Sam, Leaving Cert. Bass Student
I've Learned so much from my lessons with Rob so far. They've been highly interactive, very personal and I've had a great deal of fun with them. My confidence on bass has improved significantly and helps a lot in school. Rob goes into theory too, explaining things more in depth than I originally thought, and it helps me understand what I'm learning to a fuller extent, I would recommend him to anyone.
Brian, Student
I’ve had a strong interest and love of music from an early age. When I was 5, I was given a copy of Tapestry by Carole King, on Cassette. Listening to music is a form of relaxation for me.
I’ve always had a hunger to learn to play the Guitar for the same reason, to relax and float off into my own world for a while. Recently, I went on a search for a local Guitar Teacher. I wanted someone who was close to where I live, and who could travel to my home, if needed. I was also eager to find a person who had a good appreciation for all types of music and was up for teaching me to play songs that I wanted to play. Before I got to that point, I needed to start at the very beginning, and learn the basics of guitar playing from the ground up. I didn’t know how to play a single note.
There was one major ingredient that also needed to be added, to meet my aim of playing the Guitar to relax. I am blind, it is not a showstopper, plenty of blind people have very successfully played the Guitar to relax and have even built a career out of it. Having said that, I needed a teacher who was up for exploring alternative solutions to help make this happen.
After a search of some local groups on Facebook, I discovered Robert Ryan, who was advertising Guitar lessons that could be taken at his home, or he could travel in the local area if required. I spoke to Robert, and knew straight away, he was someone I felt completely comfortable with. He too had a love for, and a strong interest and appreciation for music, and an extremely relaxed way of talking to me, and so my Guitar lessons began, in December 2019.
From the very beginning, Robert found lots of alternative solutions that he used to teach me, these included:
Making audio notes on what we had covered in each lesson and sending them to me on WhatsApp. This format was completely accessible to me, in the same way that sighted students would get notes on paper.
When explaining the mechanics of scales and the Fret Board, Robert made a textured representation of a fret board from cardboard, blue tack, string and sticks, to enable me to build a mental map in my minds eye of the layout of the fret board along with the shapes of scales and chords. He would explain this to me in a hands-on way, which helped me enormously when it came to transferring these shapes to the Guitar. Robert used this approach when explaining new things to me, in much the same way as a sighted person would draw it on paper. It is a perfect alternative solution to make things more accessible to me.
Robert continuously puts a great deal of time into prepping for each lesson, by producing solutions to teach me to play the songs I like to play. I also have dexterity issues with my hands, so he constantly finds ways to teach me to play chords in a way that I can and looks for methods so that I can play these songs with the same fluidity as everyone else.
If you’re looking for a guitar teacher with a very relaxed teaching style, a strong appreciation of music and a person who constantly pushes the envelope in his teaching methods to achieve a desired outcome, I would highly recommend Robert.
Aileen, Mother of Jack. Age 12
My son Jack started lessons with Rob over twelve months ago as a complete beginner to music/guitar. Jack's progress has been astounding to watch. Rob has built such a rapport with Jack by making their lessons current and fun. Rob tailors the lessons to Jack's personality, keeping him engaged. Jack has grown in confidence and now has a new found love for music. I highly recommend Rob as a teacher.
Davey, Life-long friend. 31 and a half
Rob has been a friend of mine since we were kids. We always shared a love of music, but having only taking to playing bass and guitar in my early twenties, I was always hesitant to play in public. After doing only a few lessons with Rob just for fun, I was able to unlock a lot of those ideas and sounds I heard in my head. Some basic major scale and theory concepts gave me the confidence to go on and explore music myself. I now gig weekly with my own band and feel comfortable as a musician on stage.