Years ago I heard someone make a distinction by stating, “I don’t teach piano; I teach students to play the piano.” This has stuck with me ever since I heard it, and guides my perspective from week to week as I work with my students. One of the reasons I love teaching so much is because I really love my students! Every single one of them has a unique personality, God-given talents, varied interests, differing perspectives, etc. I love talking with them, sharing ideas, discussing life events, and getting input from them.

Numerous times, I have heard other teachers exclaim about how nice it is to have “adult interaction” in contrast with spending so much time each day with kids (a.k.a. their students). It’s also not uncommon to hear others advise new teachers to keep their personal life separate from their professional life. They caution them to keep their dealings with their studio families professional and not to get too personal with them. I couldn’t disagree more with either of these mindsets! For starters, when I’m working with my students, I speak to them on the same level that I would most adults. I don’t dumb down my vocabulary. If they don’t understand something, we discuss it in more detail, or I alter my explanation, but I don’t automatically assume that they won’t understand me if I explain it in the most precise terminology. And we discuss all sorts of things – philosophies of musical styles, historical elements of time periods, theory concepts…as well as many non-music topics.

Secondly, my studio operates with almost a full overlap between a professional and personal approach. I intentionally make efforts to get to know my students and families on a personal level. One of the ways I do this is by attending other events in which my students are involved – plays, concerts, sports games, community fairs, etc. Two weekends ago, several of my students were competing at a local 4-H event, so I went to watch and support them. When I arrived, I ran into a neighbor friend who asked what I was doing there. When I told her I was watching my students in the piano competition, she was in awe and said that in many years of her daughters competing in the event their piano teacher has never once attended.

Now I realize that there is not always the flexibility to be able to attend events and support our students in their various endeavors. But I strongly believe that one of the primary ways we can invest in our students as people, not just as musicians, is by getting to know them and their families on a personal level – caring about them and who they are outside of the piano lesson. This is why I look forward to lessons – not only do I have the opportunity to impart a love for music and the skills to play the piano, but I also get to see and spend time with some of my favorite people!

I know we’re a ways past the first of the year now, but I’m still contemplating goals I want to work toward and improvements I want to make – personally and professionally. Chris Foley has a fabulous article on “10 Ways to Improve Your Musicianship in 2010.” Check out this great statement:

“Single-mindedness and dedication will in large part determine the outcome in a process where talent usually means less than the hard work required for others to think that you were talented in the first place.”

My favorite item is 5. Go on a diet – of listening. A fascinating concept. Chris concludes with this observation, “If you become a part of the performing culture of your chosen musical style, it will add an energy and passion to your musical endeavors that will help propel your playing to the next level.” I’ve never been very “up” on different performers and haven’t made a point to listen to a wide variety of musicians in the past, so I’m excited about the possibility of making an intentional effort toward this end this year. We’ll see how that goes!

Okay, I think I’ve saved the best for the last! You must, must, must find a way to get together with other teachers on a somewhat regular basis. Virtually is good, but in person is the best! I am a member of several local music teachers associations, plus our state association, and Music Teachers National Association. I can say without hesitation that I would not be the teacher that I am today were it not for the investment of numerous other teachers in my life. It is impossible to quantify the benefit I have received from attending local workshops, serving on leadership boards, traveling to state and national conferences, and just visiting with colleagues about a host of teaching-related issues. They’ve given me advice, support, encouragement, ideas, and camaraderie that is invaluable!

It’s great to be able to connect with other teachers on-line via forums, blogs, and e-mail (and I’ve met some incredible teachers that way!), but I highly recommend becoming a member of your local association(s) and making plans to attend a state or national conference this year. In fact, I just completed my registration for the MTNA Conference in Albuquerque, NM March 20-24 a couple weeks ago and I think it would be a blast to plan a time to meet-up, get to know each other in person, and talk about all things teaching-related (well, maybe about other things, too…)! Anyone else already going? Anyone else thinking about going? Leave a comment or e-mail me if you’re interested in being part of a group meet-up and we can start working on the specific arrangements. (Or, for those of you on facebook, RSVP on the 2010 MTNA Conference event page and I’ll keep you in the loop as we make plans!) I still have to finalize my travel and lodging arrangements, but now that the registration is in, I’m thrilled and anticipating a fabulous time!

