There can be few occupations more rewarding than the teaching of music privately. Very often singing and playing the piano with musicality and correct technique can overcome lack of belief in oneself and unlock a personality. It can help to give a person strength and joy that in turn helps to overcome any shyness they may have. I always encourage students to sing or play in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere where they can have fun whilst learning. That said, my lessons are meaningful music sessions and not therapy per se.

I use my own singing and pianistic skills to get the best out of the voice stood in front of me or the pianist sat at the side of me whilst not encouraging emulation but development of individualism. I understand the fear of ‘getting it wrong' and often will use humour and different styles of music to help find the answer to unlock the voice or the piano technique I am working with.

I believe very much in encouraging everybody to sing or play, as I feel the benefits it brings are widespread into many areas of existence. Nothing gives a tutor greater pleasure than to see a student grow through their musical studies.

This growth can be achieved by helping students to enhance their understanding of the nature of music and apply this to their music-making, thus achieving a greater shared understanding of music and its journey of progression through rich musical encounters which support and sustain a student's developing relationship with music and musical knowledge and vocabulary.

I do not indulge myself in teaching singing or piano on a purely superficial intellectual level favoured by many teachers. Instead, I always try to communicate the emotional raison d'etre of the song or piece in question by feeling the harmonies and structure within the music and pursuing these aspects fully, together with a technical understanding of how the music is put together and the importance of the focus of the notes on the page and the musical understanding of them.

I am not judgmental about anybody's differences, but help each student to develop whatever musical potential they may have. I cannot give musical expression in singing or piano playing, but I can give the tools to achieve it by not ‘suspending students from some kind of great height of perfection', but ‘floating' them above a very solid basis– a bit like dancing on a good strong floor – it generates and encourages freedom.

I am passionate and enthusiastic about wanting to help the student discover for themselves how wonderful music is and to assist them to achieve their best and to help them to realise that music is worth it by igniting and sustaining their passion, enabling them to channel their communicability through music.

I constantly try to expand the horizons of students by stretching them beyond their perceived technical limitations by guiding them towards a profound understanding of music and encouraging each student to find their own musicality, for instance by asking a student to practise a particular phrase in a manner that enhances musicality, for example, to imagine a vocal line being sung with breathing points when a pianist plays a piece on the piano, or when a singer is performing, to imagine an orchestra playing with many different instruments in order to encourage beautiful musical colours in the tone of the voice and to perform long notes with full dynamic ranges etc. When training the voice, I cannot see what is going off, I can only listen, but no two students will ever sound the same.

I constantly challenge students on interpretive insights and how particular songs and pieces might sound. It helps to achieve this by enjoying and thinking of the music – and ultimately, whatever level of ability, to ensure the student's technique is sufficient to be able to forget it and focus on communicating the emotional content of the music, giving a musical performance – even if it is not totally accurate technically, as no performance is ever perfect. But you do have to be true to the music and believe in your own capability, your own beautiful tone and above all, your sense of individuality whatever level you have achieved – foundation musician or professional musician. A deeply understood performance is music per se. There are plenty of student and professional musicians who can sing or play all the notes, but to become a great performer on whatever level, you have to produce an interesting, individual and beautiful tone whether singing or playing the piano and, with a sense of individuality. Moreover, that the sound of a piece of music, whether sung or played, is in keeping with its mood and message in terms of providing variety and satisfying contrast. Beauty of sound is required in music performance, but often strikingly different sounds are also required and should be communicated as and when appropriate.

A student's technique, whether vocal or pianistic, can come musically alive by always being related to the music. There is no technique without the student knowing why they are learning to do a specific thing for a specific piece of music. Moreover, the student is encouraged to allow the music to come through them, without them getting in their own way with unwanted distractions - so eliminating any technical difficulties will allow the music to flow with a concentration and focus on performance and interpretation. A student's technique should ideally develop the freedom to listen as they sing or play and to be relaxed as they perform.

I always encourage students to look ‘inside' the music to understand the meaning, and to look at what composers have to say about their own music, their attitude to the music and what was actually meant when they wrote it. Music can be full of ambiguity, of many emotions, of humour etc., but at the same time it requires thought and restraint, and the balance – not always easy to achieve – gives rise to beauty in terms of subtle vocal cord movements/pianistic touches and resultant sounds. In teaching and performing, there is no absolute definitive guide for how to sing or play a musical phrase: you simply have to ‘feel' it, not just musically per se, but also with specific regard to communication, imagination, posture, projection and characterisation. It is these qualities that will help to develop the potential of students, leaving a lasting legacy and a lifetime of enjoyment and satisfaction in their musical lives. However, such details can only be considered within the context of the overall meaning and emotion embedded within the music and in turn within the context of the overall structure and outline of the song or piece of music being performed.

Gaining progress in musicality, artistry and technical grasp, for the student, arises from striving to be convincing, consistent, and with a focus and commitment in both preparation and performance with everything sung or played musically phrased with differing shapes and meaningful contours but always with linkage to the next musical phrase in order to yield an expressive power and ultimately to realise personal development, potential and confidence.

For anyone who wishes to learn music, you are very welcome to attend for an introductory lesson and sample the enjoyment and freedom that music can give to you.

I wish you all the very best in your individual and collective journeys in this great subject we all share – music.

Dr Michael Spacie (Music Tutor)