I have always suffered from a case of trying-to-do-too-many-things-all-the-time. Ever since I finished university, there have always been more projects on my to-do list than I could ever handle. While I changed careers and I am no longer a teacher, I still feel a burning need to share the insights I’ve gathered through my years of learning and teaching piano. (Maybe there is some sense of grandiose importance – I’m not going to concern myself with a psychoanalysis).
Among many other reasons (excuses) I’ve found to not work on this project is the lack of justification I’ve been able to provide myself for spending time on this. I changed careers to try and have a greater positive impact and now I want to revert back and go write a piano book online? What is the thinking here? While I’m not convinced that answering this will suddenly make me write the whole book in one sitting, I’m hoping the answer has a freeing effect and I hope others can benefit from the same mentality.
I get a lot of enjoyment out of music. I enjoy playing it and I enjoy listening to it. I don’t believe we are brought into being for a purpose. There is no inherent meaning to life. We create it by maximising the amount of time we can get fulfilment. For my own selfish pleasure, I want there to be amazing musicians, composers and performers for my listening pleasure. I can also appreciate that some percentage of the population would love nothing more in the world than to be an amazing musician, composer or performer (I used to be one such person).
In my experience, finding good music learning material is difficult. Not for the lack of resources (we have more of those than we could ever wish for), but for the lack of clear pedagogical methods. Becoming a great musician is difficult enough to do, if one also has to find their own educational resources, and make their own curriculum, a lot of energy and effort are diverted from learning an instrument.
This is sad because it means that somewhere, there is someone willing to put in the work who doesn’t have the correct resources. What a waste.
I spent a lot of time practising and learning about music. I also spent a lot of time trying to improve as a teacher. Now that I have left that career, it would be a shame for all that experience and knowledge to go to waste. I must share it.
That is why teaching music (or anything for that matter) is important. Knowledge takes time to acquire, the internet provides unrivalled access to learning resources, and I have developed ideas and opinions that I think are worth sharing. I want to hear more great musicians, I want to help musicians learn and do what they love, to thrive even if they live in a rural area with little to no opportunity or access to a great teacher.
I need to do my part, no matter how small, to make music education better.
This article was written months ago, and for some reason I can’t explain, was never published. I’m happy to announce that after writing this article, I finished writing the book. It is available for free here.
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Wife of a homesteader with her WPA (Work Projects Administration) music class, Lee Russell (link)