Apart from the very early years, my route to teaching music has been far from traditional - from listening to old rock and roll records and teaching myself to play the chords and riffs, to endless hours spent experimenting with all sorts of improvisations, I realised the sheer joy of just playing music without the confines of written music.

Having then spent a number of years being taught again to gain the relevant qualifications, I enrolled on the wonderful 'Piano Teachers Course' in Bushey, Herts.

Expecting hours of lectures on the benefits of the exam system and such like, I was overjoyed to hear that the course positively encouraged a totally different style of teaching - a style that included movement, singing, percussion, improvisation and all sorts of innovations that coincided with my idea of how to teach the piano!

With renewed enthusiasm I launched into my new teaching business and soon gained plenty of satisfied pupils.

A chance meeting with Paul Myatt in 2018 signalled the beginning of the next phase. Paul talked about his Forte School of Music in Sydney and the Forte method - I was immediately interested and was soon on my way to Australia to find out more!

And that is when my journey with Forte started."