Eleanor Loaring - violin and viola. Eleanor grew up on the Isle of Man, where she learned the violin from an early age. Studying under Dorothy Shallcross and then William Pickering, Eleanor went on to win the biennial Young Musician of Man competition. She was appointed leader of the Manx Youth Orchestra, and performed with them as a soloist, at home and on tour abroad.

What to include in the first lesson? I am posed with such questions sufficiently as to push me into expressing my thoughts on the matter. Too numerous to note are the key factors in teaching the piano from scratch. Which of them deserve comment in so short a precis? I liken the world of instrumental learning to be built from the three-legged tripod, namely theory, technique and playing. Let us unravel each a little further. I liken it to replicating holding a golf ball within the ha.