We were very excited to welcome Giles Smith, of the Sunday Times, to one of our courses recently.

Giles joined us having never had piano lessons. However, what he lacked in formal tuition he made up for with fame and fortune, having had a #1 hit single in his youth.

Giles described himself as being “stuck in a rut” musically. He’d achieved some amazing things during his pop career, but felt that his technique had never been fully developed and was hopeful that a weekend with several other lapsed pianists and our resident piano guru, Dave Hall, might be the seminal moment he had been hoping for.

Giles described Dave’s guidance as “like having the pencil with which you’ve been colouring all these years gently withdrawn from your grip and replaced with some crayons”. He went on to describe Dave as a “musical powerhouse” who had left him with “renewed enthusiasm, a whole new approach to the construction of chords and a structured method for practising”.

And he described being “fairly stoked by the privilege of moving blithely between beautiful sounding pianos” and marvelled at the “rare treat of being able to think about nothing but the piano for a whole day”.

If you’re in need of a pianistic nudge, haven’t played for a while or have lost your musical mojo, drop us a line or check out our course availability.