Hopefully this short series on re-igniting enthusiasm has been helpful. Please keep sharing your own thoughts or suggestions in this area. I know we can all use it!

Most of us teach because we love playing music, we love working with students, and/or we just love teaching. Few of us run studios because we just love doing recordkeeping, filing taxes, and handling other aspects on the business-side of things. I will confess, however, that I love the challenge of strategizing and coming up with good systems to set in place to streamline business operations. If you have a good system in place, staying organized is easy! Here are a few organizational systems that help me maintain some semblance of sanity.

1. Music Teacher’s Helper – If you’ve been reading here for any length of time at all, you know that I am a HUGE fan of Music Teacher’s Helper! Even though I haven’t even tapped into every feature that it offers, this has streamlined my bookkeeping and makes it a breeze. I love the way it keeps my finances organized and presents a professional image for my families since each of them have an account to receive automatic invoices, check records, pay on-line, and more. I’m in the highest cost bracket at $24.95/month, but it is so worth it for me!

2. Managing Receipts – This is a very simple binder system, but it’s essential for record-keeping and tax time! I have one binder for each of my businesses that serves to collect the receipts for the whole year according to the month in which the purchase was made. And then I archive the receipts for three years, so I have two other binders (again, one for each business) that each contain the monthly sheet protectors filled with receipts from the previous three years.

3. Student Worksheets – There are so many great resources on-line, but I needed a way to have just the right worksheet available at the tip of my fingers when I ascertained that it would be beneficial to a particular student. This binder system is what I developed for that purpose and it has served me well for several years now. I have a similar, but separate, binder set-up just for the sight-reading drills that we’re using this year.

4. Printed Music – When it comes to music books and sheet music, we’re all familiar with the Overflowing Piano Bench Syndrome and the impossible-to-keep-organized bookshelves, right? These file cabinets have been incredible for keeping music organized! Plus, with items like this that students will be accessing, it’s important to have a system in place that makes sense to them and is easy for them to utilize as well.

Those are some of the key areas that I’ve worked on over the past several years. This year, I’m hoping to come up with a better system for listing music books that I need to purchase for students and a way to keep track of what books/pieces students have used/learned. Any suggestions?

What makes you really excited? Studying music history? Sight-reading new repertoire? Dreaming up game ideas? Improvising arrangements of familiar tunes by ear?

Capitalize on your own area of interest to build the enthusiasm of your students. Invest your excitement into putting together creative assignments for your students. For example, plan a group class around composers and have every student present a brief report on a composer of their choosing. Or host a “Sight-Reading Super Stars Challenge” and let students put star stickers on a chart on the wall for every piece they sight-read throughout one month. Or pull out a deck of flashcards and come up with a fun, short game that you can play for the first five minutes of every lesson one week. Or hold a Name that Tune challenge where you print up a list of possibilities and give it to the student for reference; then play various tunes and have them see if they can identify which one it is from the list on the sheet.

One of the most effective approaches I ever started was developing a year-long practice incentive theme for my entire studio. Our whole year is built around the theme and I build in enough structure so that it functions like a lesson plan for the whole year, commingled with enough flexibility to customize the assignments for each student and for any specific needs throughout the year. I was able to spend a bit of time organizing my files over Christmas break and have put together a Resources for Sale page that highlights outlines each of the practice incentives that I currently have available, including the newest one that I finally added – Mastering the Mystery of Music! I’ve included not only the ready-to-print files, but also the original Word Doc files that are fully editable so that you can use the basic idea but customize and adapt it for your studio. Plus, this program also includes lesson plans for 6 correlating group classes throughout the year, complete with objectives, games, resource links, and weekly clues. (This is the kind of thing that gets me really excited, and brainstorming up a new idea every year definitely re-ignites my enthusiasm! )

