Mending Broken Stuff - Part One

I love playing. I love my horn. I love music and being a musician. 

But, you know, I love teaching as well!

I like watching my students grow and figure stuff out. I like telling them things that opens their eyes and help them comprehend playing a little differently. I like the kids, I like the lessons. I like teaching. 

In this phase of my life I'm teaching more than I ever have before. I'm starting to see something that really is making my heart ache: broken kids. 

When I say broken kids, I don't mean kids who suck at the horn. I don't mean kids that have technical problems, ones who are out of tune, or even ones that can't count. 

What I mean by 'broken' kids are the ones who have heard enough of: "NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE" and "That sucked." Or "You suck." (Which is translated from what's really said: "That's/You're not very good.") They've heard any of those phrases enough times that I hear and see the physical result of defeat. Defeat shows up in many ways: kid not practicing in between lessons, kid not playing loud enough, kid not bothering to read the music, kid not even bothering to attempt to play ANY right note at all, the appearance of the kid not caring, kid announcing they're quitting band next semester, the kid not trying at all.

I don't even know where to start. I'll take that as a sign not to rant on for 12 pages. I don't even want to rant for one page on this. I'll just say one thing: cut the kid some slack. 

I listen to Dave Ramsey on the radio when I'm driving around in my car. He says some pretty good stuff about money management. It mostly boils down to behavioral things that I think one could apply to many different areas in life. When recommending real estate agents or people who sell insurance to callers and listeners, he always says, "Find one that has the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman."

What great wisdom! Consider it: teachers have concern for those in their educational care; salesmen have concern for their commission. 

If you're a [music] teacher of any kind, I would digest these words very deeply in your heart. Again, for the sake of not ranting on for a million pages I'll be brief. Do not let your concern for your "commission" (your paycheck) tower over your concern for the students in your charge. If you do, I may suggest you find yourself other ways to make money. Why?

Because it matters. Because you are of great influence to that 12-18 year old. 

I think I'll do a Part Two later in the week. I said that the "NOPES" a kid hears tears them down, and I should address what you can do to work with a defeated kid (one that exhibits something in the list of defeat attributes above) and not be a teacher that tears down... but be one that builds up!

Stay Tuned!

Liverpool

I lived in the UK for two years: in a city called Liverpool (yeah the place the Beatles came from).

Originally I went over in September 2009 to do my Masters in Popular Music Studies. I finished that degree up by October the following year, and I wasn't quite ready to leave. I spent the next 10 months focusing on getting as many gigs as I could around town. By 'gigs' I don't really mean gigs because none of them payed. However, I was an aspiring musician, so I found myself in a 'say yes to anything' mode. I had the free time and could afford to play for free for any community group that wanted to have me. 

My playing and networking payed off: in January or February of 2011 I was put in touch with the Assistant Principal Horn for the Liverpool Philharmonic - Chris Morley. We had some good coffee chats, and he gave me some really great lessons. Around April or so he brought me in to fill in his spot as Assistant on a cute little opera by Mendelssohn. I had a BLAST. At some other point I think I played on a rehearsal or two for their Mahler 6 concert. 

Let me just say: what a fantastic horn section Liverpool has. All the guys are sweethearts and very good at what they do. Actually, that section is so good at what they do it's almost second nature to them. Their skills and abilities are that much embedded in them. Every time I was around them I could see they really loved working with each other. Very very harmonious section - even in their least harmonious moments. I loved seeing that. Made me desire to work with them and other musicians like them! 

For any young horn player out there wanting to do the horn thing, I strongly recommend living and playing abroad for awhile - at least six months. If you can, get yourself to somewhere in Europe. After all, Europe is where this whole Classical music tradition kicked off. Learn yourself the local language while you're there, too. It only adds good things to your scope as a musician. 

I only can think of wonderful things to say about the Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Follow this link and you'll get a bit of what they're like. In this video, the Phil is performing the Finale from Mahler's 5th Symphony. Just... fantastic! I miss them and everything else in Liverpool!

Fixing Bugs

It seems my new little payment feature had some bugs. I tinkered with it - hopefully it's all sorted now.

Therefore if you're here because you are a parent or a student wanting to pay for lessons, click on the 'Lesson' tab to head over to pay. Simply follow the directions, and you'll be all payed up!