Will - Piano teacher - London
Will - Piano teacher - London

Will's profile, diploma and contact details have been verified by our experts

Will

  • Rate L923
  • Response 3h
  • Students

    Number of students Will has accompanied since arriving at Superprof

    16

    Number of students Will has accompanied since arriving at Superprof

Will - Piano teacher - London
  • 5 (5 reviews)

L923/hr

Contact
  • Piano
  • Synthesizer

Professional and experienced Piano teacher, graduate of prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Teaching all ages to all levels. Relaxed, friendly teaching approach.

  • Piano
  • Synthesizer

Lesson location

Super Prof

Will is one of our best Piano tutors. They have a high-quality profile, verified qualifications, a quick response time, and great reviews from students!

About Will

"William is an intuitive musician. William performs with technical facility and sensitive interpretation….[he] always displays innate musicianship... He is a very pleasant and engaging individual who conducts himself well and articulately in any situation."
- Rahna Windsor MA BA LGSM Cert Ed (Piano Teacher)

Above is a quote from my own piano teacher, Rahna Windsor who taught me for 11 years. My lessons with Rahna were formative for me as a musician as she instilled within me the expressive power of music. This expressive power has allowed me to follow a path as a professional musician and study at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama. I see every music lesson as a formative opportunity to express, explore and play. Music should be fun, engaging and rewarding. I understand firsthand the joy that can be gained from learning a piece and sharing it with others and I would love to pass on this joy and reward to others.

My piano teacher instilled a sense of feeling into music, always asking me what the story of a piece should be, in other areas of my music education I was also learning the fundamentals of harmony - the logical building blocks of music. This balance between fun, feeling and logic combines together within my teaching to provide a holistic lesson - where I can nurture and respond to the needs and ambitions of the student.

These skills have stood me in good stead as a composer of Electro-Acoustic Music, studying Electronic Music and Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama (BA). Studying at Guildhall has offered many exciting opportunities, such as with the Barbican (Sound Unbound 2019, Barbican Film 2017 & 2018) and the City of London Illuminated River Foundation. Working as a composer leads me to consider music in new ways and requires me to be an adaptable musician.

I am a passionate teacher who can inspire students of various abilities or passions and am very happy to tailor lessons to student’s interests, whilst also pushing and developing new skills and interests.

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About the lesson

  • Beginner
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
  • +2
  • levels :

    Beginner

    Intermediate

    Advanced

    Professional

    Children

  • English

All languages in which the lesson is available :

English

My name is Will Davenport. I teach Classical Piano, Electronic Music, Music Composition and Theory. I like my lessons to be tailored and flexible around you and how you learn best.

Fundamentally, I want you to enjoy your practice so I want to learn more about you and the music that you enjoy listening to - lets learn about the fundamentals of music theory and performance through your favourite piece/track!

I will provide thorough guidance, practice tips and methods in the run up to your performance or grade examination.

The length of our lesson can be flexible to how you work best, can be in-person or on Zoom. I can proficiently work with all ages and levels of experience.

My Qualifications include: A First Class BMus degree (with Distinction and Starred Award) in Electronic Music and Composition from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Piano Performance Diploma (Trinity ATCL) with Merit, Piano Grade 8 (Trinity) and Grade 5 Music Theory (ABRSM).

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Rates

Rate

  • L923

Pack prices

  • 5h: L4,614
  • 10h: L9,229

online

  • L659/h

Travel

  • + L6

Find out more about Will

Find out more about Will

  • 1) When did you first develop a passion for music and your favourite instrument?

    I started taking piano lessons when I was six years old, and I was lucky enough to have a wonderful teacher called Rahna, who always encouraged me to think about the story behind each piece — how it made me feel, what it was trying to say. She instilled a deep love of classical music in me, and I spent years working through the piano repertoire: Mozart, Beethoven, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Debussy. She also noticed early on that I loved composing and improvising, so she suggested I submit my own music for my grade exams — which was a remarkable opportunity to be formally assessed on pieces I'd written myself.