One of the driving motivations in life is to increase my knowledge and skills and strive for excellence in all that I do. While these qualities reflect some of my core values, I realized several years ago that I was running myself into the ground because I was expecting more of myself than I could actually handle. This was true in several areas of my life, but especially in teaching. My expectations drove our time during lessons and I was more intent on reaching those expectations than really being sensitive and flexible to the needs of each student. And then, when I didn’t meet those expectations, I would emotionally beat myself up for not being a good enough teacher.

I don’t even remember exactly how I came to the realization that I was doing this, but once I did and was able to let go of it, I experienced a freedom and confidence that I had never felt before! It was okay to not know all the answers, to not have concert-level performers, to not be an expert in jazz or composition. Each of us have different talents and areas of expertise as teachers and we will be most successful in our teaching when we are able to function according to those areas. This is something I discussed more thoroughly in a workshop I presented to a music teachers association recently titled, “How to Build Your Studio Identity,” but one of the underlying principles is that each of us have to build our studios according to our own philosophies, strengths, clientele, etc.

Don’t allow yourself to become enslaved to self-imposed expectations or pressure to be like other teachers. Think through your own particular needs and the needs of your studio and then focus on implementing one change at a time to improve your teaching and/or business practices. I am a huge advocate for learning from others and using great ideas that you find, but pick one idea that you think could really benefit your studio and then focus on that for a month. See how it goes, and then move on to another idea the following month. Definitely try new things, but don’t feel like you have to make drastic changes all at once! Take it one step at a time and enjoy yourself. Then your students will as well.

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you had a marvelous Christmas season and are ready for a new year of teaching. I didn’t get nearly as much done as I had hoped, but I think I’ll be saying that the rest of my life! Today’s Monday Mailbag question is perfect for the launch of a New Year because I know it reflects emotions that every one of us can relate to experiencing at various times throughout the year:

I look at your site and see the many fun things you do.  I have printed some of them and use them once and then forget them.  I am wondering how you are so organized.  I want to be a better teacher, but  I am loosing momentum (as are the kids) and I feel incorporating a lot of your activities would help so much.  I am just overwhelmed as to how to incorporate them.  Do you have a curriculum as to what your focus is each week or just tips on how to do it?  My kids are all in different methods, which is confusing to me.  They don’t practice well, and I am just feeling like quitting.  But I know it is teaching them a talent they will use throughout their lives.  Do you have any pointers to help re-spark the interest in me as a teacher and then the students as well?

As I prepared to respond to this question, I realized that my answer will be multi-faceted. So I’ve decided to do a short series this week on 5 Secrets to Re-igniting Enthusiasm! Most of us will be resuming teaching this week after several weeks off and most of our students will have hardly touched the piano during that time. The way we start off this first week will set the tone for the rest of the semester. So I hope this series will provide all of us with some inspiration and practical ideas to make this the best year yet! For starters, I’d like to share an article I wrote for our local music teachers association newsletter last year at this same time. I hope that others will join in and share thoughts and suggestions as well!

Do you have time to read this newsletter? Ha! I can hear some of you laughing now. You muse, “There’s barely enough time to keep up with the responsibilities of daily life, let alone stop for a few minutes to read a newsletter.” There is a house to clean, a studio to organize, a lesson to plan, a dinner to cook, a church service to prepare music for, a family to serve, a festival to send in forms for, a piece of repertoire to practice, a list of people to call, a student to teach, an inbox of e-mails to reply to, a load of laundry to wash, a meeting to attend, a website to update, a letter to write, a flyer to design, a bill to pay, a group class to prepare, a song to arrange…anyone feeling exhausted and overwhelmed? Is there a key to keeping up with everything, and retaining your sanity in the process?

