Today’s installment of the RGT Guitar Tutor Interview series finds us traveling to the Emerald Isles as we sit down with Irish guitar tutor and Music Academy owner Trevor Darmody.

Since 2003, Trevor has run a successful music and arts academy with his wife Denise in Waterford, Ireland. Beginning as guitar school ‘Flying Fingers’ in 2003, the academy has since moved into a 7,000 square foot building and expanded to include drama, dance, and art, as well as a range of other music lessons.

Because of this expansion, Flying Fingers was renamed the Waterford Academy of Music & Art in 2010 in order to reflect the multi-faceted arts education that the academy offers it’s students.

We recently caught up with Trevor to discuss his relationship with RGT, how he prepares students for RGT Guitar Exams, and his advice for other teachers that are looking to run their own music education academy.

To find out more about Trevor, visit the Waterford Academy of Music & Arts Homepage and the WAMA Facebook Page.

Click for more information on RGT Exams in Ireland.

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RGT: How did you become introduced to RGT Guitar Exams, and why do you choose to enter your students in RGT exams each year?

Trevor Darmody: I guess I’ve always been aware of the RGT for as long as I’ve been aware of guitar really.

They have a strong presence worldwide and a long history of being the leader when choosing a structured guitar examination syllabus.

I think this has become the case because RGT offer exams for many different musical styles. It’s not a one size fits all exam, e.g., classical or electric only.

With virtuosity having now been achieved in so many other popular styles of guitar, it is only fitting and proper that a student should be able to choose a style that he or she has an interest in being examined in, such as acoustic, electric, rock, jazz, and indeed classical.

So for those reasons that is why I ultimately chose the RGT for my school and for my students. It gives my students and I the flexibility we want from an exam syllabus.

RGT: Besides working with students one-on-one in private guitar lessons, is there anything else you do outside of those lessons to prepare students for their exams?

Trevor Darmody: I actually prepare the majority of my students in a group environment.

I find that as long as you’re prepared and know the syllabus inside out, that your students can actually achieve better results in the exam from group training.

There are a few reasons for this, such as having more fun in the group and a bit of healthy competition, but the main one is that students aren’t nearly as nervous performing in front of the examiner when they already have had to do it multiple times in front of their class.

I’m sure any teacher reading this will agree that a student can often under perform in an exam due to performance anxiety, and so a means to lessen that anxiety, such as preparing the student in a focused group environment, can result in a student receiving a distinction instead of a merit, for example.

RGT: Do you have any advice you would like to share with other tutors, or students, that may be new to RGT exams and the RGT exam syllabi?

Trevor Darmody: If you’re a teacher, don’t be afraid of teaching the exam syllabus even if you have never actually sat the exams yourself.

The exam handbook for each grade spells out in black and white what a students needs to do to achieve top marks. So as long as you read the instructions it’s actually not that difficult.

The same answer is applicable to the student who likes to self-teach. You can’t beat experience, so start getting it as soon as you can.

From a teacher’s perspective, your students will be better off for doing RGT exams.

I can say that from experience. I was teaching 7 years before I believed that sending students for exams was a good thing to do. My only regret was not doing it from year one.

Currently about 40% of my students opt-in for exams each year, and in general that 40% are my stronger students.

Most students, but not all, need a deadline to stay motivated. There’s nothing like a deadline to focus the mind as they say.

So get them interested in exams, and you will be surprised at just how many of your students get hooked on the process.

Just don’t push it, and don’t make all your lessons be about exams. There has to be a balance.

RGT: You have built a successful music and arts school in Waterford over the past few years. Do you have any advice for other RGT Guitar Tutors that are either running, or looking to start, their own teaching academy or school?

Trevor Darmody: As a general answer, I guess I would have to say what probably all business owners would say if being truthful, which is that it’s not easy.

It’s a lot of really hard, and sometimes stressful, work, and that you need to be somewhat obsessed with it. But that it’s also rewarding and worth it if you are doing it for the right reasons.

I think that the reason I am obsessed with my work is because of the same reasons why I’m doing it. At my core I live by a simple philosophy, one that helps guide me and all my decision making.

It’s this, care about your students and customers. That’s it. Simple really.

I have always believed that if you care about them, then how you run your business, conduct yourself, interact with your students and their parents, will all fall into place.

I liken it to what you would try to teach your children, or what your parents tried to teach you, and that is to do the right thing by other people.

You will be a good teacher if you care about your students, and you will be a good boss if you care about your staff.

While I have to run my school as a business in order to offer the services that we offer to the local community, I don’t see it as just a place in which to make a living.

Rather, I see it, my life, and my role as a teacher, as a means through which I can help affect people in a positive way.

I see it as being in the business of changing lives. I know that last statement probably sounds really corny, and probably makes me sound like I have a huge ego, like I think I’m a savior or something.

But if you can look beyond that and think about it, you will see that it is a lovely thing to be in a position to be able to sit with someone every week, especially a young person, and be their teacher.

When a child sits in front of me for guitar lessons, I don’t just see that child as a means for me to make a few bob.

I see my time with him or her as an opportunity to help that child to gain more confidence, as an opportunity for me to help him have a positive view on life, as an opportunity to help her experience enjoyment with her instrument, as an opportunity for that student to have something therapeutic when times are tough.

Why not do something positive with your life if you can?

And if you can help people, even in a small way, then it’s worth doing I reckon. If you feel like what you are doing is worth it, then your own life is worth living.

That’s my philosophy anyway, and so how I run everything stems from that.

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