Hi! My name is Megan Beckinsale and I am an experienced clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, voice, and music theory teacher located in Alderley.
Currently, I am heading into my fourth year of a Bachelor of Music (Honours) and Bachelor of Education (Secondary) degree at the University of Queensland to achieve my goal of becoming a Prep – Year 12 Music Teacher.
In my journey to achieving this, I have taken every opportunity to presented to me, and then searched for even more! This can clearly be seen in the list detailing my music teaching, education, performance, and volunteer experience at the bottom of this page for your convenience.
Within my private music teaching services, I have experience teaching children all the way from kindergarten age through to primary school, secondary school, and well beyond with many of my students being adults who always wished they played an instrument, want to improve their singing skills, or simply want to find something fun to do!
With this wide array of age-range in my students, I am also able to cater my teaching to best fit my student’s learning style and what they hope to achieve out of lessons. I am then very comfortable teaching students wishing to pursue music as a career, absolute beginners wanting some support in their band programs, students wanting to sit AMEB exams, students wishing to prepare for musical theatre, specialist music program, choral, band, and orchestral auditions, and of course, those students simply wanting to have fun!
I am able to do this through the many pedagogical skills and philosophies I have learnt in University, the teaching techniques I have observed through my colleagues, the extensive resource library I have created myself, and my constant aim to learn new techniques and create the best possible outcomes for my students. For example, I always find it an excellent goal to work towards playing or singing a student’s favourite song and building up their technique to get to this level!
Every student I’ve taught have enjoyed their lessons, their instrument and the ones that have sat exams, have found it incredibly rewarding and had excellent results. I am also very experienced in teaching student’s to prepare to audition either for their school’s specialist music program or for a music scholarship and have had a 100% success rate with those students succeeding in these goals.
Before my commencement of this degree, however, I was a student at St Rita’s College Clayfield where I was a member of seven ensembles ranging from a clarinet quintet to a full symphony orchestra. During school, I also obtained my Grade 8 AMEB Certificate on clarinet, Grade 5 equivalent theory, Grade 5 Classical High Voice and Grade 5 level on the saxophone and was a member of the State Honours Ensembles Program, the Young Conservatorium and the Queensland Youth Orchestra Wind Symphony.
Furthermore, my love for music began in a way very similar to many many people’s experiences with music. I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember but my love for it was fostered through my primary school choir, music classes, and eventually joining the Australian Girls Choir. Additionally, I only began playing the clarinet in year five with the introduction of my primary school’s band program.
Due to this experience, I am able to relate to many of my students at a personal level while also understanding the ins and outs of the systems they are going through themselves, I’ve found this creates for a seamless cohesion between what they learn in their school’s ensemble program and their private lessons.
As I work in many child-care and education settings you can be sure your children are safe with me as I have a current Working With Children Blue Card, In Safe Hands – Child Protection Training, and possess my ALTAID004 First Aid Certificate – Provide an emergency first aid response in an education and care setting.