The following was written by my late wife Elaine. She wrote a long book, a diary really, from which this is one passage:
Notes from a Teacher’s Diary (con’t)…
Music study is for everyone, and age doesn’t matter.
In May 1982 I started two new students: a 6-year-old boy and a 70-year old lady. Nice!
A middle-aged lady who wanted to learn to play hymns for her church couldn’t sing any tune, even if given a starting note, or play by ear, or read notes. But through hard work in every area, she learned to play hymns, which are not easy, and eventually played for her church. Her notes, fingerings, counts and pedal were all correct. Another example of what keeps a teacher going!
I always enjoyed my adult (ladies) students and the good times we had during our lessons. For two years in a row, they brought food and drinks for our fun play-for-each-other Christmas parties at the studio with musical “gifts from the gang.”
T. said, “Triads and inversions are like an echo.” It’s a perceptive and original thought!
A, age 5, said, “You can play fast, can’t you! When you were a kid, were you in piano lessons?”
Students always enjoy reward stickers; in 1981, one girl licked a flower-picture sticker and said it tasted like flowers. Then she licked a cat-picture sticker and said it tasted like cats. No need for licking any more; they’re all peel-off stickers now and don’t fall off the music like the licking kind did. Sometimes, before peel-off stickers, there’d be little trails of stickers going from my front door to somebody’s car, parked along the edge of the front lawn. I like it best when the incentive for practicing and doing well is the playing itself, not the stickers. But if stickers help to keep up their interest, then that’s fine with me.
Another student said, “I like the music but I don’t like the way it sounds.”
The comment I’ve heard more than any other, over all the years, from both children and adults, is: “But I played it perfect at home!” And it’s probably close to the truth. We play better, I think, when somebody isn’t watching and listening and sitting close by.
J. said: “That’s what’s wrong! My eyes are hot! When my eyes get hot, I see the wrong thing!” When reading the title of her folk songs book to me, she read: “Flock songs.”
A. told me one day, three times in five minutes: “I have to go to a meeting after this.” Finally I asked, “Is it an important meeting?” She answered, “To my Dad it is, but not to us.”
From one family, the mother and two daughters were students. There were also two young brothers who tagged along, and one day their father brought the girls to their lessons and he told me, “Another family member would like to come for lessons.” I said, “Whom?” and he said, “Me.” This very likable young father is now a doctor. Way to go! I hope he goes to the piano when he needs some relaxation after a long day with patients!
(Dave’s addendum: After our family doctor of that time retired and Elaine had died, that young man became the doctor for Tatjana and me. But he has now retired also! Being 91, as I am at the time I write this, I see many “turnovers in personnel”, so to speak.)
To be continued…
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About the Author: RD Blakeslee (1931 – 2024) built his net worth by only investing in that which can be enjoyed during acquisition and throughout life, as opposed to papers in a drawer, like stocks and bonds. You can read more about him here.
Photos: Courtesy of the Blakeslee Family
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