Guitar Lessons Bromley

My name is Billy Padmore, and I have been teaching guitar for the last two years. I began teaching myself guitar when I was a teenager, but decided to pursue music properly at college and university, where I received my first lessons. While I enjoyed teaching myself, having a tutor helped push me in the right direction and I learned skills I never thought I would need or use, all of which helped shape me into a better musician.

While studying for my BMus degree at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, I vastly improved my knowledge of theory, developed my technique to enable me to play more easily, learned songwriting skills as well as learning to write for film, played in a wide range of genres (country, blues, jazz, metal, disco, you name it!) and got to work with so many other great musicians. Being able to spend time with other musicians is vital to one's growth with their instrument, which is yet another bonus to receiving lessons.

Music is my life, and I have been performing in bands since I was 16 years old. While my background is rooted in metal, I am more than competent in all modern contemporary styles of playing. Having a wide knowledge of genres will really help a musician's playing style - it may not seem it, but having some country licks in your arsenal can really accentuate your metal guitar solos!

I cater to all ages, having taught children as young as 5 all the way through to retired adults. I also teach the whole spectrum of ability. Whether you're a competent guitarist looking to refine their skills, or a complete beginner who has just bought their first guitar, I'm happy to help you on your musical journey. The main objective of my lessons is that we cover exactly what you the student wishes to cover. If you want to learn how to play chords, cover songs by your favourite artists, learn how to improvise, understand music theory, or even begin writing your own songs, I'm here to help you achieve your goals. The driving force behind sticking with the guitar is a passion for playing, and that passion will be lost if a student is forced to learn things they aren't interested in. While there are some elements that may seem a bit boring or irrelevant that have to be covered (chords, scales, etc), I endeavour to balance it with material that will be more appealing to the student in question.

As such, I begin each first lesson with a quick chat about our musical backgrounds, so that we can get to know each other. This also gives me an opportunity to find out what direction you want the lessons to go in - if you tell me you're into 60s rock, we can cover Beatles songs, or if you say you want to improve your improvising, we can look at playing some 12 bar blues. Once we have established a direction for the lessons, and maybe even some goals you'd like to achieve, I tailor all my lessons to benefit you specifically. I regularly communicate with students between lessons if there is any new areas or material they would like to cover, and also check that we're going in the direction they wish. With my younger students, I feel the most important thing is to provide a fun experience with music. Young children are often not interested in the technical or theory side of playing, so most of my lessons involve teaching them their favourite Disney songs and playing music based games. Even if playing guitar is something they don't carry through consistently into adulthood, my hope is that they look back on their guitar lessons with fond memories, and may be inspired to pick up the instrument once again!

I do not set homework with my lessons, as I feel this can often take the fun out of guitar playing and turn the experience into a chore. However, I do stress that practice makes perfect. I appreciate that we all have busy schedules and can't practice 8 hours a day like Jimi Hendrix, but just 5 minutes every day will yield improvements week by week, much more than just one hour slot once a week. I try to cover new material for each lesson, as this keeps the lessons engaging, but if a subject requires more than one session to complete, then I'm happy to spend as much time as possible on a subject until you're completely happy with it.