Paul Myatt
Paul is incredibly passionate about music education and the benefits that it brings to people of all ages from 6 months through to adults. Having been involved in music education in Australia since 1986, he has seen many changes in education and associated technologies. Always keen to explore the latest technology, Paul has embraced technological advances to improve delivery of music education. While he loves technology and what it can offer, he is still a firm believer in the teacher being with to the student, whether that be in a class or one on one environment.
Teacher education and how educators can become good teachers is also a passion for Paul. He believes excellence in teaching comes from both teaching experience as well as constantly places oneself in a learning environment and always learning how to improve. Excellent teachers are able to stretch their students to analyse and apply what they have learned to new learning. Paul’s goal is always to teach himself out of a job! He wants to create a learning environment (classroom or one on one studio) where students are motivated, and then honoured for their hard work and achievements. This can only be done by real live teachers. Computers will never be able to replace these most human aspects of education.
In his early years, Paul trained originally as a high school music and mathematics teacher at Brisbane College of Advanced Education (BCAE) now known as Queensland University of Technology. His principal instrument was French horn with piano as his second instrument. Paul has played piano professionally for many years, he currently plays piano and sings in a cabaret show called 2Pauls. Paul has played keyboards, electronic organ, and pipe organ at different stages over the years.
At present Paul is concentrating on learning singing and in 2016 will sit his A.Mus.A in classical voice. He is also a Bass singer with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in the Symphony Chorus. Over the years he has presented at many conferences including: ASME (Australian Society of Music Educators), AMAC (Australian Music Association Conference), ANCOS (Australian National Council of Orff-Schulwerk).
Paul Myatt is a co-director of Forte School of Music and along with Gillian Erskine has helped to create all the Forte course materials (see here) as well as writing the easiLEARN® series for Warner Bros Publishing and Alfred Publishing.
Paul still teaches a lot of students. He has taught at the Forte school in Dee Why since 2008. Here are a selection of videos of his students ranging from young children through to teenagers. If you'd like to see how he teaches music, check out what happens in a Forte music class here.