Music School | St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh | A personalised and academic music education

Tune into a world of amazing possibilities

At St Mary's Music School, our focus goes beyond traditional education and into a world where tailored one-to-one instrumental lessons are guided by seasoned professionals, each striking a perfect balance between their teaching and performing careers.

As a specialist music school we offer a fully merged music and academic education, delivered by a highly skilled and dedicated staff team. Half of the school week is dedicated to music – instrumental learning, aspects of musicianship skills and ensemble and group work – and half to academic studies as part of regular school and academic life. Our highly flexible approach means that every pupil has their own individualised timetable and benefits from a lasting partnership forged with their own coach-accompanist, who will support them from S1 and beyond, throughout their musical journey with us.

Our diverse music curriculum spans a multitude of instruments across our keyboard, string, woodwind, brass and percussion departments as well as our voice department, and our pupils not only have the opportunity to dive deeply into their first-study instrument but to take up a second-study instrument too, helping to hone musical versatility.

The music school

Instrumental Departments

Our approach to instrumental learning is one of ‘tailored excellence’ and our Director of Music, John Cameron, carefully matches each pupil with an instrumental teacher for personalised one-to-one lessons, blending expertise with passion and propelling musical journeys to new heights.

Our instrumental teachers balance teaching at the School with their own active performing and recording careers, and every pupil in the Music School, in addition to their main or ‘first-study’ instrument, will also study a second instrument for up to one hour per week.

One of those instruments needs to be ‘contrapuntal’ – for example, piano or accordion or any harmonising instrument that requires two hands – which is good for theory and motor skill development. For singers, whose voice is their first-study, their second-study instrument could contrapuntal or could be any instrument they already play, such as the flute.