Teaching and Learning

It might be true that teachers do almost as much learning as the students in their charge.

My students teach me so much during our lessons, probably without even realizing it. It might be a raised eyebrow when we're discussing time signatures (a topic that brings up questions for most beginners--ugh, math!) and my challenge is to use new words, to figure out how their mind sees and understands, to use analogies and imagery and charts if necessary to help them make sense of it.

Notebook And Pencil For My Studio

I recently bought this pretty notebook and even prettier pencil both for practical reasons and as a little treat to myself for making it halfway to one of my teaching goals. Hooray! It's fun to celebrate little achievements, don't you think?

New Studio Website

Hi friends! I've been missing this blog over the last few days but I've had a great excuse for not writing: my little brother was visiting! He left this morning on the train to D.C., and while his visit felt too short it was oh so sweet. We had tons of fun and it was a blast having him here and showing him around our new town.

From 10 to 100

Moving from lower Alabama to Charlottesville has been like going from 10 to 100 in terms of all there is to do. So far I haven't been able to keep up with my own mental list of all the places I want to explore and the things on my summer list and the many great spots we've been told we must see/do/visit. It's incredible to be in a place with so much culture and history, so many cool restaurants and thrift shops, yoga classes and hiking areas, churches and parks and book clubs and everything else under the sun.

I'm also just now feeling a little more ready to begin marketing myself as a pianist and teacher now that the pianos are tuned and my studio feels more and more put together each day and the chaos of moving is beginning to calm down. I'm both excited and nervous about this. Basically, I'm trying to run a small business and when I think about it that way, in the most realistic terms, it can feel pretty overwhelming. But then I think about kids and parents knocking at the door each week and the feeling I get after a really productive lesson and what a blessing it is to teach what I'm passionate about. I do feel much more prepared now than I did fresh out of grad school, two years ago, so I guess my teaching experiences in Alabama seasoned me more than I realized. I have a much better handle on the "business" aspect of running a piano studio out of my home, and having a bit of extra self-confidence is everything.

All of this to say: I feel so stimulated and encouraged and awakened by our new surroundings. There isn't enough time in the day to do all I want to do! I need to remember that getting to know a new city and finding my place in it is a slow, patient process and that I shouldn't rush it. I'll gradually get to know the nooks and crannies and holes-in-the-wall in this cute little town of mine, and it'll get to know me.


p.s. On today's schedule: head to the library near the historic downtown area for some good books, buy ink at Staples so I can print business cards and my studio policy, and figure out where the nearest post office is.

p.s.s. Above is a little sneak peek of my piano room. I'm thinking of recruiting my brother to take photos of our house when he visits in August so I can do a real "house tour" on my blog! His photos will be a million times better than mine. 

Nourishing In More Ways Than One

Image Source

One of my favorite things to make for dinner is a roast chicken. Every time I roast a chicken I sort of marvel at how delicious and incredible a perfectly roasted chicken is. The meat is tender, juicy, and shreddable, and I've finally mastered the key to super crispy skin (making sure the skin is really dry before rubbing in a good amount of melted butter). A roasted chicken looks beautiful on the table and it smells rich and heavenly as it spends an hour or so in the oven.

And it's so easy. I used to be intimidated by whole chickens but I can see now how misguided that fear was. All I have to do is clean the chicken, season it (butter, sea salt, and pepper), and then stick a few lemon wedges inside. Sometimes I'll roast the chicken on a bed of thinly sliced onions tossed in olive oil but that's about as complicated as it gets. The oven does all the work. It feels like magic.

I've learned that a roast chicken is perfect for a teaching night. One of my students comes at 5:30 so what I'll do is put the chicken in the oven about 15 minutes before he arrives and at 6:30, when the lesson is over, the chicken will be perfectly cooked. I'll let it rest for 10 minutes while I roast some kale or make a salad or slice bread and voilá--dinner is ready.

There's another reason for my deep love for roast chicken. I'm very thrifty in the kitchen and I've found that I can easily get 5 or 6 meals for the two of us from a single chicken. Amazing! The first night we eat the chicken right out of the oven. The next night, I'll often make a chicken fricassee with lots of vegetables and the juice that I saved from the night before and serve it over egg noodles. I save the carcass and make chicken stock by simmering it with onions, lots of celery, and a bay leaf in a dutch oven filled to the top with water. This can be turned into a mouth-watering soup by throwing in some leftover chicken, white beans, baby kale, shredded carrots, or really, whatever is in the fridge and sounds yummy. And sometimes, even after adding chicken to the soup, I'll still have leftovers for chicken sandwiches or my favorite chicken curry salad.

