Besides playing volleyball and selling Girl Scout cookies, Celeste had one more important milestone this February...
Ever since she turned seven last December, Celeste has been bugging me to start piano lessons. After all, her reasoning went, Lorelai started taking lessons when she turned seven. Of course, Lorelai was already in second grade at that point (she's one of the youngest children in her class). Plus, I'd already tried to start teaching Lorelai piano once before, about a year previously. In a way, it felt like Lorelai was "more advanced," life-experience-wise, than Celeste did at this age. More likely, time is just slipping past me way too quickly and I don't remember Lorelai looking this young and cute when her piano lessons started.
At first, I had intended to make Celeste wait until the end of the current school year, and then begin her lessons. However, just after Christmas, my afternoon lesson schedule opened up somewhat (I lost two students and gained one home-schooled student who could have lessons in the daytime), and it seemed as if the universe was giving me an opening. The timing to start Celeste's lessons just felt right, regardless of what the rest of my schedule was like. So I went to buy her a Theory book (I use the Bastien piano method) and we began! As you can see in the picture above, she was (and is) very excited.
I am excited too...and a little nervous as well! Many people have warned me that teaching one's own children can be very challenging, and often not worth the stress and trouble. For that reason, I am very grateful I have been teaching other people's kids for years now. Having so many different experiences with so many different children has better prepared me for dealing with the idiosyncrasies of my own children. Teaching other children has helped me see children in "student" mode...a mode which I am then more prepared to see in my own girls.
Nevertheless, teaching my own kids is still very difficult at times. Perhaps it's because I know what they are capable of, and so I have to be careful not to be too overbearing. I have noticed (to my shame) that I lose my patience with Lorelai much more quickly than with my other piano students. It is something I really have to struggle to control sometimes. Thankfully, Lorelai's temperament and mine are complementary to each other, and she is quick to forgive my outbursts. She is able to absorb my critiques smoothly, and move on quickly and without much complaint or rebellion. I am so grateful that our teacher/student relationship has been a comfortable one, for the most part.
However, I recognize that Celeste is a very different person than Lorelai in many ways, and I hope and pray that I will be able to be patient and adjust my teaching style accordingly to meet her needs. Even over the course of one month, I have noticed several differences in the lessons I have with Lorelai versus the lessons I have with Celeste. They have different preferences, and they struggle with different things. They also are different on the conversational front. Lorelai usually sits in almost-silence, with only a question or two throughout the whole lesson (or an occasional frustrated groan). Celeste, on the other hand, is constantly interrupting me to share her thoughts and feelings on playing the piano, and music in general. It has been interesting to me to see how different our conversational "ebb and flow" has changed, now that she is my student.
In spite of all her excited talking, though, Celeste's enthusiasm for learning the piano is still very high. We are in the early days yet, but I hope she will be patient with herself (and I with her) so that she can learn this wonderful skill and carry the gift of music around with her throughout her life. I am so fortunate to be a music teacher, and I sincerely hope that I can properly pass on my knowledge (and my love of music) to my daughters, and that they will make good use of that gift.
No comments:
Post a Comment