Information About Sam - Manchester teacher

Personal Description:

My name is Sam, I am 37 years old and am a highly experienced, qualified and passionate teacher. I come from a family of musicians and music educators and am proud to continue that legacy.

MY QUALIFICATIONS:

A Masters in Composition (Distinction)
from the Royal Northern College of Music,
where I was given a scholarship from the Radcliffe Trust. I was also awarded the 2020 RNCM Gold Medal 2021 and the Patricia Cunliffe Prize in Composition 2021.

A Bachelor's Degree (Hons) in Music
from University of York (2009),
where I focused primarily on piano performance.

Piano Pedagogy Certification from The European Piano Teachers Association (2009).

Grade 8 Piano with Distinction (2004).

Tutoring Experience:

I have over 15 years of full time music teaching experience. I have taught all ages, abilities and styles in a variety of different contexts including both 1to1 lessons as well as classroom settings.

Other notable teaching experience includes:

Classroom teaching A-level Music and Performing Arts at BHASVIC (Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College);

Being a piano teacher at Roedean School for Girls;

Being a creative facilitator at songwriting and performance summer schools for teenagers held at the Brighton Dome;

Working for various music services and studios;

Working as a teacher trainer for the Bridge Academy of Music in Delhi.

I have also worked with advanced pianists to help prepare them for teaching, and have provided professional development for already established piano teachers.

Work as a musician includes:

A variety of work as a composer.

Performing as a soloist, including being a finalist in national piano competitions and playing solo concerts internationally (USA and India);

Work as an accompanist;

Work as a session musician and music director in variety of non-classical projects. I have experience in Jazz, Hip Hop, Pop, Musical Theatre, Folk, Motown, Latin-American Music, Afrobeat and Electronic Music.

I am also a singer-songwriter.

Tutoring Approach:

I design my lessons around each individual student, based on their ability, the ways in which they learn most successfully, as well as their musical ambitions and interests. Depending on the student my lessons often include Technique, Theory, Sight-reading/Notation, Aural Training, Listening, Singing, Music History, Interpretation, Improvisation, Composition, Practice Methodology, Performance and, especially for younger students, games and musical play.

The majority of my students play mostly classical repertoire but I also teach many of them Jazz and Popular Genres. About half of my students decide to take exams and so far I have had a 100% pass rate across all the grades (including grade 5 theory and grade 8 piano) with the majority getting merits and distinctions.

As well as piano I offer lessons in music theory or composition/songwriting and also offer tutoring for GCSE or A-level music.