Burley doesn't get written about much on its own terms — it's usually mentioned as the bit you drive through on the way from Kirkstall to Hyde Park, or the postcode wedged between the Ring Road and the city centre. That's a shame, because it's got a character all its own: the terraces around Burley Road and Cardigan Road, the green stretch of Beckett Park just up the hill, Kirkstall Road rumbling with buses and vans heading in and out of town, and a proper mix of long-term residents and students renting near Leeds Beckett's Headingley campus. I teach guitar and bass right across it, and it's one of the more varied patches on my books precisely because of that mix.
I'm Ryan Hawkins, guitar and bass tutor at Phillips Music Tuition. I studied Pop Performance (Guitar) at Leeds Conservatoire and have spent the last decade teaching and gigging around the North, including regular corporate and wedding sets with the Northern House Band at venues like Grantley Hall and Rudding Park Hotel. That performing background shapes how I teach — I'd rather a student learn to work a song out by ear, from a chord chart or lead sheet, than lean on tab for everything. It means they can actually play what they want to play, not just what someone else has transcribed.
Burley students tend to fall into a few groups. There are families around Burley Park and the streets off Cardigan Road with kids just starting out on guitar, often after a Christmas or birthday present has been sitting in its case for a few weeks. There's a steady stream of Leeds Beckett students nearby who grew up playing and want to keep it going, or who've decided university is finally the time to start bass. And there are adults further along Kirkstall Road picking a guitar back up after years off, usually because it's been leaning in a corner of the flat looking guilty. Genre-wise it leans indie and rock, which isn't surprising this close to Headingley and Hyde Park, but plenty of students want pop, blues or soul instead, and I'm just as happy teaching whatever's actually on someone's playlist.
Lessons happen at your home in Burley — whether that's near the Burley Park train station on the Harrogate line, over towards Kirkstall Abbey, or down by the Cardigan Fields end — with no amp to lug anywhere. If a home visit doesn't suit your week, my Cookridge teaching space is a short drive away, and online lessons are available too, which tends to work well for exam terms or dark winter evenings when nobody fancies a home visit.
I hold ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory and know the Rock School syllabus properly, so students wanting a structured route through grades — often useful for UCAS points alongside GCSEs or A-Levels — get proper attention to scales, technical work and sight-reading rather than a rush through a set piece. Just as many Burley students have no interest in exams at all and simply want to get better at the songs they already love; both get the same care.
Every new student starts with a free consultation lesson — a relaxed first meeting rather than an audition, so you can see if it's a good fit before committing to anything. Lessons are £35 for 60 minutes or £18 for 30 minutes, with travel across Burley included in the price, and a straightforward 48-hour cancellation policy.
If you're in Burley, or nearby in Kirkstall, Headingley, Hyde Park or Burley Park, and have been meaning to start guitar or bass lessons, get in touch and I'll find a time that works.