Here's an extract from my forthcoming eBook. It's written as a series of letters as I sit and wait in-between absent pupils. It gives some of the highs and lows of a private music tutor.

'This in itself would have been bad enough, but it wasn’t the sum total of the trouble that Gerald caused. Despite repeated attempts to explain that the pedal operated by the right foot was a volume control the message somehow never got through and he persisted in a technique similar to that of a wind operated harmonium. Gerald’s right foot pumped up and down in a rhythm steadier than any of his melody lines ever displayed. The result was a bizarre blaring and receding of noise as his foot moved up and down. During the course of the evening the volume level gradually rose and fell every second or so, from being almost imperceptible to becoming eyewateringly loud. The effect made you feel quite sea sick. It’s no wonder that the other players in the group struggled to maintain their own part. Gerald was utterly oblivious (or utterly unconcerned) with the devastation that was wrought behind his back and was impervious to any demands contrary to his own wishes. By the end of that term I believe that the pharmaceutical counter in a nearby branch of Boots had experienced such a rise in profits, from an unexpected increase in sales of headache medication, that it had enabled several successive managers to retire on a fat pension and leave the rat race forever.'