Two of my mature students surprise me every lesson. None of them had the chance to learn music in school. Both are intelligent, educated and successful in their respective careers. Both are men. Now that I write about this, actually three of them and the third is a lady.
Let me tell you a little about them. Ladies first. This lady started at the end of year. She is a mature aged students and she is en interior designer. Her husband surprised her with a small keyboard because she wanted to learn to play the keyboard/piano. From her comments during lessons I had the impression that she had learning difficulty in school and probably some bad experiences so she always thought she can't do well and is a slow learner. She is proving herself now. She like a dog with a bone. Determent. Committed. Every week she is there for the lesson for 45min to work through whatever the new challenge is. She always practices and her progress is impressive. The timidity and fear is gone. There are lots of smiles and laughter. Her confidence grows with every lesson. She surprises me every lesson.
Let's name S my male student I want to tell you about. He is recently retired and a very anxious but lovely person. He has been doing singing and piano for a year now. True dedication. An hour lesson veery week and always prepared for lessons. Impressive progress. A true performer from singing point of view. S would have done brilliantly well in music theatre. Strangely, he decided to put emphasis on piano which does not come that naturally to him. But the real surprise I got this year when we started to talk about theory and I gave him a little homework to compose a tune. S has a real flair for composition. He has a great time coming up with tunes and he is absolutely brilliant writing lyrics for his tunes. Who would have thought a year ago when he got started that he will stick with it and end up composing music?
The third person I want to mention is a new student, let's call him M. he is from England and works in the IT industry. M's parents had no musical interest and have never listened to music at home. It was not important for them to introduce M to music. The school did not have much happening in music and the little experience he had at school was not too positive. However, he always wanted to learn a musical instrument. When M approached me for lessons, he already had a keyboard and from the book that came with the book he started to teach himself. He is a lovely, kind, caring and warm personality. M is quite anxious and he always complains that his hands are sweaty. He committed to weekly 60 min piano lessons. He reads quite well and has good coordination. Most importantly, he is quite musical! After a few initial lessons I was able to take him away from the awful book he was using, that came with his keyboard. I must say, that is the worst ever music book I have seen and I have seen quite a few!!! I never understand how these people can publish it, sell it and make a load of money! So quickly I put him on some decent music and he naturally responded to it beautifully. M enjoyed playing his new pieces much more and was having less difficulty playing them because they flew naturally despite being more difficult music but better written! It is amazing to see this adult man coming to lessons diligently on Mondays at 7.30pm after work, always prepared and paying full attention for an hour. He is also part of a theatre group and he just started to learn his new part and commenced the first rehearsals there. M gets lots of satisfaction out of making a great progress and we have lots of laughs!
Some would call music teaching a job. I hope that after just mentioning three of my students you get the feeling that it is a lifestyle, it is lots of fun, it is hugely rewarding and it is extremely satisfying. Most importantly, I feel honoured that I have the task of introducing them to the magic world of music and that I can be the tour guide of their fantastic journey!
