The music school I teach at tends to be kind of a joke sometimes. Or at least from the perspective of many of the teachers. We have been fortunate to come from cities that have heard of school band, general music, and somewhat affordable private lessons. It's not that the kids in this city are oh-so-unfortunate (many of them are quite well off) and I don't mean to depict them that way, it's just that music is in no way an assumed part of their education. So if you want to study music, you go to a music school, no matter what age, sometimes in addition to your regular school, sometimes after high school (but before university). This explains why I have a cellist and a trumpeter in my class that are quite serious, have played for only one year, and are nineteen years old!! They want to be professional musicians and they STARTED playing their instrument at the age most musicians I knew entered a major music school. So forgive me if once in a while it is a challenge to take them seriously.
Moving on. Monday night was the Chamber Music Recital (I am officially a chamber music teacher now, I guess) and it changed my perspective. I've had some turmoil with my kids in my first semester of teaching- getting them to show up, getting them to practice, getting them to remember their music, getting them to prove with their actions what they say with their words--that they want to be musicians. But the thing I love about making music worked like a charm yet again this past Monday. When it came to playing music, all the bullshit floated away, the air cleared, and they pulled through. Yes, some notes were out of tune, some rushing occurred, some repeats were ignored. But their hair was slicked back, their parents were video-taping, and they played good, real good in fact. They made some phrases, they had some moments, the stood up in front of people and said, "I have something to express" and then they expressed it. So I am proud of them.
If we can keep supporting kids in doing this sort of thing, the world still has a chance.
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