My road to become a music therapist

My dream has always been becoming a great music therapist in the world, and I was very lucky to be admitted to the University of Derby to pursue my dream in 2020. I'm a pianist and a clarinettist myself but I know absolutely nothing about the guitar. As I attended the course, I gradually recognise how important knowing how to play a guitar is and I was really panicked if I could become a great music therapist if I know nothing about the guitar.

As I joined AmazingTalker as a language tutor last year to earn some money, I was being invited to the team of my current mentor Michelle (who is also a GREAT Cantonese and English tutor!!). There I met Tommy, who is my saviour in rescuing the panicking me. When Michelle introduced Tommy to me, I can vividly remember how passionate Tommy was when I attended his trial lesson without a guitar, and you all know what happened next, I purchased 10 straight lessons from him. I knew it immediately that he is trustworthy and is able to demand loads of questions from me, who is also a musician.

Tommy is patient, passionate, flexible and full of knowledge. His experiences in busking and teaching in person in the past has definitely given him an idea on how to teach his students to the best he can. He could immediately understand his students' needs during the trial lesson and offer the most suitable course to the students. As my background in music is quite special, he even spent time to customize my guitar learning journey. I practiced really hard as I attended his lessons, and he never gives up encouraging me when I did anything well. I could also remember the days when I felt like I couldn't carry on like when I lost my voice the other day, he never blamed me but cared about me. I'm more than thankful to have Tommy as my guitar tutor even we have only met each other online but not in person. To thank his effort and for the sake of my improvement in guitar, I purchased another 20 lessons and I know it's gonna worth it.

Back to my dream as a music therapist, as I can handle the guitar finally, I started to play the guitar in my placement therapy sessions. I could play loads of songs and even improvise on the guitar as Tommy dug into some extended music theory with me. He helped me analyse my "hello song" and "goodbye song" musically and we discussed on the best ever chord I could use for the songs. Eventually, as I worked with my clients, one of my clients has actually shown his interest in playing the guitar and said I played the guitar so well! My client would probably never be able to imagine I have just finished my 10th guitar lesson with Tommy at that time. I guess you all can never imagine but I use the guitar in the sessions about 10 times more than using a piano.

My gratitude towards Tommy hasn't been enough just by writing this story, but he gave me hope and helped me become a better music therapist as I acquire a skill of playing the guitar and I will also expand my song list when I work with my clients. Tommy has such a beautiful and angelic voice and I really enjoyed it every time he demonstrated a song. I feel like learning a lot more from him and I'd recommend all readers who is thinking about learning the guitar to actually purchase a trial lesson with Tommy, trust me, you will never regret.