Student of the Week - John Hughes
Ridley Academy is excited to announce John Hughes as our Student of the Week!
“I decided to enroll in Ridley Academy because I had a very clear goal to develop a professional piano sound and personal style. I wanted to learn advanced chords, jazz accompaniment techniques, techniques for overcoming challenges. I also wanted to develop more fluent and common use of polytonality in my improvisational melodies and to become more proficient at reading music and more confident in my playing.
”With all those previously-seeming unreachable goals in mind, my musical journey with Ridley Academy has been very rewarding. I was able to learn a bucket-list piece. My style and sound feel more complete. My confidence and playing have improved tremendously. I no longer get nervous to play for other people and rarely get nervous when hitting record. I use much richer chords and have more control over dynamics.
”I intentionally found a way to break any ‘musical rule’ from rejecting that music requires repetition to rejecting a notion or need to avoid 4ths. If I was told not to use my thumb on the black notes in a scale, I would play an improv where that rule was intentionally and intelligently broken. I find or make my own way. I feel like I can find a way to make any two notes sound good together, whereas before there were some combinations that I would avoid.
”Before, I had a tendency to quit working on a piece too early — I would give up prematurely. Now, I have better tools and a better mindset to persist, thanks to Ridley Academy. This especially applies to the song ‘Clair de Lune’ which I had given up on multiple occasions.
”In the future, I plan to teach piano and to write student piano music books. Many of my improvisations can be converted to sheet music and will be great pieces to dissect for learning music theory. I would also love to write pieces featured in video games and possibly even movies.”
— John Hughes, Ridley Academy Student of the Week, 31 July 2026
Very well done, John! We are so proud of you.
