Information About James - Waltham Forest teacher

Personal Description:

Hi! My name is James and I am a music tutor specialising in piano, guitar, music theory and composition in and around Walthamstow and Leyton, London. I just completed my Ph.D in music at Royal Holloway, having taken my Masters degree at the University of Oxford and my undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh. My rate is £50 for 1 hour or £30 for half an hour. I have over 10 years of experience teaching music. I teach piano to students from absolute beginner up to Grade 8, from age 6 to mature students. I completed by Grade 8 in piano as a teenager and I specialised in this instrument at university, giving a 40-minute recital of diploma and post-diploma level material in completion of this degree. I can teach popular acoustic and electric guitar, taking students aged 11+. My masters and doctoral degrees focused on Music Composition, and I am therefore extremely comfortable exploring students' creative interests, whether as part of their instrumental tuition or as specialised music theory and composition lessons.

Tutoring Experience:

I have given private instrumental tuition on piano and guitar to students of all ages since 2011. As my academic career has progressed, I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate students in seminars and 1-to-1 tutorials, and this year I began leading undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the Academy of Music and Sound. I also teach piano at Sweet Symphony School of Music. I hold an Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy as a teaching qualification and am fully DBS checked.

Tutoring Approach:

I believe in taking a student-led approach to all aspects of music tuition. When teaching children at primary school age, I seek out teaching materials that make the lessons as fun and engaging as possible. When teaching secondary school children and adults, lessons will usually begin with a discussion of their musical tastes, which artists they listen to and why they are interested in learning their instrument. I then look to get students playing music that they love as quickly as possible.