Thursday 8 January 2015

Musical instrument repair courses and a little about me!

For those who are 'a little in the dark' about who I am and what I do, below is a little bit of factual stuff to bring you up-to-date.

Hi, my name is Trevor Head and I am the director of courses here at Llangunllo School, a trombone player and a qualified teacher with a ‘Certificate in Education’.


This is a picture of me with a group of brass instrument repair students on the final day of a course here at Llangunllo School: I'm the one wearing the white workshop coat!



 I have 42 years experience training in the field of musical instrument repair; 29 years at Merton College in South London and more recently here in Wales. I moved to Wales in 2001 and for a little over 10 years I taught in a 'special needs' school for boys near Hay-on-Wye in Herefordshire.


I have been running courses here in Llangunllo since 1985 as well as teaching in other educational establishments. I am now retired from school teaching, and  concentrate entirely on providing training in both brass and woodwind instrument repair.


I work with a small team of equally qualified and experienced subject tutors, all of whom are successful in the music retail, manufacturing and repair industries. I am also a ‘Founder Member’ and President of NAMIR (National Association of Musical Instrument Repairers) and  hold a professional qualification in ‘Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering’.


This  really does sound like I'm 'blowing my own trumpet' or rather 'trombone' Anyway let's continue!


It has taken me a very long time to come around to the idea of writing a blog. My kids, and just about everybody else in the whole wide world seem to spend every spare waking moment updating every detail of their lives on one social media site or another; technology seems to have passed me by! or am I just a 'boring old fart'? Don't answer that!
I thoroughly dislike trivia. I don't want to know what you had for breakfast or that you went for a walk in the park. So please, if you want to say something,  make it interesting and relevant!!
Am I alone here, or does anyone else feel the same?


The main reason for me having this site is to provide information about the musical instrument repair courses I am running here in Wales, and to interact with others having similar interests to me in terms of wanting to learn new skills and advance themselves in this area of work.


As you can probably tell, I don't have much of a clue about what to write about, that might be of interest to you. Any help therefore will be greatly appreciated.


The dawning of the new year found me bereaving the loss of my website: trevorhead.co.uk
I've no one to blame but myself,  I was given ample notice about my previous web host company ceasing to host my site. So, on the 31st December it disappeared.
Instant panic set in and here I am trying to make contact with anybody who might be vaguely interested.


So, if you do have something to say or a question to ask, then go ahead! This is a whole new experience for me and I can't wait to see if there is anybody out there who is interested and eager to communicate.


Regards and best wishes for now


Trevor 




4 comments:

  1. Hello Trevor, I'm the one in the blue workshop coat!
    I've not a full time professional repairer, but I have a workshop and do a fair bit of buying, refurbishing and selling of mostly vintage instruments. Plus repairs for band colleagues. So I'm still using the skills you taught me so well!
    Best wishes, Brian Eldred

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  2. Hi Trevor, nice to see you back on the web. Missed you at the recent NAMIR event. Hope all goes well. Best wishes, Cecil Hayward

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  3. Hello Trevor, The old link to your site that I have had for years on my website brought me here so everything still works ok. The renewed site is great and I'm glad to see that you are still very active. I attended your brass course in April 2007 and have refurbished a good few bones since with thanks to your tuition. I would recommend it to anybody. Thanks again...
    Dave Senior www.davesenior.co.uk

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  4. Ken price,
    Even with 60 years of Instrument making behind me, I learnt and gained an awful lot of knowledge in just one week. It was an Intensive course, with lots of knowledge gained but plenty of time for one to one tuition, which I felt was very important.

    With Trevor's set up and Gary Mills as Foreman, I really enjoyed the experience. The friendliness of fellow students was very enjoyable.

    With the repair course coupled with 5 star cooked lunches the whole thing was a very good experience for me.

    Ps. Your pineapple/leek recipe was a roaring success (confirmed by family)

    Ken

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