    Around the age of twelve, I discovered electronic music and film soundtracks, and became completely obsessed. I started bringing my laptop to lessons and showing Rahna what I was making on the computer alongside the classical repertoire, she was wonderfully open-minded about it. That combination of the acoustic and the electronic has shaped everything I've done since. By thirteen, I'd managed to have one of my own compositions performed at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms season, which still feels slightly surreal to say out loud!
  • 2) Is there a particular type of music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

    Brian Eno is probably my most constant companion, I return to his work, ambient albums like Music For Airports again and again, not just the music itself but his whole philosophy around it. His ideas about ambient music have genuinely shaped how I think about composition. I find his work both deeply calming and intellectually stimulating.

    I'm also a huge fan of Poulenc, whose orchestral writing is so colourful and emotionally unpredictable, there's a kind of wit and tenderness in it that I find deeply inspiring. Quite different to Brian Eno's ambient music, Poulenc's work feels big and grand!
  • 3) Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

    Every student is different, so I always try to build something that's tailored specifically to the person in front of me. Their goals, their listening habits, what excites them, what intimidates them. For some students, that means working towards a specific piece they've always dreamed of playing. For others, it might mean learning to improvise, or understanding how harmony works well enough to start writing their own music. It mean learning the foundations of electronic music, the possibilities are endless!

    The through-line in any course I design is finding the right balance between challenge and joy. Learning an instrument should feel like an adventure, not a chore!! I tailor moments where people feel safe and inspired to learn and find their creative flow state.
  • 4) What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

    I think the most complicated part of learning any instrument isn't the technique itself, technique is very simple to learn through repetition. What is more complex is learning to make room for play, exploration and mistakes along the way. Every instrument has its own particular challenges and demands, but the deeper work is always the same: staying curious, staying patient, and not letting the pursuit of perfection get in the way of genuine expression. It's about enjoying the journey and not fixating on the end goal.
  • 5) What are your keys to success?

    Consistency over intensity. Even ten or twenty minutes of focused practice each day will take you further than a single marathon session once a week. Progress on an instrument is cumulative, it builds quietly and then one day you notice how far you've come.

    Make friends with mistakes. Playing music can feel vulnerable, especially in front of other people and the fear of getting things wrong can hold students back more than any technical gap. But mistakes are genuinely where the learning happens. Finding peace with imperfection and even a certain playfulness around it is one of the most important things you can develop as a musician.

    An open mind. Like learning any new language, the language of music often makes absolutely no sense at first! It can be deeply frustrating and challenging, but while it might not make sense right now, I promise that it will with time, patience and persistence.

    Have fun! There's a reason we call it 'playing' an instrument, this is an exploration of fun and play. Music is a joy to play.

    Don't be so hard on yourself!
  • 6) Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

    David Bowie. His artistic integrity to reinvent himself creatively at every stage of his career is something I find deeply inspiring.

    John Cage. For the philosophy as much as the music. Cage fundamentally changed what a piece of music is allowed to be, and his ideas about chance, silence and attention feel more relevant now than ever. I suspect he'd be wonderful company alongside David Bowie!

    SOPHIE. The electronic music producer. I think she would be fascinating to talk to about sound design and music production.
  • 7) Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

    One thing that stays with me from my time at Guildhall is how much I learned from simply being around other musicians who were operating at a very high level. There's a kind of osmosis that happens in those environments you absorb things you couldn't have learned from a lesson or a textbook.

    But the moment that probably shaped me most was earlier, at thirteen, hearing one of my own compositions performed at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Doctor Who Prom. As a big Doctor Who fan, this was a dream come true, and ignited this realisation that I could get out there and make a career as a composer.
  • 8) What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

    I can teach from my Shoreditch studio, which means lessons feel like a creative space rather than a formal classroom. I think that atmosphere matters, especially for adult learners coming back to the piano after years away.

    I genuinely love both the classical tradition and electronic music and I try to make both feel accessible and alive. If a student mentions a film score they love or a track that's been in their head, I'll use that. Music is music, the goal is always to find what makes it feel meaningful to that particular person. I give listening homework which can be varied: listening to jazz, electronic, classical, baroque, the Beatles, a film soundtrack.

    I'm also a composer myself, so I understand the creative side of music-making as well as the technical side. For students who are curious about writing their own music or understanding how pieces are put together, that's something I can really dig into with them in a fun, explorative way.

    And finally, I take adult learners seriously. A majority of my students are high achieving professionals who want to take an hour out of their day to have some fun. Sometimes my students learned an instrument as a kid and are returning to their joy of music. It's never too late to find something genuinely wonderful in music.
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