Let me guess…

You’ve always loved music.
You’ve always dreamed of playing piano.
But somehow, life got in the way.

Maybe you tried lessons as a kid and quit.
Maybe you assumed you weren’t musical enough.
Or maybe it’s just been sitting on your “someday” list for the last 10 years.

If that’s you, I get it.
I’ve met thousands of people with that exact story.

And I’m here to tell you something that no one told them:

You don’t need talent to play piano.
You don’t need years of practice.
You don’t even need to read music.

You just need to learn it differently.

Why Traditional Lessons Don’t Work

The way most people are taught piano is broken.

Scales. Sheet music. Endless repetition.
It’s mechanical. It’s rigid. And for most beginners, it’s discouraging as hell.

What If You Could Play a Song in 5 Days?

Over the past decade, I’ve helped thousands of people learn to play music they love. Even if they’d never touched a keyboard before.

So I created a simple process to help you do the same...

There are moments in life that no words can reach. Moments when the world breaks, and language simply isn’t enough.

When I first built Ridley Academy, I didn’t set out to teach piano. I wanted to give people a way to speak when words failed, because that’s what music once did for me. It saved me.

Over the years, I’ve had the honor of watching thousands of students come through our doors, each carrying their own story. Some seek joy, some seek challenge, and some—like one of our students, Faye—seek healing.

Faye joined Ridley Academy in 2023, not to chase perfection or applause, but because she felt that music still had something to offer her. She learned quickly. She came to one of our concerts that summer with her husband and daughter, and as she told me later, it was one of the most joyful nights of their lives.

A few months later, her husband was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. During those months of uncertainty and pain, Faye began to play. She would sit at...

“When I discovered Ridley Academy, I had no idea how much it would affect my life…”

"When I discovered Ridley Academy, I had no idea how much it would affect my life. I first stumbled upon the ad for a free webinar in March of 2023, and I signed up for the Masterclass immediately after. I thoroughly enjoyed the Masterclass and found that I learned things in weeks that I was never taught in years of lessons earlier in my life, and I gradually became more confident in my playing.

In August of 2023, I had the pleasure of attending one of Stephen Ridley’s concerts with my husband and youngest daughter. Stephen’s energy is just as infectious at his show as it is in the Masterclass videos, and we all became even bigger fans.

About a year after that concert, my husband, Paul, passed away after battling a rare and very aggressive cancer. While he was fighting his battle, I would sometimes go to the hospital’s chapel to play the piano, and I was able to improvise and let out emotions ...

I don't really like to tell this story...

because I don't like to be thought of as a victim and I certainly don't want people to treat me differently. 

This is something that even my best friends didn't know about until about two weeks ago, and these people have known me for years, yet they didn't know this thing about me. 

When I was younger, I went to school and everybody was making fun of me. They would make jokes about me because I talked too loud. Then they would whisper things and I couldn't hear them.

They were picking on me.

I would go home and I just was miserable. and I remember laying on the end of my bed and talking to my mum and I told her “Mum. I don't want to go to school anymore.”  

She asked me “why do you want to go to school?” I had to tell her that nobody likes me, I didn't have any friends, and I was so sad to have to do this. 

Just imagine telling your mother this. I don't have any friends, nobody likes me and they all make fun of me. 

They made fun ...

LIFE is something that either happens to you or happens because of you.

It is everybody's masterpiece. it is your creation.

Some people write a beautiful novel and some people finish their life with an empty book they didn't even pick up the pen. That's life. 

There's three moments, and they came very close together and that's when I realized I wanted to be a musician the first time.

The first time was when I was less than two years old.
It was seeing my father, who was quite an aggressive and serious guy, But when he listened to Elvis he became soft. He became Elvis.

I thought whoa what is that? What is that power like the power to change even a man as strong as my dad? I want that power.

The second big moment for me was inspired by a quote from Woody Allen.

He says that the job of the artist is not to succumb to despair but to find an antidote to the emptiness of existence. and I realize in this moment existence doesn't have to be so empty.

When I would play, I realized ...

I hated being a kid. 

I know, that's a weird thing to say. 

Needing the permission of people, not being able to do what you want to do, to buy what you want to buy, to be able to be yourself, and the way you want to live your life. 

I've spent my life looking at who was right, who knew what they were doing, and I was too scared to try and do what I wanted. 

What was the result? Working in a job I hated. Oh yeah, I had the money, the status, the car, the penthouse. 

But none of it was my idea. none of it was my decision.

When I quit the bank, I quit that life. I changed everything.

In an instant, I snapped, and ended 20 years of begging for permission and approval. And I had no idea what I was going to do next. And you know what? it was the best choice of my life. 

Everything is aligned. I get to travel the world doing what I love. Creating. Sometimes, it's quite overwhelming. 

The first 20 years of my life I just took and took and took. and eventually I had nothing. 

I decided I want...

I’d never heard of Uzbekistan before.

I didn’t even know what I was doing when I got there.

But I arrived on an airplane with just 3 people on it at about 4:00 in the morning, completely exhausted. But when I had stepped off the airplane there were about 40 people there waiting for me. including the Minister of Culture.

I was under a lot of pressure because I was worried no one would show up. 

The day of the show in the middle of the day I was getting ready and doing a sound check, It was in the center square of the city, and a few people were showing up watching my play. 
10 people turned into 20. 

20 turned into 100. 

100 turned into 400.

When I was finished, I noticed they all had their phones out, recording me.

Then my phone started blowing up. I was being tagged hundreds of times, mentioned in stories on instagram, tiktok, facebook, everywhere. and it didn’t stop all night. 

When I was in the building getting ready and dressed, a film crew had been interviewing me, and asked...

This is kind of a crazy story.

Back when I was 15, my father brought us to Nashville. He was a cowboy at heart. and we went all over Tennessee. 

Coming from the the UK, The Social Vanir was VERY heavy, and coming the American city of Memphis, this was absolutely a different universe.

I'm used to a conversation with people that go like: "How do you do?" "I'm fine." when their house is burning down.

Nah, not in Memphis. People were REAL. The BLUES were real. 

So I'm playing in a bar in Nashville, on an old upright piano, and a big man walks up behind me. 

"Well hello there"

I have never loved being interrupted while playing. especially when drunk dudes jump in mid-song.

even though I gave him back a "hey." I really was not that into starting up a conversation

"Do you know what song you're playing?" He said.

"Yeah, I'm playing Johnny Cash." 

"That's good. Do you know who I am?"

I sat back thinking, yeah man, I know who you are. You're interrupting me, that's who.

but I settle...

This is the story of the birth and rise of the most popular instrument in our planet's history; the piano.

Back in the late 1600's, people were growing desperate for a new sound that would stir their souls, a tool to help them express the otherwise inexpressible. For centuries only 2 instrument's had been around; a harpsichord, and an organ. Both of these instruments are incredibly limited in terms of artistic expression; each key only played one tone (tone = the quality and strength of a sound), meaning that there was no variety whatsoever. It is from this that we get the word 'monotonous' (mono = one, tonus = tone/sound), and means BORING! Imagine a painting with just one colour, one paint, and one brush stroke. The world lacked expression!

One man, Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), felt this longing deeply. He was a harpsichord maker in the city of Florence, Italy, and he had been experimenting with ways to improve the instrument for years. He was employed by the Grand Prince F...

If you're interested in playing music, you might be wondering whether a piano and a keyboard are the same thing. It's a common question, and the answer is not as straightforward as you might think.

Pianos and keyboards might look alike and sound somewhat similar, but they're not the same instrument. Let me break it down in simple terms for you.