Musician · Educator
Start before you're ready.
Guitar, piano, ukulele and banjo lessons.
Contact me to book your place.
About
I'm William Troy — a musician and music educator based in County Laois, teaching guitar, ukulele and banjo.
Away from teaching I compose, arrange, and perform. I also build tools and games to make learning music fun and accessible. All of my ventures have the same core philosophy, that creativity is something that is inside us all. All we need do is uncover it.
Lessons run one-to-one and in small groups, for complete beginners through to players who want to find their own voice on the instrument.
The lessons are guided differently for each student, based on their interests and apptitudes. As such lessons can be geared towards the exam system, or lessons could be designed to help the student find their own voice. This is done in collaboration with the parents to ensure that I can support the students learning in the best possible way.
Teaching & Philosophy
Creative Learning as a practice, not a gift.
Chords, melody, harmony, music theory, rhythm, notation, instruments… learning music can feel overwhelming. There is so much to learn and so many different approaches. Where to begin? In my time as a musician and music educator, the biggest thing that I have learned about music is that it is all about connections. It is not about learning lots of different things, it is about learning to connect things.
How do we connect chords and melody? How do we connect our instrument to notation? Or deeper than that how do we connect our bodies to music? How do our bodies react when we are creative. We are not learning scales to learn scales, we are learning scales because we want to connect musical ideas that seem disparate.
Whether you've never held an instrument or you're trying to find your own voice as a player and writer, my job is the same: to help you make those connections, and to make starting feel like something you can just do.
Resources
A reading list and the tools I keep coming back to — coming soon.
Music Arcade
Learning music, but it plays like a game.
Music Arcade is a growing collection of browser games and exercises I built to make ear training, music theory and instrument skills feel like play instead of practice — pitch judging, fretboard recognition, counterpoint puzzles and more, all wrapped in their own small worlds.
I originally built these tools to use alongside my own lessons and workshops — a way for students to keep sharpening their ear and their sense of the fretboard between sessions. They worked so well that I'm now sharing them more widely, in the browser.
▶ Play Music ArcadeProjects
Things I'm making
Teaching is at the centre of everything I do, but I'm always making other things too.
Viny
A local gig guide for the Laois and Offaly area. Viny makes it easy to find the gigs, sessions and open mics happening near you tonight, and gives local musicians a place to be found.
viny.ie Music learning toolMusic Arcade
An arcade of games and exercises which are designed to make learning music fun for young & old alike. I developed these originally to use alongside my teaching and workshops and am now sharing them with the world as I found them to be so useful.
Play now Folk rock bandDown the Line
I'm the electric guitarist in Down the Line, an up-and-coming Irish folk rock band. We're set to play Folly Fest 2026, with a debut single on the way.
InstagramOpacity
A collaboration with Aneta Dortova exploring the interdependence of sound and movement through improvisation and set work. Excerpts performed at Echo Echo Theatre in Derry and Dance Ireland in Dublin.
Creativity workshops
Creative and songwriting sessions, helping people uncover the creativity that's inside us all.
Read moreContact
Get in touch
Looking for lessons, or thinking about a workshop for your school, group or arts centre? I'd love to hear from you.