Alex

I'm Alex, a masters student studying marimba at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen, and a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music.
I am a performing musician by training, and an experienced teacher of music and languages.

I teach percussion: drum kit, orchestral percussion, tuned percussion, world percussion or any combination.
I also teach languages: Beginner/intermediate French (complete beginner up to A-Level standard) and English as a foreign language (beginner to C2 standard).

I am available to teach online at any time during the week or weekend. Contact me for more information or to set up a lesson!

Tutoring Experience

I worked as a freelance percussionist and teacher for two years between my undergraduate and masters degrees. During this time I worked as a private teacher, workshop/outreach facilitator and as a contracted member of teaching staff for a council run music service.
I have experience working with all ages of children and adults, I've received training in working with children with special educational needs and I have extensive experience of working with children who don’t speak English as a first language.

Tutoring Approach

In both my language and musical tutoring I believe that technical proficiency is the key to expression!
When teaching Percussion I aim to show my students how understanding the subtleties of their physical movements can help to gain greater control and accuracy of the instruments, while also ensuring they don’t do damage to their muscles - despite the highly physical nature of the instrument! This technical control ultimately helps them to play faster, harder, and more challenging music in a much more expressive, controlled manner!
When teaching languages, I am to give my students a functional knowledge of grammatical rules and constructions, ALWAYS with the goal of enabling free and easy expression! Even if preparing for specific examinations, I believe that all knowledge learnt should be functional. When a student is able to use their knowledge in a real life situation (however basic) they will understand and remember the skills they learnt much better than if they simply learnt it in parrot fashion (as is often the approach in classroom language learning).
With both music and language, I believe that the main goal is for the student to love what they’re doing! Both skills are intensely demanding, and require years of training and study to perfect, so real passion for the subject is vital. As a teacher I see at as my responsibility to pass on the same passion I have for the subjects to my students!