Violin & Piano
Teacher

Experienced teacher with
'Outstanding' every year to date. 
100% exam pass rate

Piano Lessons

Piano lessons for beginners to advanced.

Violin Lessons

Violin lessons for beginners to advanced.

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Why Choose
Smith Music School?

With over 14 years’ experience, SMITH MUSIC SCHOOL provides quality violin lessons for individual and group learning both at home and in schools. Based in Sheffield and Huddersfield, lessons are designed to ensure children and young people make real progress.

Inclusion is at the heart of all Mr Smith's lessons. Individual needs are taken into account and all children are involved.

By choosing SMITH MUSIC SCHOOL, you are giving your child the opportunity to make significant progress in all aspects of their musical journey.

All large group lessons are built around the six main strands from the National Curriculum for Music, which are interrelated and overlapping.
These are: Singing, Composing, Improvising, Playing, Critical Engagement, Social, Moral, Spiritual, and Cultural Development (SMSC).

  • Innovative lessons
  • Individualised provision
  • Fun and exciting from the very first lesson
  • Personalised communication.


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Group Music Teacher Photos
Violin & Piano Teacher
Violin Lessons (Beginner)

Violin Lessons (Beginner)
Learn to play and read music

If you are new to playing the violin, we can start by teaching you to play open strings, pizzicato (plucking), the different parts of the violin and the ability to read basic notation using ‘Fiddle Time Joggers’ or ‘Abracadabra Beginners.’

Mr Smith will show you how to hold the violin and bow with good posture and show you how to get a good tone from the pizzicato and use of the bow.

At the end of the first term of lessons and dedicated practising, you will be able to read simple notation using open strings and play a melody.

Violin Lessons (Intermediate/Advanced)

Violin Lessons (Intermediate/Advanced)

If you are looking to hone your skills, Mr Smith will enable you to develop your repertoire and select specific studies to enhance aspects of your technique. We will also look at the foundations of scales and arpeggios in order to work on quality intonation and position changes.

Many of Mr Smith’s students have gone on to study music at university and pass ABRSM Grade 8.

Piano Lessons (All Levels)

Piano Lessons (All Levels)

Mr Smith delivers quality piano lessons from beginner to advanced. You will learn tunes based around five fingers from Middle C, starting with the right hand in treble clef and moving onto bass clef exercises for the left hand. Depending on your experience and ability, music will be selected from a variety of repertoires including ‘Me and My Piano’ for beginners, and tailored to your interests as you progress your piano playing.

Music School Pricing

Individual pricing per student for lessons in school and at home.

Individual Lesson

  • 30 min
  • 33 lessons per academic year
  • Ideal for exam preparation
Pricing
  • £258.24 per term (11 lessons)
Book Lesson

Individual Lesson

  • 20 min
  • 33 lessons per academic year
  • Suitable for exam preparation at early grades.
Pricing
  • £172.16 per term (11 lessons)
Book Lesson

Shared Lesson

  • 20 min or 30 min shared
  • 2 to 3 pupils per class
  • Ideal for trying out the instrument and learning for fun.
Pricing
  • £86.08 per term (11 lessons)
Book Lesson

Instrument hire £16 per term.

Whole class and group pricing for lessons at school.

6-10 Pupils

  • 1 X 30 min session
  • 33 lessons per academic year
  • Can be charged as a school package or directly to parents.
Pricing
  • £258.24/term
Book Lesson

Whole Class

  • 45 min session / bespoke shorter session available
  • 33 lessons per academic year
  • 12 - 22 pupils per session
  • Instruments hire included
  • School concert included
Pricing
  • £410.68/term
Book Lesson

Bespoke 30 min

  • Suitable for school orchestra or theory class.
  • 1x 30 min session
  • 33 lessons per academic year
Pricing
  • £258.24/term
Book Lesson
Testimonials

At Grenoside Community Primary School, we have worked alongside Richard Smith for a number of years to provide quality violin lessons to Year 4. Richard also organised concerts and opportunities for the children to hear classical music, both in school and at venues. We were delighted to continue the long-standing relationship with Mr Smith when he started the Smith Music School. The pupils enjoy quality lessons which are fun and they make good progress. Many continue to have individual lessons. Where possible, he encourages the children to play ensemble pieces and to develop an enjoyment of playing together with other musicians. In the past year, we have been particularly impressed with his care and attention to detail to ensure the lessons were COVID safe.

