Hi there, my name is Ryan Belshaw. I am a father of 3 children, a loving partner and a full-time working musician. Outside of all of my admin duties and responsibilities of running a business, I teach guitar, bass, drums & ukulele. I am an avid songwriter and have fronted Rock bands such as Hindrance, Sintasia and Crossroad Revival. I played guitar in a band called Otheria, as well as various function bands (most notably, The Gatecrashers – singing and playing guitar). I have performed as a solo acoustic act, playing covers in bars and at weddings. In more recent times I have been doing much more work in audio production and videography. You can also check out some of my work on Songs In The Wild.

Back in 2020, I started what was to become The Musician Academy. After teaching guitar privately for a little over 6 years prior to this and building a full roster of dedicated students, opening a music school was the logical next step! Not only that, when I first met Jordan she was studying her PGCE in English… BUT she had various music qualifications such as her ALCM Diploma in Musical Theatre and a Grade 8 in Classical singing. I had wondered why on earth she had not explored a potential career as a singing teacher?! You’ll laugh at this, but Jordan said, “I didn’t realise that I could teach with those qualifications.” Long story short, Jordan started her own private singing tuition business under my guidance and within 6 months it had become her full time career as she fell in love with the craft. Jordan and I weren’t getting any younger and having a family was important to us, so taking our businesses out of our home and moving into a commercial premises was the catalyst that led to what The Musician Academy has become today. We started our own little family and the rest is history!

Music was always a big part of my family life growing up; my parents had great taste! Queen, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Europe, Def Leppard, Dr Hook, Kenny Rogers, Shania Twain, Simon & Garfunkel, Eva Cassidy, Elvis and Gary Moore, just to name a few!

My Dad was always singing about the house and loved to “harmonise” with his favourite songs, he had (and still has) a real natural ability to hear those harmonised thirds and execute them in real time! As a child, I was very impressed and this sound ruptured up an excitement in me that had me also singing, harmonising and messing about with any musical toy or instrument I got my hands on.

Christmas 2005, at age 11, I got my first Guitar. I signed up for group guitar lessons in school. After no more than 5 or 6 weeks I was left uninspired after practising lots and not making any progress (no disrespect to the teacher), so I quit because “my hands are too small” (or so I thought!). But the good news is that I picked it back up again at age 14, self taught, and I’ve been far too stubborn to put it down since! I played guitar every day for hours, got involved in music within school, joined bands and then started picking up even more instruments. I restarted lessons while studying GCSE Music and eventually went on to achieve my Grade 8 Guitar with Rockschool.

I still vividly remember those feelings I got when learning to play my favourite songs and being able to perform them in full. I keep this feeling central to my lessons and help my students chase that same feeling, with lots of hard work and dedication to their practice. The reward is the the journey – overcoming any obstacles or technical challenges and hearing the results at the end. Music is such a powerful way to express yourself that words cannot.

My lessons are all about building rapport and trust with my students. Forming a strong teacher-student relationship to help guide them to their musical goals – whether that is learning for fun, achieving their grades or setting them up for a career in music.