About Leah
Leah O'Driscoll has a passion for learning and teaching
After learning guitar in her early twenties, Leah spent five years travelling around New Zealand, jamming with every guitarist she could find. This gave her a diverse background and perspective on music. Leah has since been a member of many NZ bands, from covers to originals covering genres from funk, rock, pop, soul and more. Her roles have included Rhythm and Lead Guitar, Bass, Lead and Backing Singer.
Leah has nurtured over 20 youth bands and is a founding member of Greymouth's Youth & Music Development Trust. Leah's work with young local band Alienz inspired her to campaign to bring the Rock Quest to the West Coast. Including mentoring bands through the National Semi-Finals of the SmokeFreeRockQuest and opening twice for Op Shop.
Leah's currently tutoring students in bass and guitar and plays bass for M-Band in Whangarei.
Education
1995 Certificate in Contemporary Music Performance
1997 Certificate in Audio Engineering and Music Production
APRA Member since 1996
About My Method
Leah's Co-Creative Guitar Method
Leah had her own idea of what a method ought to comprise of, and had never seen one that fitted the bill. So she developed her own highly acclaimed Co-Creative Guitar Method.
The method's focus is to open up the fretboard so a student can see the relationships between one thing and another on guitar and to get them out of the open position as soon as they physically can.
"Too many guitarists get stuck up by the head of the guitar and think the rest of it is a scary place designed for lead guitarists. Once they understand why or how they got there, players get comfortable with the whole fretboard".
Testimonials
Most people find understanding the guitar fretboard a little difficult, but Leah’s new Co-Creative Guitar Method book - Colouring the Fretboard will make it a lot easier. Working through this book will put you well ahead of all the other guitar players out there.
Leah's Co-Creative Guitar Method is an excellent book containing knowledge required by guitarists of any level. As a guitarist of ten years I have found Leah's Method informative and inspirational and studying with her has been a pleasure.
Events
Stay tuned for upcoming events.