Below is a blog post for the www.pianoworks.co.uk website. Seeking a piano teacher in the Crouch End area? I give piano lessons there, as well as around other places in N8 such as Hornsey and Turnpike Lane. Get in touch! Email learn@pianoworks.co.uk or ring 0795 203 6516! For more information visit www.pianoworks.co.uk.

Piano Teacher Crouch End | N8 Piano Lessons

Hello there. I'm Alvin. I am a piano teacher with nearly twenty years' experience in education - classroom teaching, piano teaching, examining, marking, heading Music departments and school committees. I teach piano at homes in the N8 area, such as Hornsey, Turnpike Lane and Crouch End.

Did you know that Crouch End forms part of what used to be called the Northern Heights of London. It is the meeting place of several medieval routes. One of them came from Islington over Crouch Hill before extending via what is known as Park Road to Muswell Hill, to the Mus well famous for the curative powers of its water. The other came of Holloway via Crouch End Hill, going over what is now Tottenham Lane towards the Hornsey parish church before extending further to Tottenham.

Crouch End is the intersection point of these two routes and it is said that a cross used to be placed here. The word Crouch is derived from the Latin word "Crux", meaning cross. It cannot be said for certain whether it is with reference to the "cross" or the "crossroads". And while the look of modern Crouch End is a crowded array of shops, from about 1800-1850 before the expansion of the railways, the only housing was a small group of cottages at the bottom of Crouch End Hill, near modern day Edison Road, while larger houses had their own grounds in what is now the Broadway.

The most iconic landmark of Crouch End is the Clock Tower. It was built to commemorate Henry Reader Williams and it is his face that you can see in the medallion. Williams was chairman of the local board and guided the parish of Hornsey (encompassing Crouch End, Hornsey Village, Highgate and Muswell Hill) through the tricky transitional period towards becoming a suburb. The population more than doubled during the period of his leadership and this brought in the challenges of creating more housing, roads, other public utilities and put to test various aspects of town planning. The clock tower was designed by F. G. Knight and built in 1894-95.

Dunns the Bakers has also had a long history in Crouch End. A look to the top of the shop building reveals a wheat sheaf with the date 1850 and the initials of William Muddiman who ran the post office and bakers.

Much of Crouch End Broadway was designed by James Edmonson and sons of Highbury. The parade of shops with the windows of different designs on every floor is also mirrored in Muswell Hill Broadway, designed by the same man.

Classical music lovers may find Les Aldrich music shop in Muswell Hill useful for its array of music books for different instruments such as the piano, string and wind instruments, and while there is no classical music shop nearer to Crouch End, you can sometimes find music books on sale in the charity shops. Rock Around the Clock caters to guitar lovers, while Flashback Records at the bottom of Crouch Hill has an interesting range of vinyl records.

The building that now forms the Virgin Active Health Club was rebuilt in 1958 after the original was destroyed by bomb damage in the Second World War. It had originally been the Queen's Opera House, a theatre seating over a thousand people, and later became the Crouch End Hippodrome. West End productions were staged there for a time and it later also became a music hall and eventually a cinema.

Students who are interested in learning a musical instrument and are studying in Haringey schools may apply for instrumental lessons in their school via Haringey Music Service. In primary schools, music teachers normally fetch the students out of classroom lessons, but in secondary schools the onus is generally for students to make their way out of classroom lessons of their own accord to attend instrumental lessons. The timetable, if there is reasonable demand for instrumental lessons in the school, is usually rotated so students don't miss the same class lessons to attend music lessons. Otherwise, children may unfortunately have to miss the same academic lessons every week, so there may be a particular subject they may have to catch up on, on their own. They may also unfortunately have to miss important classroom lessons, or important sections of lessons (such as Science experiments) in order to attend instrumental lessons, or forfeit their instrumental lessons in order to remain in class during these periods.

These are the limitations of instrumental lessons in schools and if these are not scenarios that are agreeable to you as a parent, you may find it more conducive for your child to have piano lessons outside of school, in your own home. There are benefits to doing so, in that:

As a parent, you can get on with other things while I am teaching your child.

The following apply both to children and adult learners:
You don't have to waste time travelling - I travel to you.
You play on an instrument you are comfortable with - your own.
You have control over the background setting - there are no noisy practice rooms grouped together where the sound from another room might be distracting.

I teach adults in the evenings on a very flexible basis. Some have lessons weekly, some fortnightly, others on an occasional basis to fit around changing work patterns. Not everyone has the same free evenings each week and as long as it is possible to find mutually convenient times that work, I am happy to accommodate.

If you are considering piano lessons for yourself or for a child, why not get in touch? You can either call or text or email, whichever you prefer: