I started playing the guitar at the age of 14. It was at this time that I was lit up by Rock music and got heavily into bands like Queen, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Metallica, Queens of the Stone age, The Arctic Monkeys and many others. Along the way I also started learning to play the bass guitar, the piano and the drum kit. In the beginning I started out just playing rock covers with my friends for fun as many of us do and it soon evolved into my full time passion. In school I became the lead guitarist in the school band playing plays and concerts like ‘Christmas Carols in the Park’ , ‘High School Musical’ and my favourite ‘Queen; We Will Rock You’. By the time school had ended I had become very involved in a full electric open mic/ jam night playing bass guitar in the house band and occasionally would play lead guitar or the drums, I would say that this is the time where I first cut my teeth as a live performer and a collaborative musician in general. As a result of this open mic I got to work closely with Seb (Another guitar tutor here at XYZ) and we soon started our own project together called ‘Screamin Irene’. It’s this project that has been the biggest learning curve for me musically in almost all aspects. It’s in this band that I’ve had the opportunity to help write and record a full album and been able to play some awesome gigs and festivals along the way. In the band I play the bass guitar and on the recordings we have done I got to play some lead guitar and some grand piano. With XYZ I’ve been teaching a variety of students of all ages for around 18 months now and in that time I acquired my Grade 5 certificate in the Electric Guitar and i’m working towards getting my Grade 8 certificate in the near future.