Background
Hello, my name is Naledi and I’m a piano teacher & professional musician based in the Southside, Glasgow located in the Newlands / Shawlands area. Here is a bit of background about how I started out in music and my career so far…
I was exposed to music at a very young age and have been playing/singing as long as I can remember. My father was a jazz musician and record producer so there was never a quiet moment growing up in our household! Our home was filled with music from around the world whether it was my dad playing Guitar, Flute or Piano or if we were listening to the music he produced for international jazz musicians from the UK, India, South Africa and beyond.
I started classical Piano lessons at age 4, Clarinet lessons at age 7 and quickly progressed through my graded exams. At age 9 I auditioned for the junior school at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly known as Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama). I was extremely fortunate to be awarded a place in the school and received a full scholarship to attend this wonderful institution. During my 6 years at the RSAMD I was a part of the Orchestra, Choir and Wind Orchestra and received Piano, Clarinet and Music Theory tuition from some of the finest teachers in Scotland. I achieved my Grade 8 Piano at the age of 14 and would go on to perform and compete at Grade 8 level and above.
Further education
As a young adult I ended up following in my father’s footsteps and learned how to record and produce music. I studied Sound Production at the fantastic Edinburgh College facility and graduated with my HND qualification in 2012. At around the same time (my early 20’s) I started to write my own songs and despite my classical background I ended up writing pop, soul and hiphop music. My career as a solo artist started at local open mic nights in Edinburgh and (as many things have) transitioned into releasing music online. You can listen to and watch one of my early songs ‘Forever in the Rain‘ on YouTube.
Original music
After a short time in the Scottish music scene I formed a hiphop/neosoul duo named DarkSoul in 2013. We released ‘The DarkSoul EP‘ and went on to perform at notable music venues and festivals such as King Tuts, Kelburn Garden Party, Audio Soup festival and supported Jamie Cullum in the Usher Hall Edinburgh.
Currently I am working as the lead singer and songwriter of 7-piece Neo Soul band Mother All Mighty. We have gained a local following, played numerous Scottish music festivals, supported bands such as Ibibio Sound Machine and have garnered support from organisations such as The Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. Our latest single ‘MAM‘ was recently recognised as ‘track of the week’ by BBC Introducing Scotland.
Piano teacher
I continued my studies and went on to receive a Diploma in Piano teaching with the ABRSM, achieving a Distinction for my final grade. I am now a full-time Piano teacher based in Glasgow Southside and have been teaching for nearly 8 years. I love my work as a teacher and have continued to study new and innovative teaching approaches, which I incorporate with traditional teaching methods in order to better serve my students. There is a great need for inclusive music tuition that is available to students from all backgrounds and with completely varying needs. I firmly believe that anyone can learn to play a musical instrument and that access to music tuition should be available to people of all ages, races, gender and socio-economic backgrounds.
This is a huge part of my work so there is a page of the website which is totally dedicated to piano teaching where you can find out all about piano lessons and my teaching approach. Please click on the ‘piano lessons’ tab at the top of the page for more information.
Session vocalist
Having spent a lot of time in the studio recording vocals over the years, I somewhat feel more at home in the studio than I do on stage! In order to spend more time in the studio, I’ve had a room in my home acoustically treated and geared towards recording vocals. I am happy to host other musicians who want to record vocals here and am not too worried about making money from it. I’m also up for singing on other musicians’ projects, so please get in touch if you need some Soul/Jazz/RnB/Pop vocals or if you just love vocal harmonies as much as I do!
Please get in touch if you are interested in Piano lessons, booking my band Mother All Mighty, hiring me as a Session Vocalist or using my recording space.
Best wishes,
Naledi 🙂
