<aside> 💭 Music, along with all other forms of art, still matters because it is one of the few surviving values in our society — saturated with an obsession towards material productivity and instant gratification — which teach us that delayed gratification and taking pauses to breathe, after all, are what brings us the most profound and everlasting form of joy and fulfillment one could experience.
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<aside> 💭 Suppose the sole motive behind whatever choices parents make for their children is to pass on their version of happiness to the next generation. In that case, it is humbling, and sometimes even fascinatingly mind-blowing, to think of how giving the gift of music has made it to the list of choices.
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<aside> 💭 Sure, piano is played with fingers, but music is played with knowledge and experience built upon years of tenacity and resilience.
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<aside> 💭 Johann, Josef, Wolfgang, Frédéric, Robert, Franz, Sergei, Claude, George…they’re all great and a must to be included in our teaching repertoire. Still, we should also diversify our libraries with William, Amy, Clara, Florence, Unsuk, Lily, Isang, Chen, and many more.
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<aside> 💭 It is truly not about how long you practice.
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<aside> 💭 Some quotes that aren’t mine:
“It’s all in the details!” - Anonymous
“You can play with your feet, as long as you sound good.” - Anonymous
“Teach the student first, the music second, and the piano third.” ”A student is almost always motivated to practice if he leaves his lessons feeling capable.” - Frances Clark
“He who plays the piano keeps sane.” - Italian proverb
“The dream begins most of the time with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth.” - Dan Rather
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<aside> 💭 I used to think that teaching takes place between a ‘sender’ and a ‘receiver,’ but recently, that idea has morphed into that there are merely just two ‘walkers’ who walk together.
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I won’t be a good match for you if…
Some Musings as a Teaching Musician
Dear New (and Continuing) Student,