FAQ's

How much do you charge?

I charge £30 per hour lesson, which includes preparation time and writing up lesson notes.

My rates reflect my:

  • qualifications (an MA Mus from Cambridge)
  • experience (five years of teaching, playing in a jazz bands, and working as a professional transcriber), and
  • location (Notting Hill)

I'm also the only teacher I know of who's developed a structured way of teaching you how to play by ear and who can teach you the music you want to play from the very start. Going to a cheaper teacher who doesn't know what they're talking about actually works out to be more expensive as you end up wasting months or years practicing incorrectly.


Do you offer discounts for multiple bookings/students?

I don't offer discounts for multiple bookings as I expect all of my students to make multiple bookings anyway. I do offer a discounted rate of £23 per hour to students who are studying music in higher education and are paying for their own lessons.


Do you do home visits?

Yes, although travelling prevents me from teaching other people during that time, so I charge for travel time at half my hourly teaching rate, i.e. £15/hr. So if you live half an hour away and would like me to teach you at home, an hour-long lesson will cost:

1/2 hr there + 1 hr lesson + 1/2 hr back = £7.5 + £30 + £7.5 = £45


What's your availability?

I have slots at these times:

  • Weekdays - 15:30, 16:45, 18:00 and 19:15
  • Sundays - 14:15, 15:30, 16:45 and 18:00

(Note that I schedule lessons 15 mins apart so that it doesn't matter if you're 5-10 mins late.)

Weekday evenings and Sundays are always busy so I can't guarantee availability every week at these times. However, there are often one or two slots free in any given week so I can see you then if you're prepared to be flexible!


Can I book a regular time?

Most of my students book lessons on a week-by-week basis and I don't keep a slot free for someone unless they specifically book it. However, if you'd like to guarantee availability at a regular time you're very welcome to book several weeks in advance, just bear in mind that you'll then need to give me at least a week's notice before cancelling a lesson or you'll be liable for the cancellation fee (see below).


What's your cancellation policy?

I have a limited number of slots available each week and they are usually entirely booked up, so if you book a lesson you are preventing me from booking someone else into that slot. For that reason if you cancel with less than a week's notice you are still liable for the full lesson fee. However:

  • I'll always reschedule a lesson to another slot within the same week if I can, and
  • If I can't I'll use the time to record video tutorials showing you what to practice next.

So you'll never be paying something for nothing. (A reschedule to the following week counts as a cancellation.)

My cancellation policy is non-negociable and I'll stop teaching anyone who disputes having to pay for a cancelled lesson. People cancel about 1 lesson in 6, on average, so if I didn't enforce it I'd lose an entire day's work/income every week.

If I cancel a lesson with less than a week's notice I'll either make you tutorial videos for free to make up, or schedule you a replacement lesson for free if I'm unable to do that (it almost never happens).


Can I book lessons at short notice?

You can book lessons with as little notice as you like - it's only when people cancel at short notice that it's a problem.


How should I pay?

I accept cash, cheque or PayPal:


Do you teach beginners?

Yes, lots of them! You won't know if you're any good unless you give piano playing a sustained trial.


What should I bring to the first lesson?

Nothing, so long as you've already emailed me the list of songs you'd like to play. Don't, whatever you do, buy sheet music without consulting me first!


What happens in the first lesson?

The first lesson will be geared towards finding out what your ability level is, giving you a better idea of how I teach and getting you started on your list of songs.


Do you teach sight reading?

Absolutely! In fact I've developed a way of teaching sight reading to beginners that's considerably faster than the conventional method. I'm not against sight reading, I just think that people should learn to play by ear first so that they're not reliant on sight reading to be able to play at all.

For higher-level sight reading, though, I'd recommend getting lessons from someone like a professional accompanist who sight reads more than I do.


What keyboard should I buy?

First of all, I should say that I am not an expert on pianos or keyboard models so I recommend talking to a shop assistant or reading online reviews. However, I can give a few pointers to beginners.

What you buy really depends on how much you're prepared to spend. Cheapest are keyboards (starting at around £100 new), then digital pianos (starting at £600), and then acoustic pianos (£2500+).

The difference between a keyboard and a digital piano is that a digital piano tries to emulate an acoustic piano as closely as possible, so has weighted keys but very few voices or features. Keyboards, on the other hand, feel "lighter" and tend to have hundreds of voices and built-in beats. If you're buying the instrument as a piano substitute I recommend a digital piano if you can afford one, but if you're more into electronic music and synthesized sounds you'll want a keyboard.

One way of saving money if you're buying a keyboard is to buy a MIDI keyboard, which plugs into your computer. An ordinary keyboard is made up of the keyboard itself, a built-in computer to synthesize sounds, and speakers. A MIDI keyboard is just a keyboard, so you need to plug it into your computer for it to make any sound. If you have a program like Mac's GarageBand you'll be able to much better sounds through your computer than from a cheap keyboard.

A 4-octave (49 key) keyboard should be sufficient for a beginner. For keyboards I recommend going for "name" brands (Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, Korg). You can try out Yamaha keyboards at Chappell's, near Tottenham Court Road tube station, and there are other keyboard shops nearby that stock other brands. You can, of course, get keyboards cheaper on the internet but don't tell them I said that. I myself own an M-Audio 61 MIDI keyboard for inputting notes into Sibelius and a Korg SP-250 for practicing at night, although the Yamaha P-95 seems to be equally good, but different.

As for pianos, the most reputable piano shop I knew has unfortunately gone out of business. I'm afraid I don't know any others to recommend but the best value ones are probably outside of Central London. The one piece of advice I can give you is AVOID Kensington and Chelsea Pianos. I don't want to say anything libellous about them so I'll just say that I've heard many stories about them from trustworthy people who know about pianos, including people who've worked for them, and if I were you I wouldn't even walk in the door. Also be wary of Steinbach pianos and any piano that's labelled with a brand name that's younger than 5 years old, like the aformentioned shops' ridiculous Chelsea piano brand.



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