1. Piano music (or scales or hanons or fallboard tapping or a metronome ticking)
2. Muffled thumping, yelping, and other unidentifiable noises
The first sound can be attributed to any one of my fourteen piano students since Thursdays and Fridays are piano lesson days. Despite what you may be thinking, the second sound does not emanate from my coat closet where I have locked up bad students for practicing less than five days a week. Rather, it echoes up from the basement where my three kids and the siblings of the student at hand are all playing together. Most of the families I teach for have more than one student taking lessons from me. And they have younger siblings who have to wait around for them to finish their lessons. So I offer parents a discount if they watch my kids--along with their own--in the basement during lesson times. They pay less, my kids get to play with friends, and I get to teach uninterrupted. It works out pretty well for everyone.
I started teaching lessons here in Carmel, IN, last September. Within a few months my teaching schedule filled up and I had to start saying no to some interested students. I'm glad people in Carmel appreciate music and the arts and want their children to participate as well. Adam says that if he ever loses his job, he'll start teaching piano full-time while he looks for a new job. We laugh about it, but I'm pretty sure that's really his plan.
I like teaching because it gives me a chance to use my music skills to help others learn the gift of music. I enjoy the challenge of trying to teach to each student's needs. That's an ever-moving target, and I'm not perfect at it, but I'm getting better.
I started teaching piano lessons when I was fourteen years old. I charged $5 per weekly, half-hour lesson, and I would teach in the student's home. Over the course of high school I taught a handful of ward and neighbor kids who were just starting out on the piano. It was a great way to break into teaching. I got tips from my own piano teacher, and slowly I learned through experience what works and what doesn't (and just when I thought I had it figured out, I'd get a new student with a new personality and I'd have to start from scratch). I stopped teaching once I got engaged to Adam, and I didn't start again until two or three years later, when a mom in our Champaign, IL, ward asked me if I would teach her eight-year-old daughter. I taught about nine students over the course of our four years in Champaign, and then we moved to Carmel. Now we have a real house, a piano room, and a basement. Teaching here is much easier than trying to teach in our two-bedroom townhome.
A few weeks ago we had our first piano recital. Here is a picture of the kids. Aren't they cute?
The week before the recital, we had a practice recital at my house, pizza party, and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese to reward the students who made it into the "100 Point Club" (my twelve-year-old students opted for a music store gift certificate instead of Chuck E. Cheese, as you might imagine). It was a tiring evening, but a lot of fun.
And here's Jared and Allison playing in the recital. It was Allison's first. Notice how she pauses in the middle of her last song to look over and smile at her grandpa who was watching from the audience.
