artist

I create within different genres: classical, jazz—using improvisation in both, and piano‑based electronic music. Each of my projects explores a different aspect of the same lifelong impulse: to connect with innermost feelings using music and to enjoy the clarity, solace, catharsis, freedom and pure joy that this brings.

I have 4 Projects:‎

• Phil Best – classical-based piano music

• Lewis Harrison – jazz-based piano

• Musometry – house / downtempo with jazzy solo piano

• Tone & Groove – simple, hypnotic music for meditation

teacher

I teach music more as a language than an executive skill, following simple principles, to express yourself in any style. Using a simple model of rhythm and tonality, I help students develop confidence, fluency, and a deep connection to music, whether just beginning, returning, or working at a professional level.

My materials for fluent piano skills are available at PlayPianoFluently.com

Like many people, I loved music as a child

Music for so many of us feels essential. It has always been that way for me. It provided me with a language for understanding the world—or more precisely, my inner world. The piano was my favourite place from a very young age: encouraged by my wonderful Grandma, it gave me a path into a landscape that I loved to explore endlessly—to go on adventures, to find stories, to discover deep truths. What I actually played was very simple but it was magical.

Finding my own path

When I was a little older, again, like many children, I struggled with conventional learning. Afraid of losing my connection with the magic, I searched for clear rational understanding of what I had been doing as a young child. I soon began to notice that music wasn't mysterious or dense. It had clear patterns and shapes. The rhythmic groove and the keyboard both have beautiful underlying structures, and the more I explored music in this way, the more clearly I could see how rhythm, harmony and melody worked together.

The magic grew

My simple way of making music was so precious and magical to me, so I practised to maintain my connection with it. And as I did, it felt mischievous and playful to discover more and more sounds and the feelings that they uncovered.

Music from this inner place felt very soulful and embodied—and very rewarding because of that. The simple things that I loved to play quickly developed into increasingly complex patterns. Soon, I had acquired the kinds of skills that tend to be attributed to prodigies. But the fluency in the language of music that I found came from the clear understanding and permission to play using the simple model rather than special innate gifts.

My work as a music artist

Making music fluently means that I'm not contriving something, simply expressing it, which allowed me to find my own, unique style—one that is contemporary but very accessible with a certain old-school or timeless quality. In my various artistic projects, I love the idea that music is something we gather around, something that warms our souls, provides solace and catharsis, a source of real joy. Over the many years of my life, my relationship to the world of music has been less about achieving something competitive, cool or aspirational, and more about going on an inward adventure that I love to share. In my performances and improvisations, both in live shows and in recordings, I like it when people join me on an inward journey, sometimes touching dark places but always moving towards the light.

My work as a music teacher

I believe that a great many people have the innate ability to understand how rhythm and tonality work, if they play in a permissive way using a clear model, as I did. So naturally, I love to teach others about this. I'm happy to work with anyone who feels ready to challenge their fears or inhibitions about expressing their deep inner feelings. I don’t mind whether you are a professional or amateur musician, a beginner or experienced practitioner, someone who wants to unlock their most powerful musical potential, or someone who simply wants to practice music very simply as a kind of meditation. I’d love to help you discover a deep relationship with music through your chosen instrument—to create music spontaneously, as fluent self expression, by learning how it works as a language.

Soul, not ego

Having experienced early competitive success as a young musician, I have experience of becoming too driven—a common experience for so many musicians. The tendency to value prestige and rank within a competitive system can have a lasting psychological impact. I see my continued process of healing from these early difficult experiences as an opportunity for growth and insight, both as an artist and teacher.

I feel that fluent music has an unusally direct, soul-to-soul kind of communication that can potentially be very healing. When music is expressed and understood with fluent intention, it can help us become free from the pressure to perform well. Commercialism and star-culture can turn music into a commodity or vehicle for the ego. Experiencing music as a shared language that we all understand challenges this paradigm and can awaken us to music's deeper purpose. This is my aim as an artist and teacher.

"Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife."

— Khalil Gibran