Ian has been a professional guitar teacher for almost 30 years. As well as offering private tuition he works in schools and colleges and is a music lecturer for University Campus Suffolk. He has taught at numerous music workshops including for the Prince's Trust where he worked alongside Phil Collins. His PhD research on 'performance' combined with his personal guitar expertise has made him the ideal choice for chairing various audition and talent show panels. More recently his work on guitar as a social and cognitive therapy has led to collaborations with local authority child services.

There are many unique aspects to Ian's teaching practice:

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Teaching Experience
Having sat in front of beginning and advanced guitarists almost every working day throughout his life, Ian has an unparalleled observational understanding of guitar technique; typical and atypical student problems etc.

As a music lecturer Ian has had formal training in the teaching process and is used to communicating with all ages and grades of learner. He has taught at numerous music workshops including for the Prince's Trust.
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Performance Experience
Ian is classically trained but has played extensively in many successful rock bands; playing both original material and covers.

(He is currently lecturer and module leader for the University Campus Suffolk 'Performance: Preparation and Process' module of the FDA Creative Music course.)
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Academic Expertise
During his PhD research in the field of 'the performance mind' Ian has engaged with the nature of expertise in general, and specifically with the route that needs to be taken in order to travel from novice to virtuoso musician. He is an expert in the 'states of awareness' of practising and performing musicians and has utilised his knowledge of both 'being in the zone' and of 'self in relation to action' to pioneer advanced awareness performance techniques. Ian offers advanced musicians a supplementary practise route that will allow them to effectively meditate with the guitar.
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Distance Learning
Ian set up a distance learning teaching business under the trading name of the 'Instructional Music Department'. This was the first of its kind and it won a Shell-sponsored business award for outstanding enterprise. Distance-learning for guitar is still offered and may be built into individually-tailored tuition packages for those that are unable to make regular face-to-face sessions.
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Video Production
Ian's personal interest in photography and videography allows students the unique added option of producing fully-fledged performance videos for Youtube etc. This can be a great confidence-builder as well as being a fantastic promotional tool for advanced players. Singers and songwriters can receive tuition in composition and arrangement and have a fully fledged 'youtube' video prepared from start to finish. (Performance videos are not only great for posterity and portfolio enhancement, they are a great way to reduce possible performance anxiety. They also provide motivational therapy - see this article from the BBC on how 'making music videos 'helps young cancer patients cope).

(Ian is currently lecturer and module leader for the University Campus Suffolk 'Personal Development' module of the FDA Creative Music course.)
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LCM Graded exams
Ian was one of the earliest members of the Registry of Guitar Tutors and continues to offer students the option of taking London College of Music graded examinations. Ian has maintained a 100% pass rate record for well over a decade.