4 years creating a department that provided a range of vocational and GCSE qualifications for students with different learning styles and behavioural challenges, a role that required a deep understanding of special educational needs such as Dyslexia, Global Delay, Autism, ADD, ODD, and MLDs. This role provided me with the opportunity to completely rebuild and turn the department around. From a failing department with very few students achieving a single qualification, I worked to create one of the most successful departments in the school that secured students with multiple qualifications, helped students go on to study at college and also help students to develop life skills.

I continued to teach a piano part time whilst teaching in secondary schools, and after a six successful years in secondary education, I decided that I wanted more autonomy over my working day and more time and opportunity to grow my piano business. In September 2019 I started teaching piano full time and I haven’t looked back since! Much of my teaching approach and the style that I bring to my piano lessons is due to what I learned whilst studying education at Bristol University and my time teaching and leading departments in secondary education, this experience has been crucial to my teaching approach and pedagogy.

I take time to relate and engage with students of all ages and abilities, which in turn helps my students to feel relaxed and comfortable. This approach helps to build lasting relationships, make exceptional progress and have a lot of fun along the way!

Lucy