Introduction: at Chetham's School of Music, where I studied for six years, I received private tuition in composition and performance from many teachers for whom I have great admiration and still learn from occasionally ... during my time there, I studied the classical guitar, the piano, and the jazz guitar ... this was amongst my auto-didactic endeavours in the percussion section of the orchestras and the banjo and the ukulele and such – they were short on percussionists when I joined, so I was roped in to pick up the remaining parts; I began to teach myself basic technique on the instruments I was assigned to play, after a few years graduating to the principle timpani parts ... I also played banjo in Rhapsody in Blue and ukulele and banjo in works by my peers ... in my final year, I conducted the premiere of a symphony for chamber orchestra by Andrew Keeling, a piece which I co-commissioned having raised half of the money putting on concerts locally ... / shortly before leaving, I decided that I was not going to pursue higher education, choosing instead to seek out individuals rather than institutions ... as a result, I currently lack a serious degree of any kind ... / when I teach, I don't leave anything out ... how might a student construct a piece of music like the one that they are playing? – this is compositional technique and theory / how might they manifest this knowledge instantaneously, without the ability to control time? – this is improvisation, which encompasses everything including theory, technique, and composition / how can I understand this music within its idiosyncratic contexts? – music history and culture, the extra-musical component of interpretation ... these are all questions that I can answer for the student, and I know exactly how to teach these things from the very first lesson ...
