Mindful that I haven't written a blog post for a while, I have been busy with new guitar and piano students since the New Year.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Music instrument teachers tend to change their fees every two to three years, according to the ISM. I am aiming not to increase my fees in 2017 - in fact not until at least April 2018 (assuming the UK economy doesn't experience a sustained period of significant inflation, or similar). I have also been working on streamlining my admin and developing more flexible, open-ended contracts for the New Year. See my pages 'Brett Milner Music' and 'Brett Milner Tuition' for more specific information about new tuition packages.

Season's greetings to friends, clients and students over the past year. It's been great working with you and I look forward to seeing many of you again in the New Year - faces familiar and some new starters as well.

On my brand page 'Brett Milner Tuition' there is a post about the value of continuing tuition for Year 6 students going into Year 7 (starting at secondary school). This is, to my mind, more important than the Year 6 SATS (aka National Curriculum Assessments) results. Also, on my brand page 'Brett Milner Music', I have just added a couple of Music Lesson Audition slots for the New Year, one in the daytime and one in the evening - although please note that the particular evening slot set aside for the audition will not be available on a regular basis for the time being.

I have created two new Facebook 'brand' pages: 'Brett Milner Music', which is for all my musical endeavours including Piano lessons, Ukulele lessons and Guitar lessons; and 'Brett Milner Tuition', which is for all other Tuition - English, Maths, 11+ and Conversational English, and Logic. These pages will enable me to provide more focused communication to people interested in the different areas of my work. They will also replace the existing groups (with the exception of the group 'Friends who like Brett Milner Advisory Services'). Having reviewed my use of groups, I have decided to close them as many of my clients are either not on Facebook or prefer (quite understandably) not to add a business relationship as a friend. Likewise, while I am on Facebook primarily for my business, I have decided further to create some professional space between friends and business communications. Please feel free to Like 'Brett Milner Music', 'Brett Milner Tuition' or both as suits your interest. Thank you for reading!

If you have a Bournemouth library card you can stream nearly two million tracks from the Naxos catalogue onto your device through the 'Cyberlibrary' for free. The Naxos catalogue includes a vast range of classical music, and also other genres such as jazz and world music.

Playing Bach on a Giant Forest Xylophone

Here's a really impressive example of musical craft in action, for perhaps a calming end to your working week. This is an enormously long xylophone in a Japanese forest, carefully designed to play Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. The only downside(!) is that the 'art' in this performance is restricted to carefully placing the ball at the beginning (34 secs). Make sure you watch it to at least 44 secs to see what it's all about ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQQAljGQgvA

CATcerto. ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE. Mindaugas Piecaitis, Nora The Piano Cat

Catcerto - this is remarkable if you haven't seen Nora performing before with her orchestra. Clearly I need to be open to giving piano lessons to pets! Some cat-level of 'art' is doubtless there, although the 'craft' aspect of performance may be a little more elusive to achieve ...

Hello everyone, My contact at Tesco Extra has informed me that I can now use the Community Room until 5.30 pm on Fridays, so we have a new opportunity to start a group for after-school guitar lessons from, say, 4.30 pm - 5.00 pm and 5.00 pm - 5.30 pm. I am guessing this will be more popular than English and Maths of a Friday afternoon (I know which I'd rather by teaching at that time of the week!), but it will be a case of first-come, first-served. The group guitar lessons will be priced at £5.00 for half an hour per student (£9.50 for an hour) in a tuition package, with a month's trial period included in the contract. If you decide to register, or if you have any questions, just send me a PM or give me a call on (07849) 857036. Thank you, Brett

Brett Milner Advisory Services's cover photo

Timeline Photos

Kazoo-playing has really taken off in our home since I returned with one from the annual ABRSM teacher conference at the weekend. Particularly useful for dealing with inhibitions some teenage boys and girls have when it comes to vocalising pitches, apparently, as it acts as a kind of go-between.

Winter Wonderland