FULFIL YOUR POTENTIAL &

UNLEASH YOUR MUSICALITY

We offer music lessons taught by professionally qualified and experienced tutors to students of all ages and abilities across a wide range of instruments in a modern, fully equipped and supportive environment

Fully accredited local centre for London College of Music, qualified, CRB / DBS checked tutors.

Music Lessons in Taunton

Music Lessons in Taunton at our Music School with purpose built music classrooms situated on the second floor in a secure facility comprising of seven spacious, sound insulated teaching rooms.

We take time to understand and discuss each and every students needs and requirements, together with their strengths and weaknesses so we can tailor your learning specifically to your personal improvement.

We constantly measure our performance and ensure we offer the best and most impartial advice always with the students best interests at the forefront of any recommendations.

There is a comfortable waiting room where you can sit and relax if you’re a little early or if you’re just here to meet someone. Toilets are located on the first floor. Unfortunately, we do not have access for wheelchairs. Parking is available at the rear of the building in the Wood Street Public Car Park.

We monitor our premises with CCTV in order to provide protection & safety to all of our customers.

It is statistically proven that students who feel safe, secure and comfortable in their learning environment and who are engaged by their lessons and practices, can be expected to flourish. However, students who do not have these needs met are more likely to have a negative impact on their ability to learn.

Spacious Music Classrooms Purpose Built for Optimum Learning

A balanced and well planned learning environment for students is an integral part in achieving successful learning. Our music lessons in Taunton provide a positive and supportive classroom environment encouraging students to be confident in expressing their ideas and when asking questions or requesting help on any aspect of their learning.

Answers to some frequently asked questions

Lessons are available in the evenings and during the day throughout the week and at weekends. Please contact us to find out what teaching slots are available for your particular instrument.
We cater for ages ranging from 5yrs – 100!
Yes of course! We cater for students of all abilities
We normally ask for 4 lessons to be paid for in advance.
We require 24hrs notice to cancel a lesson. We will charge for ‘no shows’. We only allow one cancellation per month as long as we have had the 24hrs notice. It may be possible to rearrange your cancelled lesson to be taken within the same week but this is solely at the discretion of the tutor.
Sadly, we do not currently have the facility for you to pay this way. We accept cheques or cash only. All cheques are made payable in the name of your teacher.
Your teacher will advise you on any material you will need at your first lesson. Please do however bring along any music you have though as your teacher may be able to use it at some point.
Exams are available for those students wishing to take them but this is of course purely optional. If you wish to learn your instrument just for fun then that’s great too!

We are situated on the top floor of 33 –39 Bridge St TA1 1TP. Below us are the shops Razor Electrical, Taunton Aquarium and Harvey and Wade Kitchens. Our main front door is in between Harvey and Wade and the Foot and Gait Clinic. Please use our intercom system for access.

Yes of course! However your child MUST remain in the waiting room until you come to collect them. If your older child is allowed to leave our premises after their lesson unattended, then we will need a written confirmation from yourself confirming this arrangement, thank you.
Yes, please bring your guitar if you have one but we have amps and leads for you to use during your lesson.
You are more than welcome to use one of our guitars during your lesson but we do not operate a hiring service.
Yes please if you have your own that’s great but you can borrow some for the lesson.
This will depend on whether you have a private lesson or a group lesson. Tutors will normally use the live kit room for individual lessons and the electric kit room for the group sessions.
Each teacher takes their individual holidays and will of course inform you when he or she is away. The Music School generally remains open throughout all holiday times.
We need one week’s notice of any absence due to holidays.
Sadly, no. Our Music School is situated on the top floor of an office block and there is no lift.

No, however Wood Street Public Car Park is situated to the rear of our building

Yes we do. Here at Taunton Music, we take child protection very seriously & even though we are a privately run music school we of course still have a duty of care to our pupils. Claire Whitworth is our Taunton Music child protection officer.

Testimonials from many of our happy students

Expert tuition provided by fully qualified and experienced teachers

Taunton Music was established in 1983 above the Music Shop in Bridge St and moved to the present purpose built facilities in 2011.The Music School has around 500 pupils passing through its doors every week. The current team is comprised of 14 full-time music teachers, each of whom has worked as full-time professionals in the music industry.

Please ‘Click’ on each tutor photo below for more information.

Taunton Music are proud to be affiliated with the following professional organisations

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Sharon Roulstone

Piano and Keyboard

Sharon is the founder member of the music school which she started on leaving school in 1983. She has been the local rep for the London College of Music for the past 25 years and hosts exams three times a year. 

