Anyone Can Play Guitar

Kia Ora

I'm a Music Teacher from New Zealand.

I've been teaching nothing but music for the past 12 or so years and I've learnt a lot along the way.

As a child I struggled through piano and clarinet lessons and gave up way too soon.

The musical spark was re-ignited at a youth camp a couple of years later. They had a rock band and I really wanted to be like the bass guitarist.

That led to me learning guitar and buying my first electric guitar.

From there I was hooked on music.

I studied Music At The Palmerston North College of Education, spent several years as a classroom teacher then somehow fell into a Specialist Music Teacher role in the early 2000s.

That could have been the end of it, but then my wife Jane and I decided to take a chance and move to Ireland.

I spent the next 3 years managing Opus 2 Music Store in Cork and playing in an originals band for fun.

When we returned to New Zealand, I had to bide my time through a number of roles: Classroom teacher, IT Specialist, Acting Deputy Principal before taking on a full time Music Specilaist job in 2012.

It still amazes me that I've managed to spend such a large chunk of my life working on a passion project like Music Education. Even at Opus 2, one of my favourite things was working with local music teachers to set them up for great classroom music. That's where my Boomwhackers passion/obession began.

Through Musical Futures, I'm now sharing my journey and success stories on an International stage both online and in person. I've been a guest presenter at Musical Futures conferences in Bangkok (2025) and Bali (2026) running workshops on the effective use of Boomwhakers and Songmaker, and more recently sharing my experiences and exploring the ethics of generative AI.

I'm getting old now, and while I can't help being a pale male, I can do my best not to become stale.

So that's one reason I've given myself a kick up the arse and re-started the blog.

It's a place for self reflection, and hopefully a passing of the torch.