I'm Dave Brown, and in the early 80s I was a street performer in London, primarily in Covent Garden, where I was coming up with a funny and successful magic show. One of the other street performers was a classical guitarist named Bob Hoy. I always wanted to collaborate and do an act with Bob. My idea was for him to provide the music for the start of my act, which was silent and comedic, but it never worked out and we ended up going our own ways.

After travelling the globe for a few years, my wife and I arrived back in London. I tried to learn classical guitar to be as cool as Bob, but I was not a talented student - something was missing.

One evening, my wife and I attended a concert given by John Williams with flamenco guitarist Paco Peña and a Chilean group called Inti Illimani. Paco Peña supplied the missing ingredient - passion.

The concert inspired me to learn more about the art of Flamenco and I started searching for a teacher. I began lessons with Ian Davies, a respected Flamenco guitarist and a talented teacher.

Unfortunately, we didn't have many opportunities to get together. I was a performing magician with my work taking me all over the world, and Ian was a performer who was not always in London. Although I only had 8 lessons with him in the course of a full year, I feel he provided me with some great guitar habits and a long-lasting adoration of Flamenco. Ian gave up teaching and moved to Spain, where he sadly passed away, but his spirit stays with me.

My wife and I eventually left London for a quieter life in the countryside and I continued to practise, but without a teacher and I found it hard.

After 18 years of marriage, we celebrated the birth of our daughter. I didn't have much time for practise, so we relegated the guitar and focused on nurturing our daughter.

Then, out of the blue, disaster struck: I fell off a stage while performing in Germany and damaged my spine, which eventually led to me giving up performing. But also, it was difficult for me to hold my guitar comfortably for any length of time and it was put aside.

One year as a Christmas gift, my wife gave me a ukulele. I thought of it as little more than a toy, but after some research I fitted good quality strings, and this was a revelation. Suddenly, it sounded like a proper musical instrument.

After a bit of searching, I found a video by Ted Robinson playing a Bulerias and I realised playing flamenco was a possibility.

I bought a tenor ukulele and put a low G string on it, then I was absolutely hooked. It sounds good, and it is so easy for me to pick it up and play with no discomfort in my spine. I can practise every day and still go about my everyday business.

I am so grateful to all the people who post videos and give real encouragement. This website is my way of giving something back to the community.  And of course, a huge thank you to Ted Robinson.