Choosing a guitar tutor is never easy, and for a nine year old, it's even harder. We were looking for someone who could motivate our son who had been put off by the slow and dull progress in his school lessons. We wanted someone who could engage and enthuse him and, if he wanted to go that way, take him through formal exams. Francis is a diamond in a coal mine. His natural warmth, jovial nature combine with his vast musical and teaching knowledge to provide a student-centred approach that follows and expands their interests and continually offers new delights and challenges - whether they be 9 or 19. Rather than seeing a boy being put off music by his school, we now see a lad who is both inspired by a pentatonic scale and the riffs of Jimmy Page. The fact that Francis is willing to travel to your own home to tutor is also a great help when family life is busy, and, we believe, makes students more comfortable in that they are learning in a more informal environment. We feel extremely lucky to have found Francis as a tutor and we're very excited and looking forward to see what his skill, encouragement and enthusiasm will bring out in our son in the future.

I first started as a self taught guitarist and, looking back, I realize that there was nothing that could have got me to where I am now apart from my willingness and enthusiasm combined with Francis' wisdom, guidance and expertise. He has helped me from learning the basic chord shapes and scales, to the point where I now write my own music and he provides the support and resources that I require to record and edit it. His knowledge of the guitar covers every aspect imaginable, and if he doesn't know there and then, he will the next day. If you say you want to learn a song that he has no idea how to play, he will learn it like the masters who composed it for the next time he sees you. You've heard of the masters of guitar ( Jimi Hendrix, Angus Young etc ) well Francis is the master of guitar tuition.