Hi, my name is Christine MacKay and I am commonly known as Chrissy.   I am passionatly a Mum, a Mother-in-law, a Nana, a sister, a daughter, FAVOURITE Aunty Christine, a wife, a friend, a believer, an artist, author of 11 music books, a teacher, a songwriter and a musician.

I am a riegistered music teacher for New Zealand Modern School of Music - Counties Manukau - Auckland - New Zealand.

I have been involved with teaching music for over 25 years.  I have played in Church music teams for over 14 years including being a worship leader and co-ordinator. 

I contract to the New Zealand Modern School of Music.  NZMSM is a national music school made up with teachers of all ages and instruments.  My area manager is Judith Fulton.  Her contact details are: e-mail:fultonmusic@xtra.co.nz

NZMSM offer yearly competitions and exams athroughout  all of New Zealand. 

Exams are available in many instruments, including theory, from Pre-Grades to Grade 8, Diploma, Performance and Teaching Diplomas.

NZMSM has its own system of books for learning.  As teachers we use these as our guidelines and incorporate other music along the way.

It is such a joy to pass on the gift of music:  A maths language, a language of love, a language of rules and formulas.  A language of happiness.

A little bit about myself - I am self obsessed with teaching and bringing the best out of everyone.

As a child - living on Norfolk Island, I was privilaged to learn the piano.  Both my brother and I had weekly lessons from a retired proffessor of music.

I began learning Spanish guitar and Spanish dancing at the age of 16 from a studio in Manurewa, South Auckland, New Zealand.

I had dropped out of school too early, and as a consequence returned to extramural studies as an adult student, with the ambition of being multi-lingual and an interpreter.  I took music papers as a sideline to the languages.

I became so fanatical and enthrawled by my music papers that I soon found myself giving up languages and studying only music.  My guitar was always out of its case, by my bed, and I found myself playing for countless hours.

I would buy many music books and work my way from the back page to the front.  I found I became lost in a pandora's box of theory.

I would learn, find a teacher, learn some more, go to another teacher for a different style of learning ... and so the cycle of my musical journey began.  Piano - Spanish Guitar - Fingerstyle - Modern Guitar - Blues Guitar - Classical Guitar - Saxophone - Piano - Ukulele.  As you can see, I have an ecletctic love of music and various styles.  I am currently studying Flamenco, advanced Rock and Bass guitar.  I will always be a pupil of music.  I am a firm believer that EVERY teacher should be a pupil. 

Over the last 25 years, I have played many instruments [due to my knowledge of theory and ability to read music ].

I progressed from instrument to instrument.  During this time I played Saxophone in Symphonic Soundz Orchestra.  Played Saxophone and then guitar for the Sunset Coast Band.  I taught itinerant guitar and recorder at many schools in our district and including Manurewa and Papakura districts.

In 2005 my husband and I moved to the South Island.  Our home had a large empty factory attached - so naturally we turned the factory into a music school.

Here we had a dedicated classroom for theory, a band room for practice, and a computer suite for composing and general music games.  Children as young as 5 would come after school, study guitar or keyboard in a group, and then have their theory lesson. Then the next age group would arrive for their lessons and band practice, and so the day went on. Lesson - joint Theory class - Lesson - joint Theory class - Lessons.   Hot chocolate drinks and mashmellows were always on tap, especially during the snowy season.

We often found siblings of our pupils out the back playing pool or watching movies.  It was a time of putting all our efforts into something to take our focus of our terrible grief from multiple tragedies within our immediate family.  The community of Milton were extreemly kind and supported our efforts.  We called the building 'Milton Music School', we were still contracted to NZMSM, and upon discussion with my area manager at the time, it was agreed that naming it after the community was a good idea.  We taught piano, keyboard, guitar, ukulele, saxophone, guitar, bass and clarinette. Friends came on as staff to help it all run smoothly.   This was a great time for the local community of Milton and the kids, and adults whom we were teaching.  A drumming teacher would come up on Thursdays whille I went to Balclutha to teach.  During this time I also taught piano at the college and guitar at the outlying primary schools as far as Lawrence and Waitahuna. 

In 2008 we returned north due to a nasty cold related asthma [that and I was now a Nana! Oh what joy!]

I resummed teaching at Papakura High School, but unfortunatley for me, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and recieved 3 concussions within 8 days. 

The walk back to normality has been a long hard road.  It has taken a few years to be able to walk un-aided, remember lists etc.

My greatest grief from the TBI was forgetting how to play the piano and progressivly forgetting how to play the guitar.

Like a dog with a bone I strived to work at learning all over again, writing down my record along the way.  The blessing in disguise was my writings turned into music books.  My friends would 'capture' my computer and help me format and find my files.  It is here I would like to publicly thank Jayne Woodham and Christine Perkins for helping me through this very hard time.

Even when I was fatigued, and would say and write my words backwards or in another accent, my pupils were awesome.  They would give me a little grin and a giggle and we would laugh it off together and carry on with our studies.

So this, believe it or not is a paraphrased verion of where I am today, teaching at Waiuku College, Aka Aka Primary, Pukeoware and Glenbrook School, as well as pupils after school.  Each Friday I go for guitar/bass lessons with Tony Jajou, who was #1 in Iraq for 19 years.  Thank you Tony, you have helped weave back my brain cells and ignighted a passion that cannot be extinguished. 

Thanks also goes to my husband Rob, who spends countless hours on his own as I duck into the office to 'just do this for 5 mins' and I end up being absorbed in music again.  Rob, you need a sainthood!

So to all of you that actually read this page.  Thank you.

Thank you for your patience, that my sentences can be fragmented, that my typing fingers don't come with spell check anymore...  Thank you.  To my large list of pupils, thank you.  Your all awesome.

Remember ... my first class tickets and back stage passes to your concerts!

And as a footnote, please check out the New Zealand band Whistle Jacket.  Roy Oliver was one of my pupils at a very young age.  One of a small handfull who has perfect pitch.  His brother Johnny was also one of my students and he has inspired me over the years, and even to this day with his ability and his strength in hard times.  Johnny, you still inspire me.

This has become my motto:

'If you play as well as me, then I have failed.  You MUST play better than me, it is then that I have become a good teacher'.

To my pupils present and past, I thank you. Please feel free to leave your comments.

Kind Regards,

Chrissy.