Up The Music Services - Music Production and Tuition

Up The Music Services - Music Production and Tuition ✨ Expert Music Production & Music Tuition Services ✨ Any changes will be communicated to you in advance.

Instrument Tuition Bookings Policy

**Lesson Bookings**
- All lessons are to be booked in monthly blocks unless otherwise stated.
- Bookings must be confirmed and paid for in advance to secure your time slot.
- Lessons are £30 an hour. Half an hour lessons available for U10s at a rate of £15 per hour.

**Payment Terms**
- Payment for the full monthly block is due at the time of booking.
- Payment methods accepted include bank transfer (preferred), PayPal and Cash.

**Cancellation Policy**
- **Full Refunds:** To receive a full refund, cancellations must be made at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled lesson.
- **Late Cancellations:** Cancellations made less than 48 hours before the scheduled lesson are not eligible for a refund.
- **Rescheduling:** If you need to reschedule a lesson, please contact us at least 48 hours in advance. We will do our best to accommodate your request, but it cannot be guaranteed.

**Missed Lessons**
- Lessons missed without prior notice will not be refunded or rescheduled.
- Repeated missed lessons may result in the forfeiture of your time slot for future bookings.

**Teacher Absence**
- In the rare event that your instructor needs to cancel a lesson, it will be rescheduled at a mutually convenient time or credited to the next month’s block.

**Changes to the Policy**
- We reserve the right to amend this policy at any time. By booking lessons with us, you agree to the terms outlined in this policy.

08/10/2026

All rise for the pop-punk national anthem.

This is the main riff from Blink-182’s Dammit. One of those guitar parts that isn’t complicated on paper, but can get a little slippery once you bring it up to tempo.

The tricky bit here is keeping the picking relaxed and the string changes clean. If the right hand starts tensing up, the whole riff gets much harder than it needs to be.

Get the movement comfortable slowly, then start bringing the speed up.

And, as ever with this sort of thing, it doesn’t need to sound surgically perfect.
It’s pop-punk.

A little roughness around the edges is kind of the point.

Reviews like this absolutely make my day.When somebody starts lessons knowing a few basic chords and, ten months later, ...
08/10/2026

Reviews like this absolutely make my day.

When somebody starts lessons knowing a few basic chords and, ten months later, they’re learning full songs, developing new techniques and working towards a Grade 2, that’s a massive amount of progress.

I can throw ideas, exercises and songs at students all day long, but the real progress comes from them putting the work in between lessons, and this student absolutely has.

The bit I’m probably happiest with, though, is that the lessons have stayed fun while still being challenging. That’s always the balance I’m aiming for.

Dead proud of the progress, and very grateful for the lovely words.

**40 DAYS TO GO!** 💜Glam S7am: A Prince Party is just around the corner!This one is going to be a little bittersweet, a...
05/10/2026

**40 DAYS TO GO!** 💜

Glam S7am: A Prince Party is just around the corner!

This one is going to be a little bittersweet, as Glam Slam 7 will be the final Glam Slam performance by The Dawn.

We’ve had an absolute blast playing these shows over the years, celebrating Prince, digging into some deep cuts and getting to share it with a room full of people who love it just as much as we do.

So we want to make the last one count.

As with previous years, I will reimburse every pair of tickets bought by students with a F R E E lesson in December (more tickets = more F R E E lessons).

As per the Georgian Theatre's admissions policy "anyone under the age of 16 can purchase a ticket and be admitted to events as long as they are accompanied by a responsible adult."

So come sing Purple Rain, dead loud, with the rest of us 💜☔️

Get your tickets here:

https://www.ents24.com/stockton-on-tees-events/the-georgian-theatre/glam-slam-7-a-prince-party/7416069

See you in 40 days!

Surreal day at work today.Stephen Street soundtracked a huge chunk of my teenage years. Kaiser Chiefs, The Zutons, Babys...
02/10/2026

Surreal day at work today.

Stephen Street soundtracked a huge chunk of my teenage years. Kaiser Chiefs, The Zutons, Babyshambles (who were my first ever gig), The Maccabees, The Courteeners, The Pigeon Detectives… the list goes on.

I’ve even got a very specific memory of getting on the guestlist for The Pigeon Detectives on the tour of the album Stephen produced, because my Grandad knew Matt Bowman’s Dad, (while waiting for Matt's Dad to meet us at the venue, Paul Weller walked past us and in to the venue!).

But it was Meat Is Murder that probably had the biggest impact on me. Hearing those slowed-down sounds of the abattoir at 14 turned me vegetarian and sent me spiralling into a love of The Smiths, Morrissey, Johnny Marr and everything related from that moment on. So, getting to spend the day with Stephen today was completely surreal.

I had the chance to interview him about his early career and his work with The Smiths, Blur and The Cranberries, before opening things up for a Q&A featuring questions from our students.

It’s also another brilliant example of the opportunities available right here on Teesside. Studying Fd/BA (Hons) Audio & Music Production at University Centre Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough College isn’t just about sitting in a classroom learning how a compressor works. Sometimes you get to sit down with somebody who made records that helped shape your entire relationship with music.

Not a bad day at work.

02/10/2026

Last of the three pieces I’m sharing from the Rockschool 2024 Grade 3 Electric Bass book this week, in celebration of two of my students starting their Grade 3 work.

