Students of Caroline Tyler Piano School come from all walks of life, from 6-year-old beginner with musical potential, to semi-professional players, piano teachers and accompanists wanting to boost their skill set, to those just starting the piano later in life, to those who write or produce all types of music and want a new perspective on keyboard skills to enhance their work. Students come from all over West and East Sussex to gain from the particular style of piano teaching of Caroline Tyler and her colleagues, who have studied classical piano performance with Professor Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
To read some comments made by students about their experiences with this piano school, click here.
We take each student seriously, no matter what their goals, as long as they want to learn and want to practice! Some students are very focused on music and want to be successful in this area of their lives, or see music as a possible career path. Caroline Tyler Piano School has helped students with auditions for junior conservatoire (Royal Academy, Royal College, Guildhall School), places to study music at university (including Cambridge University and Leeds Conservatoire), and music scholarships to private schools (Roedean, Brighton College, Burgess Hill Girls, Hurst, Worth) all of which their piano playing has helped them to achieve.
Others use piano playing to enjoy, to add to their life skills, coordination or confidence, to help them understand music in general, or just to have something special which they can call their own time (busy parents, office workers, retired people starting or revisiting piano playing). Everyone is welcome. As long as they listen, and...practice!
We encourage students to take part in our Performance Evenings, which give them a chance to meet some of the other students and play short pieces to each other. We aim for this to be an informal and friendly environment, that also has a sense of occasion in order to experience a little of what it's like to perform. There is also the option to take exams, usually with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, the most widely-used and recognised music exam board. However, if a student has a preference for another exam board this can also be accommodated and there is a range of options, particularly at Diploma level. Some students work through exam requirements at a particular level as a challenge, but feel that the actual taking of exams is not for them, which can also work really well as long as practice is maintained. Others do not use any exam curriculum and this also works well. As a one-to-one experience, the entire structure of the lessons is completely tailored to the individual while using the skill set of the teacher.
Some music schools have one 'exam time' per year, whereas we prefer to enter each student as an individual when they are ready. Therefore we do not have group visits but use a centre for exams in the local area, or apply for the new option of exams to be video recorded and assessed remotely, and exams are spread out over the year.
These links provide further information about:
Our exam results: Exam results