Thank you to everyone who has helped me celebrate 30 years in music education this weekend! It’s been lovely to have so many people pass through the house for a chat.

I started teaching in 1995 in my year out before I went to university. My first job was teaching music in two primary schools in Torquay. I went on to teach singing, piano, music theory and songwriting to children and adults at FE colleges (Morley College, London and Kensington and Chelsea College), Oxford Youth Choir, art centres, theatre schools, holiday clubs, churches and private practice. I’ve taught in Devon, London, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire.

After 30 years, I’d say that my specialisms are pop music (no surprises there, after having a successful pop career myself!), and teaching and mentoring students who are broken by the education system. Schools operate on a “one size fits all” system, which tragically fits very few people. I am proud to offer a teaching service that is tailored to individual needs and desires, and I have the 100% success rate to support that this approach works.

My students have taken grade exams, taken GCSEs and A levels, gone to university or music colleges, started bands, gone on tour, entered competitions, written and recorded their own albums, joined choirs, become music therapists, and starred in shows locally and in the West End and also gone on to be music teachers. And many adult students have made a started a new or second career in music…

Who knows whether I will be teaching in another 30 years… I will be 78 then! However, I believe in music education and will continue to promote the need for people of all ages to access this easily. Keep making music people!

Helen Sanderson White BA (Hons) BA (Hons) LRSL