Sharon is a professional performer and has played and sung in several local function bands performing all over the UK and works regularly with local producers as a session recording vocalist.

She teaches keyboard, organ, piano and singing. as well as managing Taunton Music, Sharon also manages a team of music teachers for Taunton Music Services who deliver music lessons to local schools.

Andy Barratt

Guitar

Andy began playing the guitar at 11 years old. By the time he was 16, he was working semi-professionally with bands on the North West Circuit. Andy went on to gain a first class Graduate Diploma in Jazz and Commercial Music at Newcastle College of Arts and Technology.

From there he became a full-time pro working in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman. Andy now concentrates his energy on his teaching career.

Chris Ross

Guitar, Bass

Chris has 39 years experience playing electric guitar.

He studied classical guitar with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) to an advanced level and has a Diploma in Music which covered electric guitar and bass playing, recording and music theory.

He started teaching full-time nine years ago in schools and at Westside Music. Chris has a City and Guilds certificate for teaching adults and has helped many students achieve good grades with Rock School, Registry of Guitar Tutors and the ABRSM.

Miles Williams

Drums

Miles has been playing the drums for 34 years and professionally for 25 years.

He started the drum school at Westside Music (now Taunton Music) in 2002 with just a handful of students. This has since grown and now caters for more than 70 students.

Miles specialises as a ‘reading drummer’ and is able to play and teach any style of music using drum notation. Miles still enjoys drumming professionally himself in local functions bands.

Adrian Brain

Saxophone, Classic Guitar, Piano and Keyboard

Adrian is one of our full-time music teachers and is also a semi-professional musician. He teaches saxophone, classical guitar and piano / keyboard both privately and in schools. He is currently teaching at King’s College, King’s Hall School and Staplegrove Primary School in Taunton and of course here at Taunton Music. He has a passion for jazz piano which he teaches at beginner and intermediate levels.

For the last 29 years, he has played keyboards/saxophone and sung in leading West Country covers/function band “Turnette Doone” and hopes to clock up at least another 20! In spite of all this rock and roll, he is a family man at heart and counts himself am lucky to live in this gorgeous part of the world with his lovely wife and two children.

Nicole Waters

Singing

Nicole pursued her dream of singing and acting by studying Performing Arts for five years. She has performed in many plays, musicals and production shows from Shakespeare and Pinter to musicals and cabarets.

In 1998, she won a national singing competition with around 5000 entrants which led her to embrace a singing career. After leaving university and completing vocal training, she started to work at a Warner Hotel as a resident band singer and principal vocalist for the in-house production show for ten years.

She also auditioned in London’s West End and was short-listed for the role of Nancy in the BBC TV show “I’d do Anything”. Nicole enjoys being a music teacher, teaching all styles of singing and also works with Taunton Music Services teaching in local schools and colleges.

Belinda Bale

Flute, Recorder, Piccolo and Violin

Belinda has a BA in Music from Exeter University specialising in flute performance under the tuition of Judith Hall. She also has a PGCE from Plymouth University.

Belinda has played flute & violin in the pit for various shows & has played with Exeter Symphony Orchestra, Exeter University Symphony Orchestra and more recently, North Devon Sinfonia.

Belinda has spent the last 19 years as the leader of Music in a Somerset school and has a particular interest in Early Music and promoting the recorder. Belinda also teaches Piccolo, Recorder and Violin.

Katie Gange

Singing

Katie graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2011 where she gained an BMus Honours degree specialising in Vocal and Operatic Studies.

Katie has a vast amount of choral and solo experience for which she has travelled extensively around the UK and abroad. During her time in Birmingham, she sang with various choirs, such as the Birmingham Camerata and the CBSC (City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus).

She performed in many of their concerts around the country, singing in such venues as Symphony Hall, Birmingham and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. She sings locally in Taunton and is a qualified classroom music teacher as well as a singing teacher. Katie likes all genres of music but specialises in Classical and Musical Theatre repertoire.

Olga Millard

Keyboard and Piano

Olga is from St Petersburg in Russia. She studied the piano with Professor Alenitsyna. She also studied chamber ensemble and accompaniment with Professor Meengardt at the State Musorgsky College. Olga continued her education at the State University of St Petersburg studying Philosophy and Musical Aesthetics. After graduation, she taught music at the Kirovsky Music School teaching piano, working with the choir and accompanying children on various instruments.
Olga has been working in the UK since 2005 teaching piano and keyboard at Taunton Music and also in local schools and colleges with Taunton Music Services. Although classically trained, Olga is open to playing any style of music and is one of our more experienced music teachers.

