BigYellowPraxis Waller

I am a Cambridge university educated tutor, and I have been teaching music privately in the UK for around 20 years, with students of all ages and abilities. I am currently based in SW England, and teach banjo (clawhammer), guitar and bass guitar, and have played all of those instruments at a professional level, in the studio and live.

I am also a keen songwriter, and run two successful YouTube channels about music - one generally about rock and folk music, and one, "Clawhammer and Frailing Banjo" about clawhammer banjo specifically. I have written a book of clawhammer arrangements of classical music, "Classics for Clawhammer Banjo", that was published in 2025 with Mel Bay, and helped produce music for the Sci-Fi short film "The 31st Amendment", as well as having done lots of session work for local musicians and bands, mostly playing bass guitar.

Whatever style of music you like, and whatever you want to learn, I'm sure I can help you get to where you want to be: learning is a long and at times difficult journey. It's my job to make it as fun and easy as possible!

I teach music according to the needs of each individual student - everyone has their own unique tastes, challenges and skills. Some will need more help with technique or rhythm, others with developing their aural skills. Whatever your individual requirements are, I work to them and always make sure that learning an instrument is fun and enriching.

Every lesson will cover a range of topics, all relevant to the immediate song or technique we are learning. I always make sure to delve a little bit into the 'theory' of what we're learning, as I think music is a lot like language - knowing what you're playing is as important as simply playing the notes as they're written.

After each lesson, my students always receive notes briefly outlining what we've covered, as well as suggested practice. I think this is very important, as it helps structure people's learning a lot, and keeps people on track.