Private Guitar Tutor with 20+ years of experience: Guitar, Piano, music production.

Find out more about Lucas

• 1. What are some common misconceptions about learning an instrument you’ve found to be false?

  That talent is a gift or innate. It isn’t. Talent is earned little by little. Anyone can learn. No matter who you are, or how old you are, or how capable you believe yourself to be: you ARE capable of becoming great at something. It is truly never too late.

• 2. Tutoring is expensive, would a potential student not be better off teaching themselves on YouTube or something?

  It is entirely possible to be self-taught, I am self-taught. But it took me decades. Years and years of watching different tutorials and video lessons, none of which were aware of my current ability. I had to be the judge of what I thought I needed to learn/watch.
  
  Time is THE most valuable resource, and there is a reason why tutoring is such a huge industry. Paying for face to face time with a real person and great tutor that knows exactly where you are, where you want to be, and what you need to do to get there, is truly worth the investment. It will save you decades of your life, and will add so much richness, fulfilment, and music to your life.

• 3. Why do you do music? A student could learn anything, why should they choose to learn an instrument?

  It’s not for me to say that they should, I only want to take on students that WANT to learn. It’s okay to try things, and sometimes you find out they’re not for you, and that’s perfectly fine. But learning an instrument is one of the best skills you can learn for your mental health. It literally reshapes your brain by reinforcing neural pathways and leads to an increase the volume of grey matter in the brain.
  
  It also engages working memory, long-term memory, and procedural memory simultaneously (think of those amazing videos where someone with dementia sits down at a piano and can STILL play a piece from an earlier point of their life).
  
  It Increases the brain’s executive function, helping with sustained attention, task switching, impulse control, planning, and organisation.
  
  Learning an instrument is strongly correlated with decreased cortisol levels. Even short practice sessions can calm the amygdala and activate the parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest”), which results in lower stress, reduced blood pressure, and improved emotional regulation
  
  I could go on, but on a different level, it’s music… Music moves us in a way that, in my opinion, no other medium can. It touches a part of us that we can’t even explain, sometimes even without words! What would life be like without music?

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

  4. I’d say singing. It’s all internal. There’s no switch you can flick, or tuning peg you can twist. It’s such psychological instrument and it really requires a lot of bravery and vulnerability.

• 5) What are your keys to success?

  5. Curiosity and enthusiasm. Are you genuinely interesting in the instrument/music? And are you willing/able to put the time in regardless of whether it is easy of not. Those are the only two things that matter.

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

  6. Bach, Hendrix, and Amy Winehouse… no one would believe me… but I’d know :’)

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

  7. The people that did the best carried on when it was difficult. It didn’t matter that it was hard, or that they had a bad performance. Music was something they truly wanted to do. Difficulty and failure aren’t bugs of learning a skill, they’re features. Your ability to progress in anything is correlated with your ability to work *with* those features, rather than avoid them.

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

  8. I tailor my lessons to fit the needs of the student.