Tom Lloyd

Drums

Tom has been playing the drums for over 24 years. He graduated from
Bath Spa University with a degree in Commercial Music and has taught in and around Somerset ever since.

He teaches all styles of music, ages and abilities at Taunton Music and in local schools and colleges.

Claire Whitworth

Brass

Claire offers brass instrument tuition namely in trumpet, cornet, trombone, tenor horn, baritone horn, euphonium, Eb and Bb bass. Claire is an accomplished cornet player attaining grade 8 in 2006. She started learning trumpet in Bristol 34 years ago during which time she joined her local brass band and has been involved in brass bands ever since contesting for many different standards including section 1.

Claire is an active member of the West Somerset Brass Band and is involved in teaching members of the training band taking them through their grades. Claire is one of those passionate music teachers who really believe in the fulfilment and enjoyment that playing an instrument can bring.

Sarah Coulthard

Piano, Singing & Clarinet

Sarah has recently moved to Somerset from Northampton where she’s been playing and teaching music for many years, working in school and at St.Giles Music Studio with students of all ages and abilities, working towards grades or just for pleasure.

She started playing the piano aged 8, the clarinet at 12 and, while studying for her degree in Music and Drama, added the tenor sax in order to play in a production of The Threepenny Opera.

She’s played and sung in concert bands, dance bands and ceilidh bands, worked with school choirs and operatic societies and musical theatre productions both on stage and in the orchestra pit.

Stephanie Berner

Vocal

Stephanie Berner – Soprano – started singing at the age of five when she first discovered her passion for music. Stephanie went on to study at Warwickshire College to receive three Distinction A*s’ During this time Stephanie took up piano achieving grade 6 and taking singing grades 6, 7, 8 and DipLCM in two years.
From a young age Stephanie has always performed on the stage, playing Mrs Bumble in Annie, Glinda in The Wiz and Serena in Fame at The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham. While living in Rugby she joined Rugby Operatic Society, playing Edith in Pirates of Penzance. At college Stephanie received a place in Warwickshire County Girls and County Chorale in which she toured with them to Barcelona and Belgium.
In 2018 Stephanie graduated from the London College of Music with a First Class Honours degree in Music Performance, studying under renowned opera singer Sandra Ford. During this time she sang with the BBC Symphony Choir and performed with them in the Proms 2018. Stephanie has played Second Woman in Dido and Aneaus, Tessa in The Gondoliers and Tweedle-Dee The Siblings in Alices’ Adventures in Wonderland with Opera Holland Park. She then went on to win the Michael James Oratorio Competition in her final year of university. Stephanie has recently performed as Minehead Chorales Soloist in Stella Natalis by Karl Jenkins, she has performed recitals in Devon and Rugby and will be performing as Celia in Somerset Operas’ production of Iolanthe.

Lorraine Homewood

Piano & Violin

Lorraine is an honours Graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester where she trained in Academic Studies in Music and Piano.

Lorraine’s love of music started at an early age, playing the violin throughout her education in Ireland and soon added the piano, studying with a concert pianist before entering music college.

She played for many years in the North East Ulster Schools Symphony Orchestra and was a section leader of the University of Manchester Symphony Orchestra.

While at College Lorraine completed Art of Teaching modules and tutored at the junior school of the RNCM, invaluable experience which she has since used extensively in her private teaching practice.

Having relocated recently to Devon, Lorraine appears regularly on the concert platform as an accompanist and combines her musical career with life as a small-holder and alpaca farmer.

Kim Driscoll

Violin & Flute

Kim studied violin with Esta Boda-Katona at Trinity College of Music, London.

While studying, she was also a member of the Young Musician’s
Symphony Orchestra, performing regularly around London and Europe and she also spent time touring with The British Youth Opera.

After graduating, Kim spent four years working in Rheindahlen, Germany, setting up and helping to run a Music Centre for the Forces, enabling
over 110 children to learn the violin.

After moving to Somerset back in 1995, Kim has performed regularly with a variety of ensembles in and around the South West and as a freelance player, enjoying playing in a variety of genres.

Kim has built a successful career as a teacher, in many schools around the Taunton and Minehead areas over the years. She is keen to provide
her pupils with good techniques and performance skills so they all reach
their full potential in a friendly, positive manner.