Louise Lawrence

Louise studied at the London College of Music. She lives in Somerset where she works as a freelance musician tutoring woodwind instruments and performing regularly with various Classical, Jazz and Klezmer ensembles. Music projects include co-founding the High Park Community Music School - enabling any child to play an instrument, forming the Hoot Band - enabling any adult to improvise, and collaborating on the Mosaic of Sound and Vision series of workshops - teaching children to create art inspired by music.

Since gaining a B Sc (Hons) in Psychology, Louise has focussed attention on the hurdles that limit playing potential. Currently she is developing Wizwind, a method that accelerates learning for those that struggle to read music notation, and liberates would be improvisers who can only play with music notation.

The Wizwind Series of technical self-help books for beginners came about during Lockdown. When restrictions allowed, fellow musicians would trek to rehearse in a large barn on the remote farm where Louise lives, warmed by a fire pit and overlooking fields of bemused cattle. The first book - The Lockdown Clarinet Player was inspired by the realisation that not everyone is so lucky, and that many lonely beginner blowers struggling with aspects of technique might gain encouragement and be spurred on by some insight from a specialised musician who has 'done her time in the cells' (as music students term it).

The Self-Taught Flute Player, and The Self-Taught Saxophone Player soon followed, and children's versions of these books and the Wizwind Teaching Method are in the pipe line.