Dr Mark Poole Guitar Tuition

31/07/2025

My band 7StoreySoul is 20 years old this month and still going strong! 😎

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E8xqhT4Dz/

18/07/2025

It's been a great year teaching kids at schools across the East Midlands and online. Some of my high achieving pupils have now been having lessons with me for 6 years. And another new school lined up for next year.

It's been a total pleasure teaching the kids at my new school in Derby this year: a diverse school, much like the school I went to, with wonderful pupils and friendly staff. Great to see the kids so enthusiastic about learning an instrument and some of them now composing their own songs! I'm lucky to be in the most rewarding job.

30/05/2025

I currently have a few spaces available for new beginner guitar pupils in North Leicestershire. Message the page for details. I've taught in primary schools for 14 years and have taught 750 kids over the years. I can teach adult beginners too. I have an enhanced DBS and my lessons are friendly and relaxed. See photos of reviews/testimonials for an idea of what you'll get from my lessons.

26/05/2025

To give an example of what I cover in my lessons, in 4 lessons this weekend I've taught riffs and tunes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Joan Jett, White Stripes, Pharrell, Kaiser Chiefs, Survivor, James Taylor, Deep Purple, Henry Mancini and Chase n Status!

No other guitar teacher covers more ground. And every lesson is tailored to the individual pupil's tastes, ability and interests.

13/05/2025

My rendition of a Stevie Wonder classic. Happy 75th Stevie! 🎶🎵

Jazz guitar rendition of Love's in Need of Love Today - classic from Songs in the Key of Life

26/04/2025

I currently have a few spaces available for new guitar pupils in North Leicestershire. Message the page for details. I've taught in primary schools for 14 years and have taught 750 kids over the years. I can teach adult beginners too. I have an enhanced DBS and my lessons are friendly and relaxed. See photos of reviews/testimonials for an idea of what you'll get from my lessons.

26/04/2025

A big congratulations to Alex, who's been having lessons with me for 7 years! Alex started lessons with me at 8 years old. Now he's 14 and doing GCSE music. Yesterday he became my all time highest achieving pupil: 65 chords learned, over 20 scales and modes learned, and over 125 riffs and tunes achieved including his own compositions. Plus 17 guitar tests/quizzes passed! Shows what can be achieved when you stick with it. Well done Alex!

01/12/2024

I've really enjoyed teaching my 25 new pupils across three Midlands schools this term, plus my numerous private pupils - online and in person. I still have spaces available in Leicestershire for in person lessons or online lessons anywhere (I even teach pupils in Canada via Zoom!). Friendly, fun and relaxed approach from experienced teacher with 20 years of teaching experience plus decades of performing/composing experience, a PhD in music and culture and enhanced DBS.

21/10/2024

No music books, no formal grades or exams, just 18 years of showing pupils how to play the guitar with no pressure!

Tunes I've taught that have been successfully played well by my pupils in the last 2 weeks: Blackbird, Here Comes the Sun, I Feel Fine, Something, We Will Rock You, Another One Bites the Dust, I Was Made For Lovin You, James Bond theme, Theme from The Pink Panther, Superstition, 20th Century Boy, Seven Nation Army, Smoke on the Water, Three Little Birds, Count on Me, Green Green Grass, 500 miles, Uptown Funk etc etc.

And music theory taught: The 1,4,5 chord pattern, extended chords, suspended chords, 2, 5, 1 jazz chord progression, polychords, modes and ther moods, pentatonic blues scales, moods of different chords, which chords fit with various genres of music.

Techniques taught: arpeggio, slides, bends, hammer-ons, harmonics, vibrato, muting, funk strumming with syncopation and chord slides, reggae strumming with chord dampening, fingerpicking blues and folk styles etc etc.

Just in case you wondering what kids can learn without music books!

18/10/2024

In the last 12 months I've driven over 15,000 miles in all weathers to deliver guitar lessons all over the Midlands and the North West. That's the equivalent to travelling half way around the world! I'd say that's pretty dedicated. But obviously there are the occasional weeks when this constant travelling to teach lessons is not possible (usually due to car repairs because of the thousands of miles driven in a not brand new car!).

On the other hand, I've also from the comfort of my own music studio, delivered hundreds of hours of online lessons to pupils as far away as Canada.

And two things that constantly amaze me as a guitar teacher are as follows;

1) The incredible progress that my online pupils have made. Some of my absolute highest achievers have been doing online lessons for years and are now playing every chord, scale and mode known to man, and mastering the most complex rock, pop, jazz and classical tunes.

2) The determined reluctance of some to even try one single online lesson (even just as a replacement lesson when my poor car needs repairing due to driving thousands of miles a year).

For the small downsides of a non face to face lesson, online lessons are usually far more focused than lessons at school, with far less distractions. There are actually more upsides than downsides and it's a fact that the average child actually achieves more in an online lesson than they do in a school lesson. Because my teaching system documents every single thing my students have learned I know this to be the case. My highest achievers Alex, Shaan, Josh, Toby, Narayan and James are all online pupils (some for as long as 4 years).

So, please, parents of kids, understand that when driving thousands of miles in not the newest of cars, it's inevitable that there might be weeks when lessons can't happen in person. But so that the momentum isn't lost, just try the substitute online lesson and you'll see how much your child can achieve.

With the option of the online lesson always offered when travelling is tricky, it means a lesson NEVER has to be cancelled/rescheduled, but rather just delivered in a different form on occasional weeks. And you will be surprised at the positive results! If you want guaranteed continuity, do always take up the offer of an online lesson when face to face lessons can't happen. It's honestly so much more productive and more fun than missing the lesson and complaining 🙂

20/08/2024

Excited to be starting lessons at two new Midlands schools this September. Three schools in total now plus my numerous private pupils - online and in person. I still have spaces available in Leicestershire for in person lessons or online lessons anywhere. Friendly, fun and relaxed approach from experienced teacher with 20 years of teaching experience plus decades of performing/composing experience, a PhD in music and culture and enhanced DBS.

27/07/2024

As well as 'fun' 😁, another word that sums up my guitar lessons is 'variety'. In any given week of teaching I will cover hundreds of different topics as well as tunes!

The way I see it, learning the guitar or any instrument should be as broad a learning process as possible. Everything relates to a bigger picture and what may appear as tangents are always tying things back to each other in the context of the bigger musical structure...

For example, let's strum the chords to a punk, pop or rock song...These styles of music are often based on a 1-4-5 chord progression. The 1-4-5 chord progression is based on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the major scale...Lets talk about that major scale and its pattern of tones and semitones...Whats a tone and a semitone?...Let's talk about that! Are there other scales? Yes, loads...for example a blues scale (based on a minor pentatonic scale), which along with these techniques - hammer-on, string bend, slide etc goes along quite nicely with the punk, pop or rock song we started off by strumming to 😁

And so it goes on. The beauty of musical tangents...all linking back to the mathematics and structure of music ultimately.