Information About Matt - Tunbridge Wells teacher

Personal Description:

Hello. My name is Matt. I have a music degree for Dartington College of Arts with 20 years experience teaching guitar. I am the resident guitar teacher at The Skinners' School and TWGSB. I am a friendly and encouraging teacher that aims to inspire students learning through their practice in a modern and engaging way.

Tutoring Experience:

I have taught privately and as a peripatetic tutor at three large secondary schools in Kent & Sussex. I am currently teaching guitar privately from my purpose built music/production studio and at two grammar schools in Tunbridge Wells.

I have tutored many students through GCSE's and A-level Music, helping them with performance, music theory, composition and recording/music technology.

Tutoring Approach:

I tailor my teaching governed by the students needs and preferred learning style. By nature the guitar is a very technical instrument so I try to connect the student as quickly as possible with it by developing their playing skills first, taking each student at a pace they are comfortable with. Once the student demonstrates a confidence with their playing I will then introduce aspects of music theory. This develops an understanding what is being played, building a sense of musicianship as well as the discipline of playing the guitar itself.

To help develop guitar playing and aid practice I can record students so they are able to listen back to what they are playing as well as using drum and backing tracks for them to practice against. These backing tracks can be emailed as MP3's. I use bespoke handouts so students can reference material covered between lessons and help structure their practice.

Recording a student is an invaluable part of their learning, allowing them to hear back what has been played. Quite often the focus is on the technical side of physically playing the instrument making it easy to overlook aspects such as timing or the correct rhythm. Teaching from a music production studio, the students benefit from this being at a professional level. This also ties in with students interested in learning about recording/music technology for themselves or school/university.

I can also video parts of the lesson, demonstrating that week’s material. This helps as they have an accurate reference between lessons. This has become an invaluable resource for most students, allowing them to revisit aspects of the session repeatedly and at their own pace. The HD videos are recorded using multiple camera angles to clearly demonstrate hand positions and technique. Sheet music and any aspect of recording software shown on the computer is also recorded. This is emailed as a Vimeo link.