About Me
Hi!
I’m Alasdair. My mission is to make the best music lessons on the internet.
I started playing guitar in the year 2000 at the tender age of 7! I fell in love with the instrument and it’s been my passion ever since. Despite this, learning to play hasn’t been easy. This is my story and how Olicana Music came to be.
When I started guitar lessons I had a new teacher every 12 months. Needless to say this isn’t the optimal way to begin! Some of the teachers were great, others insisted on moving me back to material I had already done so they could have me learn “their method”. This was very discouraging and frustrating as a young person, eventually leading me to stop taking lessons.
Whilst I quit lessons, I did continue to play. Naively convinced I could teach myself, I started learning online and from books, joined a guitar group on Saturday mornings and formed my own band. I was playing the music I enjoyed and as a result was falling in love with the hobby again.
A few years passed before a classical guitar teacher I really liked was able to start teaching again – the late Rod Mell. What made Rod great was how willing he was to entertain me learning the electric guitar despite he himself not being an expert in it. I continued lessons with him until I left for university at 18.
Despite Rod’s encouragement, and starting to teach a small number of my own students, I had no ambitions to be a musician. I was content with guitar being a hobby and had my sights set on being a scientist.
Learning Online Sucks
At university I continued to play, formed a new band, and tried to continue learning online. Whilst I had been picking stuff up from the internet and books for years, I quickly learned that without Rod’s help expanding upon the information, teaching myself was extremely challenging. This was compounded by the fact that as a cash strapped student there was no way I could afford the cost of online courses or private lessons. When I did scrape together enough cash for a course I was often left disappointed by its content and/or wondering how to integrate what I was learning into my own playing.
Simultaneously I was losing interest in my degree, academia simply wasn’t for me and I discovered I much preferred playing guitar to using a micro-pipette. Spending my time playing instead of studying I was developing a system for piecing together information from the internet and books to get better at guitar. I figured out how to plug the gaps, taking something theoretical and turning it into something actionable to practice. As a result the quality of my guitar playing was rapidly improving. Soon I began to wonder, maybe I could help other people learning online by teaching everything I knew about learning how to learn.
Olicana Music
Upon graduating I started Olicana Music. With help from the Princes Trust I developed a business plan, got a mentor, and started teaching one to one lessons in Wharfedale. The private tuition business exploded. The online lessons flopped!
I realised if I was going to help other people learn online I was going to have to seriously upskill myself. Using the process I used to learn guitar online I changed my habits, taught myself how to film and edit videos, how to mix audio, how to code and build websites, and how to grow a social media following.
Slowly things started changing. I started to gaining a following on YouTube, and with some help from a friend and mentor I restructured the online side of the business into what you see today.
Where I Am Now
Olicana Music is now my full time job, all from learning online. The website and my private students occupy most of my time. That being said I try to leave a bit of room for fun!
Three years ago I decided to learn the saxophone to test ideas I had about learning. The decision to learn that instrument is one of the best I’ve ever made. Not only was the experiment a roaring success, it was also a stark reminder of what being a beginner feels like! Additionally it connected me to a local concert band with whom I now play sax (and guitar on occasion). Having not been part of a proper band for a few years it filled a void I didn’t know existed!
I gig regularly and I’m continuing to push my own musicianship on both guitar and saxophone, primarily in improvisation. I’m already eyeing the next instrument to learn, maybe piano?
Going forward I want to make Olicana Music the go to resource for learning music. No more hunting around for what you need. Simply high quality educational content for every instrument, all in one place.
