I love to teach. It’s when I learn the most. Not just about the particular subject in question, but about an individual or group in general as it relates to myself. Teaching can be the same as learning itself when applied correctly and with an open mind. The role, to me, is extremely encompassing and covers everything from mentorship to therapist to life coach to friend and everything in between.
As a music teacher, I’ve had the fabulous fortune of developing lifelong relationships with students. Its a unique position that carries through time unlike a school teacher who spends a season or semester with a student. Many of my students spent 5-10 years with me and underwent the gambit of developmental changes from child to adult and I got to play a subtle role gently guiding them into artists…free thinkers…unleashing potential within that would translate into not just musical skills, but personal traits that become the essence of self.
Yes, I started in a tiny room in a local music store…but that room was filled with art and fish and calm lighting and inspirational sayings and interior design elements and warmth…however you pursue whatever you do becomes you, and all those around you.
I love to volunteer at schools and play in gymnasiums full of kids I would never meet again and talk to them directly about the simplicity of approaching the piano and making it sing. The same would go for photography. Without any formal training myself, I’ve always found it best to show the basic process of DOING as opposed to wishing or thinking, as whatever is actually done is actually done and once it is out there has the ability to grow and evolve in any way and attach to things previously unknown until it exists.
