Born and raised in the inner north, Ronette Duncan-Deveny is a bassist, guitarist, and songwriter who lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne.

Ronnie has always been interested in the creative arts, spending her childhood making films, writing fiction and poetry, and listening to and playing music. While her musical upbringing was centred around the pop and rock of her parents’ youth, picking up the electric bass at age 12 (and guitar six months later) opened her up to a wide variety of different artists and genres. Nowadays, she feels equally at home playing music by artists as diverse as King Crimson, D’Angelo, or Kate Bush, and has a particular passion for improvisation, complex and unusual music, and 'just-right' parts and arrangements. 

Ronette has completed a Bachelor of Arts (Music Performance) at The Australian College of the Arts. She regularly gigs and records with a number of bands and projects, including with jazz fusion drummer Rory Tiganis-Hannan, industrial outfit False Animal, singer-songwriters Tooley and Saphra More, and indie rock/folk band Twice Shy. Within these projects she has played many roles, including songwriter, session musician, and musical director.

As a teacher, Ronette believes lessons should be tailored to each individual student, instead of following a one-size-fits-all approach. Inspired by jazz pianist Thelonious Monk’s maxim that “a genius is one most like themselves,” Ronnie encourages students to develop their own musical voice. Whether focusing on technique, improvisation, songwriting, arranging, or learning favourite songs, she’s most interested in helping students sound like themselves. 

As the eldest of three children and the second eldest of thirteen cousins, she has plenty of experience (perhaps too much!) looking after children and young people. Furthermore, through her teaching, she has also discovered a passion for working with neurodiverse and disabled people 

When she isn’t making music, Ronnie can usually be found watching strange films, playing with her pets, or reading esoteric Wikipedia articles.