Tristan Apperley

Hi, I’m Tristan. I’m an easy-going guy who believes that happiness and enjoyment is the key to becoming a good musician. These are the things which inspire the passion and dedication required to learn an instrument. That and the right amount of encouragement to propel my students forwards. I have been teaching peripatetically in primary schools since September 2023 and have had various other private students along the way so I have diverse teaching experience.

I have been playing music all my life and I would say that music is my life. When I am not tied up with professional engagements, I am making music with several of my friends who feel the same way I do about music. Through all my years playing in an array of contexts, I have insights from all sides of European music which I am keen to share and make other people’s musical dreams come true, like mine have many times over now.

I am a working Liverpool musician who has a Postgraduate Research Degree specializing in Music from the University of Liverpool. I have been playing in bands (of many diverse genres), orchestras, chamber ensembles, and pit bands for all of my adult life and most of my adolesence. I have a classical background, learning the violin from the age of three but I learned the bass guitar out of love for rock and roll. I have both breadth and depth of experience in many aspects of live performance, rehearsal, practice and how to function well in ensembles of all different types. I have been hired for my services by covers bands, Jazz bands, solo artists, string quartets and orchestras both in live settings and inside studios.

With regards to production, I have a portfolio of works I am credited as producer, engineer and session musician on, starting with my first recorded work: an EP recorded in my gap year with a friend to a critically aclaimed Progressive Rock album “Impermenance” for Dominic Sanderson which has featured multiple times in Prog Magazine and has achieved international recognition. I have studied Production modules during my music degree and have built on my formal instruction working with like-minded musicians to take my own production to the next level by always working on a project, personal or otherwise.

When it comes to teaching, I prefer to build an informal raport with my students so that both they and I feel comfortable learning together. Music is as much about learning about humanity and emotion as it is learning about the technical operation of an instrument and the development of musical instincts and the the teacher student relationship is of paramount importance to good development. I do not believe puting pressure on students to progress is the right way forward and that encouragement and positive re-enforcement is what will make a student excell. Progress is always better made by students who want to progress rather than by students who are coerced. In the same way, I believe that each sudent’s mind is different and a teacher must be equipped with several different ways of teaching something. With regards to this, I offer to teach either official syllabus’ from established exam boards or I am happy to tailor make lessons for each student as I myself have had difficulty being stuffed into the mould of what an exam board thinks is a good musician.

In the lessons themselves, there are a few main elements I focus on in order to make up what I believe to be good musicianship:
-Technical proficiency: knowing how to mechanically operate and navigate one’s instrument
-Theoretical understanding: How and why things happen inside a song or piece of music and what bearing this has upon you the performer
-Musical Instincts: Being able to trust one’s own ear or sense of rhythm independently and apply these to different contexts
-Personal Practice: How to practice efficiently, mindfully and even when practice might do more harm than good
-History and Genre: Using historic and social context to understand music and how to authentically reproduce performance, or indeed have a different take on a piece altogether
-Gear: Understanding what instruments or products are going to be most helpful and meaningful for your purposes and how to maintain and look after your gear.