LOCAL music tutor Tom Hiscocks achieved a distinction certificate at the highest grade in the first ever session of accredited ukulele examinations recently, with a staggering 98%.
Since then he has been leading increasingly successful ukulele workshops, and has started a new ukulele club in Warminster.
Tom is a singer with a drama background who has been training with Westbury fretted strings tutor Ray Bradfield and his colleague Al Summers.
Ray and Al have been teaching and mentoring workshop leaders and music tutors in their distinctive positive style of team teaching, and the pair have been asked to run their unique seminars all over the country, including annually at London College of Music for many years.
Al taught music in Westbury from 1982, moving his practice to Warminster a few years ago, maintaining close links with the town via Ray, whose multi-instrumental and oral tradition skills complement Al’s classical and theoretical background perfectly.
Dozens of music teachers have learned their methods. Their tuition books are used both throughout the UK and further afield. Tom’s gentle and encouraging personality is ideal for making workshops fun and friendly. His knowledge also makes them well-informed. Ray & Al see this as the perfect combination, particularly for more mature learners, an area of tuition in which they specialise.
With his great performance skills, Tom has very quickly passed from being a highly successful student to a well-liked and effective teacher through his hard work and study, as well as some help and encouragement from two of the area’s older (and perhaps wise therefore?!) tutors.
Having worked alongside Ray and Al in 2014 on a variety of workshops, Tom is now branching out with his own brand of tuition – and sometimes can be seen working with the two wise owls, as well as other music teachers in the Wiltshire education fraternity.