I’ve been reflecting on this question a lot lately because I’ve been asked to speak at an event on the topic of contentment. Some well-meaning person on the committee decided to dub my talk, “School of Contentment.” Little did I know that that meant God was going to take me through this school in preparation for the talk! Since so much of my life is invested in music and teaching, I’ve naturally wondered how contentment, or a lack thereof, plays out in the life of a music teacher. Sadly, I don’t have to think long to come up with examples of discontentment. I look around at other teachers and feel discontent that I don’t have the level of knowledge and skill that they do. I listen to their students and feel discontent that my students don’t perform as well. I sit in my chair during a student’s lesson and grow discontent over their lack of progress. I look at my friends in other professions and feel discontent that I don’t make as much money as they do. I breathe in the fresh morning air and feel discontent that I will spend the afternoon in the basement teaching. And the list goes on.

How is it that I can be in one of the best situations in the world and still find myself struggling with feelings of discontentment? The apostle Paul indicates in Philippians 4:11 that he had “learned in whatever situation [he was] to be content.” As I pondered this verse and delved further into studying, I was struck by three realizations:

1. Contentment can be learned. Even one of the greatest apostles in history had to learn contentment. His school for learning? beatings, shipwreck, imprisonment, hunger, and more. My to-do list is sounding better already! If he could learn it in the midst of such trauma, surely it is not out of grasp for me.
2. Contentment is necessary in every situation. Discontentment is not specific to my life, my situation, or my profession. It is something that must be dealt with by every person – healthy and sick, fat and skinny, wealthy and poor, teacher and lawyer. If the grass looks greener on the other side, it’s because I’m watering on the wrong side of the fence. If I would put as much energy into growing right where I’m planted as I do into wishing that I was someone or somewhere else, I would be enjoying a lush green lawn right now!
3. Contentment is a state of the heart that transcends one’s physical state of being. Paul goes on to say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Aha! The secret revealed. It is the presence of Jesus Christ within me that is the antidote for a discontented heart. He has promised to sufficiently meet all my needs and to never leave me or forsake me. When I am depending on Him to meet all my needs, I am able to endure difficult situations and keep giving and giving of myself without ever running dry or losing my joy.

I am already noticing a difference in my attitude and teaching the more I reflect on the source and importance of contentment. The many responsibilities that make up my day don’t have to pull me in a hundred different directions. Because at the heart of them all is a unified desire to please the Lord and to let every lesson that I teach, every dish that I wash, every letter that I write, every note that I play, be part of the overflow that comes from a heart that has found contentment in Jesus alone. That is the source of my hope, my creativity, my energy, and my enthusiasm!

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

I’m off this week in my studio and decided to take a week off from blogging as well. Hopefully I can tackle all the things that I’ve been adding to my list of oh-I-can-just-wait-and-do-that-during-my-week-off. I’ll leave you with a beautiful quote that some friends sent me recently:

“Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.
Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul;
it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.
I have no pleasure in any man who despises music.
It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology.
Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us.
My heart, which is so full to overflowing,
has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.
Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God.

~Martin Luther

May you all have a blessed week!

Wow! Just wow!

HT: J.Pisano

Have you seen or heard about Emily Bear? My sister told me about her several weeks ago, but I forgot to check out the links until just recently. Start off by watching this inspiring news story:

Here’s another video I found that has a compilation of many of her original compositions:

One thing that inspires me about this story is the part that Emily’s teachers have played in the development of her God-given talent. Even though she is obviously a gifted musician, it’s clear from her playing that she has also received excellent instruction that has propelled her further along than she would otherwise be.

Emily’s caliber as a musician is far above even the naturally gifted students that most of us teach, but I still see this as a challenge to recognize the talents and abilities that my students do possess, and urge them toward higher levels of excellence in their studies. Every student has untapped potential; it’s exciting as a teacher to help them discover that potential and catch a vision for what they can accomplish with the musical gifts that God has given them!