Chris Nichols

Musician and Educator

Chris Nichols is a folk musician and educator specialising in the folk music of the British Isle.

Articles and Tunes

Optimising Zoom for the Music Lesson

Zoom features technology that reduces background noise, cancels out echos and automatically adjusts the volume level to the spoken voice. Fortunately, with two simple changes to the settings, we can vastly improve the whole experience

How to Tune Your Violin or Viola

Tuning your violin or viola is a crucial step in maximizing your playing experience. In this guide, you'll learn the steps to getting your instrument in perfect pitch and ready for music-making. Let's get started!Tuning with a Tuner What you will...

MP3 Speed Changers

Practicing with recorded music can improve your skills, but sometimes the tempo is too fast. To practice effectively, you need to slow down the music to a tempo you can play along with. To do this, you can rip the audio files from a CD to your...

Katie’s Waltz

I wrote Katie's Waltz for my then-girlfriend, now wife, back in 2010. It marked my first steps into tune writing. From the liner notes of the 2019 Threepenny Bit CD King Ahtu:"Chris wrote this tune for his lovely wife, Katie. We performed it for...

TESTIMONIALS

A gifted and inspirational music teacher, he has a naturally infectious positive energy which motivates and encourages young people to enjoy exploring new ways of learning and playing creatively with others.

– Jo Harmer
Director of FolkActive

Chris is an exceptional fiddle player and a wonderful human being: as a Cornish step dancer, I love working with Chris as my go-to expert on Cornish music whenever the opportunity arises.

– Carmen Hunt
Cornish Dancer and Workshop Leader

Chris is an engaging and inspiring teacher. Both our sons thrive on his input; his instructions are clear and his examples easy to follow. Lessons with Chris are a highlight of their week and their improvement is obvious after every session with him.

– Benn

Mr Nichols is such an amazing music teacher! I wanted a kind, funny and energetic teacher. He’s all of them!

– Luhan (10)