Mark Ellwood x His Mum

Mark is the founder of Guitar School in North Wales.

We first came to know Mark through our festival, The Good Life Experience, where he would offer lines of enthusiastic amateurs the chance to play like their heroes... or at least have a go! There’s real magic in that.

Here, Mark writes eloquently and movingly about his mentor, his mum.

There have been many inspirations in my life but here I have to write about my mum. Sadly, she passed away in 2005, just before I started Guitar School. I was 27 and had been her carer from the age of 14. 

Mum was 49 when she had me and Dad was 56. Dad passed away when I was 3 years-old so it was just me and mum for as long as I remember, we were very close.

“One of my fondest memories is of handing her a demo tape I’d made just before she died.”

She was so proud and would play it to the district nurses that came to help me care for her. I missed a lot of secondary school due to having to take care of mum. In the end I sat less than a handful of exams, after missing so much school the teachers said I couldn’t enter for most of them. When asked what I would like to do as a career I replied, “I want to be a musician”.

“I was told by my teachers to pick something else as music wasn’t an option.”

I founded Guitar School in January 2006 with an ambition of inspiring and teaching others to play music. I teach guitar, piano, ukulele and music creation/production. I teach children from the age of 5, through to adults in their 80s. The only requirement is a passion to learn music.

In 2007 I began providing music therapy sessions three times a week for dementia sufferers in local care homes and within the wider community.

In Lockdown 1, 2020, I collaborated with 27 musicians from around the world on a cross-genre album to support Shelter Cymru called The Lockdown Collective. My original guitar riffs were passed around the group and the songs grew into the album Gwaith Cartref.

Music has captivated me from an early age. One of my earliest memories is of my late mother standing in our living room next to the record player, Beatles record in hand, saying “listen to this!” words that I’ve repeated thousands of times to friends, family and students, it’s become a catchphrase!

Mum played piano by ear, you could hum a tune and she’d play it, note perfect straight away. It was fascinating to watch. I remember attending a party at a relative’s house, when a family member refused to believe that mum didn’t already know the songs they’d asked her to play.

“She had a pure natural talent, it fascinated me.”

As beautiful as the piano sound was, it was the guitar that really appealed to me. When the opening riff to Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses aired on ‘The Chart Show’ one Saturday morning, I knew I had to play guitar. I had been asking for one from the age of 7, and finally found one in a local second-hand shop for £35. It was a little beaten up with only 3 strings, but it was a guitar! It didn’t have a strap and it was too heavy for me to hold, so I placed it on my lap and played it like a piano. I began to try and work out melodies by ear, just like mum did.

Evenings and weekends were always filled with music, mum would play piano and I would try to play along on my 3 string guitar. I was no Seasick Steve, but Mum was always patient and encouraging.

“It didn’t matter that I was ruining her beautiful piano playing, she could see that I was having fun with music, and that’s all that mattered.”

I’m being paid back tenfold now by young daughters as they play and sing as I try to write! 

As a teenager I’d spend weeks in my room desperately trying to write the next Sweet Child... or Wonderwall. It was the ‘90s, and there were so many inspiring bands around. Hard Rock, Grunge, Indie, Brit Pop, I loved it all and I was totally hooked on music by this time.

I remember writing my first song and being excited to show mum. I’d written a riff, intro, verse and chorus. When the 70 seconds of my ‘masterpiece’ were over, I looked for her reaction, the response wasn’t good, she simply said “go and try again!”.

After 20 minutes of sulking, I picked up the guitar and wrote another song, and another and on and on this went. It was mum that inspired, pushed and motivated me to make music. She had a ‘don’t quit’ approach to life, and that in itself was totally inspiring.