Bede’s work in teaching and outreach has seen equal commitment to widening access and the pursuit of excellence. His experience as a teacher includes having worked as a peripatetic brass teacher in various local authorities in Scotland, as a trumpet teacher at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Juniors and at Sistema Scotland, and from 2007-2017 as the trumpet tutor at St Mary’s Music School. Many of his former students have gone on to study music and are now working professionally. His brass quintet Alba Brass were part of the Live Music Now! scheme and performed hundreds of concerts across Scotland and the United Kingdom in a wide variety of settings. With Alba Brass and for Live Music Now! he devised and delivered major composition-based projects for children with multiple and complex additional support needs. From 2019-2025 he served as Director of StAMP Brass, an award-winning programme designed to open access to brass playing and celebrate the unique heritage of brass band music in Scotland. The programme introduced more than 1,000 young people to brass instruments and reached many more through schools, workshops, and performances across Fife.

His career as a teacher in higher education started in 2012 offering foundation musicology and theory courses at St Andrews as an Associate Lecturer. In 2018 he was appointed Head of Instrumental Studies and 2023 Deputy Director of Music. He now lectures primarily in the area of performance, and also in music leadership and ethnomusicology. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

As a teacher of conducting, in 2010 he taught students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and since 2014 has coordinated and taught on conducting courses offered by St Andrews. He has also presented numerous professional development sessions for music teachers across Scotland.