Passionate and friendly guitar teacher with years of teaching, performance, writing and recording experience! Offering lessons for all ages, carefully planned to suit your musical interests, goals and

Find out more about Albert

• 1) When did you first develop a passion for music and your favourite instrument?

  Music has been in the family since I can remember. My Dad is a singer and songwriter and always filled the house with great classic rock and folk music, as well as positive encouragement that I also like to give to my students. Ever since I thrashed a steel strum in infant school I enjoyed trying out new instruments. Guitar was the one I really loved straight away.

• 2) Is there a particular type of music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

  I love artists that surprise you with their creativity and do things you don’t expect. I appreciated the Beatles, Beach Boys, Prince, Bjork, Christine & the Queens, David Bowie, Neil Young and Paul Simon for this. Also appreciate artists that can grab you with engaging lyrics like Dylan or Joni Mitchell, or awesome playing like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Marty Friedman and Yvette Young. Great new music is released every day at a rate no one can keep up with so no need to ever be driven crazy.

• 3) Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

  I would say sight reading is more difficult for guitar than a lot of other instruments, because the layer of learning the notes on the fretboard is a little trickier than it being laid out clearly and repetitively, as on a piano for instance. However the good news is you can have fun, play tunes, even become a great guitarist, even become a music legend without ever doing this! Totally optional! If it’s good enough for Paul McCartney it can be good enough for anyone. More common advanced studies would be the CAGED system, harmony, modes in any key all over the neck, extended chord construction. These can give students the tools to write and improvise in a sophisticated way without reading notation.

• 4) What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

  I’ve always had a lot of respect for people who play wind instruments where you have to consider embouchure (use of lips, mouth). Particularly those playing long, energetic sets. I don’t think I’m fit enough for that. Or instruments like violin and cello where making even one note sound good is a challenge. Guitar has lots of difficult techniques to get your teeth into eventually, but it’s a fun instrument to get some rewarding sounds out of quite easily for beginners and kids.

• 5) What are your keys to success?

  Find something that your heart is in so that committing time to it isn’t a chore. Manageable goals, structured practice time, consistency and complete open-mindedness to learning from new perspectives. Success can definitely mean different things to different people. Most students are into guitar just for fun and that’s okay too!

• 6) Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

  I’d love to meet legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson and ask him how he developed his incredible style and skill from the influences around him. I’d also like to be able to tell him how popular and enduringly influential he became after his lifetime.
  Prince because of his incredible creativity and how I could pick his brains about driving whole projects and playing all of the instruments himself.
  Mozart in part because, aside from the genius, it would just be fun to speak to someone from such a different musical landscape and overall time. It would be interesting to blow his mind with modern recordings and get a reaction (and show him pork scratchings).
  All three of them together would be lots of fun as they lived at completely different times.

• 7) Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

  In live performance things can always go wrong. Had a string snap immediately before a marked performance once, in the end no one noticed. You can always have a nightmare show where the tech fails, or you can’t hear yourself. One time we had to do an impromptu acoustic set at no notice due to a tech problem. Last time I was in the studio due to overrun I had half an hour to nail all my solos for a session project, at risk of the singer having to pay another day if I didn’t. The common thing that makes all of this okay is having your practice to fall back on. There are more stressful things in the world and you have to go with whatever comes up. I’m not going to stress if a student forgets their notes or changes their mind on what music they enjoy studying.

• 8) What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

  I really love the range of people I come into contact with and want to do my best for them. I try to see the needs of every student as unique. I always keep my foot in the door of what it feels like to be a student. I’m not a naturally gifted singer and still take vocal coaching. I use this ongoing experience, and what my own guitar lessons as a kid were like, and I strive to avoid the things I missed in those. No boring drills with no defined purpose. Clarity on practice in between sessions. Patience and understanding. Absolute focus on material the student is passionate about.