I am the Principal Music tutor and founder member of the Chalmers Mackay Music School, which was established in 1989. I am a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, Glasgow, studying there from 1973 - 76 gaining a teaching qualification in Music Education, specialising in Bach piano technique, voice and oboe. During my Teacher Training year which I did in Aberdeen, I completed a further qualification with the London Guildhall School of Music for performance singing 1977. I attended the University Of St Andrews to gain an Advanced Diploma in Jazz - June 2000. My teaching career began in Orkney in 1977, where I spent six years as an itinerant teacher of music, travelling to seven different school during the week, covering an age group of 5 to 18 years. During 1983, my career took a change in direction when I left Orkney to work in a Country Music Band. I felt I needed to broaden my horizons as regards my musical experiences, and also wanted to travel. In the 8 years that followed, I toured Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and America, appearing on Nashville Grand Ole Opry, and taking part in numerous Radios and Television broadcasts. It was at this time I met my husband Sandy and we decided to settle down to raise a family, which meant me putting my career on hold for a time. I decided to start teaching again as a private piano tutor while being at home with my children Debrah and Robbie. Over these nine years I also worked as a freelance presenter for the BBC. The nucleus of the Chalmers Mackay Music School was formed with 12 pupil's back in 1989.
I have now been tutoring piano and keyboard for a continuous 16-year period, working with pupils of beginner standard right up to Diploma level. Our main objective with the Music School is to provide a professional teaching service for our local community, which we feel, is greatly needed. Over the past decade I have noticed a definite need for specialist musical teaching in our Northeast area of Scotland, due to the decline in the availability of this subject in the general school environment. Music is looked on as a fringe subject in most schools, so it does not hold priority as regards finance, time allocation, and credibility. Music can be used as a stimulus to enhance learning in other curricular areas, in my opinion it should have a prime standing on the education ladder, numerous experimentation by learned musical scholars have unearthed proof of such findings within the past Century e.g. Kodaly. Orff and Shoenberg.
I have a very broad taste in Music, and enjoy listening or playing anything from the heavy classics to folk music, Country; Rock, traditional Scottish and I have recently added Jazz to this menu. I have recorded seven albums under the pseudonym of Ruby Rendall, and enjoy writing and arranging songs. I try to employ this musical experience as much as I can in my teaching where appropriate.
My hobbies include cycling, swimming, walking the dog, crosswords, writing songs, cross-stitch embroidery, decorating the house and gardening and playing in our music school tutor band ‘Intuition'.