Headteacher at Grenoside Community Primary

Mrs P Smith

My ten year old daughter has been taking her violin lessons with Richard for more than four years. She started her music lessons with him and has continued until now. Simply he helped her to discover the beauty of playing the violin. She just keeps on getting better and better. Mr Smith is very encouraging and he lets her know what she needs to work on. He is an amazingly talented teacher and I cannot recommend him enough.

Parent

M Shadli

Richard has been absolutely phenomenal with my autistic ten year old son. My son loves his weekly lessons and his playing has come on significantly in a short time due to Richard’s talent for working with and encouraging children. I have had the pleasure of sitting in on some of Richard’s Zoom lessons with my son, and can clearly see that Richard has a passion and gift for playing and teaching the violin. He is patient, kind and knowledgeable. If your child has an interest in violin, I strongly recommend Richard as a music instructor.

Parent

S Stancer

Richard has been my daughter and her friend’s violin teacher for over a year and half. He is well-experienced working with children and is very good at keeping them motivated and focused. He is extremely professional and friendly - the girls really enjoy his lessons!

Parent

Y Wang

When Richard started teaching my daughter, she had had a series of teachers who had let her pick up bad habits when playing the violin. With a lot of patience and good teaching techniques, he has manage to correct it all. Over the years, Richard has shown a great ability to adapt to her needs and requirements, whether it was when she wanted to take grades or just playing for fun. Thanks to Richard’s persistence, she has made a lot of progress and is really enjoying playing the violin. Richard has introduced her to different styles of music, from classical pieces to pop and folk, and our daughter practises now more than ever.

Parent

C Cachou

I would highly recommend Smith Music School. My son really enjoys his lessons and has made huge progress. Richard is a very professional teacher and is patient and encouraging. My son is always enthusiastic during his lessons, thanks to Richard’s fun and engaging teaching style.

Parent

K McKie
Biography

I started playing the violin at the late age of 15, studying with Nina Martin in Sheffield and Ray Sidebottom at Leeds College of Music.  I then gained a place at Birmingham Conservatoire after just three years of study. Since graduating in 2010, I have played professionally with the Bedford Sinfonia and Leeds Baroque, as well as participating with educational projects with Ensemble 360 in Sheffield. I went on to founder The Yorkshire String Quartet, who provide high-class musical performances for weddings and corporate events throughout Yorkshire. When studying at Huddersfield University, I gained a passion for Early Music performance - especially through professor John Bryan. He recommended that I join Leeds Baroque orchestra. Since then I have had a keen interest in this style of music.

For the last 11 years, my focus has been mainly on teaching full-class and specialist violin lessons in Sheffield. My instrumental lessons have been judged as ‘Outstanding’ every year to date and a DVD of one of my full-class violin lessons was used for whole-staff CPD.

I also studied conducting with Natalia Luis-Bassa and I have been in demand as a conductor for since then. I was the lead conductor of the Sheffield Children’s School orchestra and I’ve conducted many intermediate and beginner strings on holiday courses to great acclaim.

Outside of work, I’m a passionate cyclist and coffee connoisseur. My most-valued achievement is the riding the Tour de France route from Harrogate to Sheffield which was 120 miles and involved 11,000 feet of climbing.

Start Your Enquiry

If you are interested in lessons, or would like more information please get in touch, I would love to hear from you: smithmusicschool@outlook.com OR ‭07990 998295‬

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