This time it’s Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz, and this is the B section. Same A–C–G–D progression that pummels throughout the piece, but the bass part changes completely int he verse.

We’ve got little chromatic slides into each root, a jump up to the octave and dead notes helping make the whole thing much more percussive. I really like this section because none of the individual ideas are particularly complicated, but they all need to be controlled. The slide has to land in time. The octave has to pop cleanly. The dead note has to actually be dead and meld into the rhythm section.

Get those little details right and suddenly a very simple four-chord progression sounds properly funky.

September, you’ve been a belter.130 lessons taught this month, which is a fairly ridiculous amount of guitar, bass, banj...
30/09/2026

September, you’ve been a belter.

130 lessons taught this month, which is a fairly ridiculous amount of guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele and mandolin coming through the house. And there’s been loads happening outside of lessons too.

I’ve been recording with Jimmy Ruse, Steve McCormick and Josh Atkinson, mixing new music for Weathership and The Falcon Threads, and got to see Josh’s Won’t Take Me Today make its way out into the world.

Somewhere in amongst all of that, one of my students managed to reinvigorate my interest in guitar pedals, so I appear to have built a pedalboard by mistake.

I also bought a fretless bass (call me Pino PallaDonnelly) to cushion the blow of a three grand dental bill! (isn't the bass lovely though!)

The absolute highlight, though, is always seeing the work my students are putting in pay off. Charlie achieved a whopping 88% MERIT in their Rockschool Grade 2 Electric Bass exam, alongside countless other little wins this month; new songs nailed, techniques finally clicking, and loads of excellent music being played.

I’m dead proud of you all.

October is already looking very busy, with only the following lesson spaces currently available (6th and 20th at 5pm is a regular fortnightly slot that has come available):

- 6th October: 5pm
- 9th October: 5pm
- 20th October: 5pm
- 26th October: 5pm

I do have a little bit of extra flexibility for anyone inclined towards a later evening lesson, or potentially my last slot on a Saturday, but those are by appointment rather than regular advertised availability. Drop me a message and we can see what works.

As always, thank you for the lessons, the recommendations, the recording and mixing work, and for continuing to trust me with your music.

September was absolutely mint.

Let’s see what October has got.

30/09/2026

As mentioned on Monday, I’ve got two students starting their Grade 3 Electric Bass work this week, so I’m celebrating by sharing three of my favourite pieces from the Rockschool 2024 Grade 3 book.

Next up is Feet Don’t Fail Me Now by Joy Crookes, and this is the B section. This one is absolutely full of the sort of bass playing I love. The harmony moves through B♭m, G♭maj7, E♭m and Fm, and the line supports the harmony so well.

There’s loads of space between the notes, little bits of movement into the next chord, and that really laid-back Neo-Soul feel running through the whole thing.

It’s also a really good example of why rests and note length matter so much on bass. You can play every correct fret and still make this sound completely wrong if the notes are too long, the gaps disappear, or you start rushing the little fills.

Leave the space. Then make the small bits of movement count.

Absolutely buzzing for Charlie, who achieved a whopping 88% MERIT in their Rockschool Grade 2 Electric Bass exam! 🎉Charl...
29/09/2026

Absolutely buzzing for Charlie, who achieved a whopping 88% MERIT in their Rockschool Grade 2 Electric Bass exam! 🎉

Charlie essentially tipped their cello on its side and discovered the electric bass. (Yes, that’s a terrible School of Rock reference.)

For Grade 2, Charlie performed "Do I Wanna Know?" by Arctic Monkeys, "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac and "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson, alongside all of the technical requirements that come with the grade and they absolutely smashed it.

An 88% Merit is a brilliant result, and I’m dead proud of the work Charlie has put in to get there, particularly as that meant putting the breaks on learning K-Pop bass lines. There’s been loads of progress in the playing, but particularly in making the bass parts feel good rather than simply playing the right notes.

Well done, Charlie. Absolutely deserved. 🎸

29/09/2026

Quantisation is incredibly useful, but it can also suck the life out of a performance if you use it without thinking.

In this video, I take three classic recordings, "When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin, "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, and compare the original timing against versions forced onto a fixed grid.

All three move around the tempo in different ways. They push, pull and breathe, and that movement is a big part of what gives each track its feel.

That’s the point I always try to get across when teaching quantisation: don’t fix timing just because you can. Listen first. If the performance feels right, the timing might already be doing exactly what it needs to do.

28/09/2026

I’ve got two students starting their Grade 3 Electric Bass work this week, so I thought I’d celebrate by sharing three of my favourite pieces from the Rockschool 2024 Grade 3 book.

First up this week is On Broadway by George Benson, and this is the B section.

I really like this bit because it’s a great example of how you can take a strong rhythmic idea and move it through different harmony without having to completely reinvent the bass line every four bars.

We start around G and F/G, move up through C and B♭/C, and eventually work our way back to G. The notes themselves aren’t the scary bit. The challenge is making the rests, note lengths and little syncopations feel good every single time.

That’s one of the things I really like about the step up to Grade 3 bass. You’re starting to get into parts where just playing the correct frets isn’t really enough anymore. There's a lot more focus on making it groove.

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Wednesday 5pm - 9pm
Thursday 5pm - 9pm
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