He trained as a music teacher at the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education, specialising in singing and flute, and gained his Masters degree from Southampton University in 1980. In 1971, he had studied at the Liszt Institute in Budapest, and has been a strong promoter of the Kodaly System of Musical Education ever since.
He started teaching in 1975 and has held posts of Director of Music in West Sussex, then at the Minster School in Southwell, Notts. From 1987, Keith was the County Inspector for Music for Surrey, leaving there in 1999 to become Headteacher of a Hampshire Secondary School.