Louis Moorhouse And Access All Areas
Hello, my name is Louis Moorhouse, I’m 19 years old, and have been a student of Billy’s for around 14 years.
I became completely blind at a very young age, about 18 months old, but even before I became blind I’ve always loved music. I became blind due to an illness, and while I was in hospital having treatment music was a constant source of comfort for me and my family. Gareth Gates, Coldplay and REM were played regularly, and I’m sure there were many other things that were played, but those three particularly were very regularly played.
Even before I became blind I’d always tapped, always drummed on anything within reach. Hospital bed, car seats, box’s, tins…. You name it, I’ve probably drummed on it, and probably still do drum on it! After I became blind music somehow had a deeper meaning for me, and I became fascinated by drums. One of my earliest memories is of me and my Mum driving home from Nursery listening to “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police, and I kept asking my Mum what all the different drum sounds were. Not long after this, I got my first drum kit for my birthday, and that was the start of my drumming journey.
Now I had a drum kit, the next step was to start having lessons to learn how to play this kit properly, rather than just beat it in to oblivion. A friend of the family told us about the drum teacher who was giving her son lessons, so one Saturday morning we accompanied them to that weeks lesson. The teacher was Billy Lockwood, and I vividly remember him doing a drum solo to demonstrate how a certain technique could be used. I thought, “This guy is fantastic. I want to have lessons from him. I want to be able to play like that”. And I’ve been having lessons ever since, and have only stopped for the moment because of Covid and the nonsense it brings with it.
A few years after this first meeting I took up the keyboard, starting on a Yamaha PSR 262 that my uncle had. I’d always loved Elton John, ever since I’d watched the Bob The Builder Christmas special “A Christmas To Remember” which featured Elton and his song “Crocodile Rock”, so I was determined to at least be able to play one of his songs, and get as good at the piano as I could. Ten years on I can just manage “Your Song”, my personal Elton favourite, so I’m very grateful to my younger self for being so set on making something of the piano.
Billy helped me out a lot when it came to keyboard work too. He taught me how to get the best sounding chord progressions out of my Yamaha, and later introduced me to the weird and wonderful world of MIDI and all the things that could be done with it. He also taught me the skill of playing with another musician. Every few lessons he would accompany me on guitar or bass, while I played drums or keys. Looking back I realise now how important those sessions were, having to improvise with the other player, communicating through fills and speed, all really important stuff that I’ve remembered and has really helped me as a musician.
Later on, when I became interested in production and recording, again Billy really helped me out, offering advice, encouragement and feedback. I also started buying equipment from his shop Access All Areas. The first thing I bought from him was a Stagg MD4000 microphone. I think I bought it in 2016, and I still use it today for any spoken word work I do. Most notably I used it to record the Voice Over for a video I did for BBC Yorkshire about pavement parking,, and as always it didn’t disappoint.
But my most significant purchase from Billy was a Yamaha drum kit, with a Premiere snare drum. Not only does this kit sound fantastic, but I’ve been playing it since I first started having lessons with Billy. I remember sitting down at my first lesson, on a tiny chair because I couldn’t reach the pedals at the time when on a normal drum stool, and hitting the Premiere snare and thinking “Wow, I’d love to have that snare”. I also loved the kick and tom sounds, and wondered why my kit didn’t sound amazing like this Yamaha one.. I played on that Yamaha kit more or less every week for about 9 years, then Billy told me that he was thinking of getting a new kit for students to use. Coincidentally I was looking to upgrade my current kit at the same time, and in the end I bought the Yamaha and the Premiere off him, as well as some Paiste Hi Hats. This is still the kit I use today, and it sounds just as fantastic now as it did then.
If you’re interested In seeing what I’m up to musically, please visit my website louismoorhouse.com
You’ll find links to everything on there, including links to long term projects I’m involved in, such as the Louis And Liv Music YouTube channel on which me and my girlfriend post music,. We performed together at Billy’s last showcase gig, which is a gig he puts on to showcase his students. Me and Liv loved performing at that gig, and hope to do more once Covid is over.
You’ll also find examples of work I’ve been involved in, be it playing, mixing or producing, on my Portfolio page, and you can also get in touch with me through my site too.
Thank you for reading!
