Peter Farnan
Tutor of Champions
In recent years accordion players from the North-East have been having a lot of success at competitions throughout the country. To quote a few examples ; Graeme Mitchell, Scottish Senior Champion 1977, Eric Bell, Scottish Senior Champion 1978. Graeme Mitchell and Graham Geddes variously winning top honours in solo and trio classes at Kinross, Blairgowrie, Keith, Musselburgh and Perth.
These players have more than talent in common – they all have the same music teacher – Peter Farnan from Bucksburn, Aberdeen.
Intrigued by this success I decided to go along and meet this man who obviously has the uncanny knack of developing championship material in a player, albeit the potential is there beforehand, waiting to be developed.
Peter, who is 32, is a Computer Systems Programmer in Aberdeen, and is married with four of a family. Two of his children play the piano, while the other two play the accordion. When I asked him about their potential as players, Peter was a bit non-committal and I had the feeling he was being modest – he’s that kind of a fellow.
Scottish Champion
Peter was born in Dundee and was educated at Harris Academy where John Huband and Arthur Spink were also pupils, at the same time. Peter had an illness which prevented him from playing football, etc., with other children and when he was eight his father bought him an accordion. He went to lessons until he was sixteen and during that time he was Scottish Traditional Junior Champion in 1960 and 1961. He was also Area Junior Classical Champion the same years. Music was his principal interest at school where he studied piano and played clarinet in the Dundee Schools’ Orchestra.
He left school at 17 and went into insurance. At that particular time there was not a great demand for accordionists so Peter switched to the bass guitar and gave up the accordion completely. He played jazz, rock and pop with various groups in the Dundee area. In the meantime he had gone from insurance to accountancy and eventually got the opportunity to work with computers. While in Dundee he did a bit of teaching the accordion and taught a young chap by the name of Sandy Nixon who won the Scottish Under 12 Solo Class two years running. However, Peter did not see himself as a teacher and made no effort to further his career in that respect.
At the age of 23 his work brought him to Aberdeen where he started playing bass guitar with the Peter Dee Band in the Palace Ballroom. He remained with the band for six and a half years. When Peter had been in Aberdeen for a time he was asked by a friend to help out with a teaching job. He accepted. That was in 1972 and what started as a favour for a friend gave him the incentive to continue teaching. I had heard that Peter is a hard task master and when I asked him what he looked for in a pupil he was very definite in his answer. He looks for enthusiasm, sensitivity and physical capacity for the instrument. He likes his pupils to be firstly a musician and secondly a technician. He looks for expression and control of the bellows, technical control and precision in co-ordination of the hands.
Peter is of the opinion that the best players are those who get encouragement from their parents, even though the parents do not play an instrument themselves. As far as the pupils are concerned they must enjoy what they are doing and it is only by practice that they will be successful and consequently get enjoyment. He believes that pupils should have an aim. The aim itself may be to play in a school concert or to win a championship – whichever it is it gives the young player something to work for. He advocates that training a pupil to enjoy competing goes a long way to helping that pupil to win.
Peter emphasizes that the selection of tunes for a competition is vital and he is finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable material for his pupils to play. He has overcome this by composing several competition pieces which have been played by Eric Bell, Graeme Mitchell and Graham Geddes in their winning selections.
Peter is still playing bass guitar regularly in hotels in the Aberdeen area as well as doing session work on TV, records and radio. His tastes in music cover a wide spectrum as during our conversation he was enthusing about music to win the Senior Scottish Championship one minute and the next he was advising that someone who wanted to hear and learn about good bass lines should listen to Bach.
Peter Farnan is a man totally dedicated to good music and we are fortunate that he is willing to share his dedication to the benefit of others.
Box and Fiddle
December 1978
These players have more than talent in common – they all have the same music teacher – Peter Farnan from Bucksburn, Aberdeen.
Intrigued by this success I decided to go along and meet this man who obviously has the uncanny knack of developing championship material in a player, albeit the potential is there beforehand, waiting to be developed.
Peter, who is 32, is a Computer Systems Programmer in Aberdeen, and is married with four of a family. Two of his children play the piano, while the other two play the accordion. When I asked him about their potential as players, Peter was a bit non-committal and I had the feeling he was being modest – he’s that kind of a fellow.
Scottish Champion
Peter was born in Dundee and was educated at Harris Academy where John Huband and Arthur Spink were also pupils, at the same time. Peter had an illness which prevented him from playing football, etc., with other children and when he was eight his father bought him an accordion. He went to lessons until he was sixteen and during that time he was Scottish Traditional Junior Champion in 1960 and 1961. He was also Area Junior Classical Champion the same years. Music was his principal interest at school where he studied piano and played clarinet in the Dundee Schools’ Orchestra.
He left school at 17 and went into insurance. At that particular time there was not a great demand for accordionists so Peter switched to the bass guitar and gave up the accordion completely. He played jazz, rock and pop with various groups in the Dundee area. In the meantime he had gone from insurance to accountancy and eventually got the opportunity to work with computers. While in Dundee he did a bit of teaching the accordion and taught a young chap by the name of Sandy Nixon who won the Scottish Under 12 Solo Class two years running. However, Peter did not see himself as a teacher and made no effort to further his career in that respect.
At the age of 23 his work brought him to Aberdeen where he started playing bass guitar with the Peter Dee Band in the Palace Ballroom. He remained with the band for six and a half years. When Peter had been in Aberdeen for a time he was asked by a friend to help out with a teaching job. He accepted. That was in 1972 and what started as a favour for a friend gave him the incentive to continue teaching. I had heard that Peter is a hard task master and when I asked him what he looked for in a pupil he was very definite in his answer. He looks for enthusiasm, sensitivity and physical capacity for the instrument. He likes his pupils to be firstly a musician and secondly a technician. He looks for expression and control of the bellows, technical control and precision in co-ordination of the hands.
Peter is of the opinion that the best players are those who get encouragement from their parents, even though the parents do not play an instrument themselves. As far as the pupils are concerned they must enjoy what they are doing and it is only by practice that they will be successful and consequently get enjoyment. He believes that pupils should have an aim. The aim itself may be to play in a school concert or to win a championship – whichever it is it gives the young player something to work for. He advocates that training a pupil to enjoy competing goes a long way to helping that pupil to win.
Peter emphasizes that the selection of tunes for a competition is vital and he is finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable material for his pupils to play. He has overcome this by composing several competition pieces which have been played by Eric Bell, Graeme Mitchell and Graham Geddes in their winning selections.
Peter is still playing bass guitar regularly in hotels in the Aberdeen area as well as doing session work on TV, records and radio. His tastes in music cover a wide spectrum as during our conversation he was enthusing about music to win the Senior Scottish Championship one minute and the next he was advising that someone who wanted to hear and learn about good bass lines should listen to Bach.
Peter Farnan is a man totally dedicated to good music and we are fortunate that he is willing to share his dedication to the benefit of others.
Box and Fiddle
December 1978