You probably won’t have heard of Colin Newberry. He was a musician and educator who sadly died a few years ago in a swimming accident, never having achieved widespread fame.

He was also one of the music teachers at my secondary school. I am grateful for the time and effort he put into supporting me and my peers as we explored music and often stayed late in the music rooms creating a dreadful racket.

With his encouragement, I joined the jazz band he ran, having to learn to read bass lines and keep up with a fast swing, and also took a music GCSE and grade 5 music theory. Without his support, I may have still been a bassist but there is less chance that I would be a literate bassist and I would have missed out on a number of formative opportunities for getting experience as I was starting.