Michael Eastwood

I have a BMus degree in Composition from the Royal Academy of Music and have been tutoring on and off for the past twenty years. I particularly enjoy teaching composition, music theory and generally helping out with music-related problems.

As a teacher, I like to break down musical concepts into a series of clear, defined steps. For example, I don’t really see the point in teaching the notes of a D major scale so they can be recalled parrot-fashion, but rather providing the method you can use to work out the notes of *any* major scale.

I also feel it’s very important to explain not only what something is, but why it is what it is. This gives students a deeper understanding and appreciation of concepts that can otherwise appear quite abstract. I try to make things as practical as possible too, coming up with creative, practical tasks that can help students to envisage how the topic they’re learning can and will be put to use in the real world in their capacity as a performer and/or composer.

Professionally, I’ve done quite a lot of work as an orchestrator, composer of additional music and copyist on various film scores. I’ve also done a lot of transcription work, written for various music production libraries and taught music technology and piano both privately and at a number of schools.