Also? Roast chicken just feels grown-up. There's something about it. When I roast a chicken I feel settled and happy and I feel like I'm taking good care of myself and my husband and putting something really lovely on our table. I'm just remembering this post my friend Tina wrote a few months ago about roast chickens and finding what you love to do and how they're linked, somehow. Roast chickens are beautiful and tasty and sophisticated and wholesome and they're nourishing in more ways than one, I think.

Washing Away The Dust

The Concert by Johannes Vermeer

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." -Berthold Auerbach

I can't remember exactly where or when I first heard this quote. I had forgotten all about it until recently when I pulled out a notecard from an old journal and was reacquainted with these words, written in my own handwriting. I think I must have written this quote down when I was in college and put it up on my bulletin board. I do that only with quotes that are meaningful enough to have a real effect on me every time I look at them.

And this one surely fits that bill. When I was feeling drowned in the stress and anxiety that always comes my way as I prepare for major performances, this quote would remind me why I was doing this. It would give me strength and force me to keep my perspective open and wide, to remember the joy that comes from making myself vulnerable and sharing my music (sharing my heart and soul, really).

This quote is true for me. And I've been re-discovering that in an entirely new way over the past few weeks. I had been feeling lost, musically, to be quite frank about it. I'm a year out of graduate school and there's been a nagging feeling in the back of mind--feelings of guilt (am I doing enough?) and doubt (how can I fit into the very real, very competitive world of classical piano?) and fear (that old fear, the anxiety, the discomfort I've never been able to shake when it comes to my playing). I've been feeling lost because, for the first time in 6 years, I haven't been surrounded by other musicians, other students pursuing the same hard path. It's isolating to live in a place where your art isn't well understood, yet I realize that I need to become better at forging my own way despite it all.

But over the last few weeks I've felt so reinvigorated. I still don't know any other classical musicians in our area, I haven't totally swallowed those doubts and fears, but I have my music, and it's been doing wonders for me. I'm playing Bach, every day, an exquisite arrangement of one of his most cherished pieces, and not just playing but practicing. It doesn't matter, right now, that I'm not working on it for a specific performance. It's washing away the dust.

I'm working on a Schubert Sonata, one of the ones that poured from his fingertips in the last months of his too-short life, one that wasn't even published until a decade after he died. Yesterday I was sight-reading Chopin Preludes, and decided this one would be a perfect new piece for one of my students. I've been moving my fingers, I've been absorbing sound, I've been relishing in the joy that comes from being able to pick up a score and just play. What Patrick Dunne, in his piece that I recently shared, describes as "doing what the composer once did at the height of his creative genius, thinking what he thought, feeling what he felt, knowing what he knew, moving as he moved, breathing as he breathed, creating what he created."

I still have a long way to go on this path to figuring out my life in music. But for now, these magical works have been joyfully washing away the dust and cleansing my soul, and I couldn't be more thankful.




p.s. Today's the last day! Leave a comment on this post to enter my Favorite Things Giveaway. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning. Thank you all!

A Lovely Essay

Last night, I read an article in the latest issue of Notre Dame Magazine that made this piano teacher's heart sing. It's a sweet, short, little essay called, "Not calling it quits" and it's about the beauty and richness that can come from not giving up on piano lessons as a young child (as so many do).

Patrick Dunne, ND class of 1960, writes this:


So how do you respond to your child's "I want to quite piano" plea? 

Think. How would you answer a youngster's desire to quit going to school, quit behaving well, quit taking baths, quit wearing clothes? Some things a responsible parent must insist on. 

Nagging and iron discipline are not the answer. Instead, take an interest. Care. Once your child connects with a piano teacher he really likes, you're home free. Practice makes perfect, so the logical goal is to make piano practice fun. Once the budding pianist falls in love with daily practice, all difficulties disappear.

The goal need not be to become a "concert pianist." The thrill of performing a Beethoven sonata or a Chopin étude or a Bach fugue well is the true province of the amateur pianist. Even for the accomplished pianist, the quintessential audience is himself, herself. For therein lies the rapture, the life-enhancing joy of personal creativity.


I just might frame it.



p.s. There's still time to enter the giveaway for a fun box of some of my favorite things! Just leave a comment on this post. Thank you!