Well, hello, my teacher friends! Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast. My name is Christina Whitlock, and I have taken the liberty of designating myself as your Anytime Piano Teacher Friend.  I love to think about the human condition, and how it shows up in the music studio.  You too?  Oh, good.  Let’s link arms and move beyond the status-quo to build valuable musical experiences that impact our students for a lifetime.  Sound like a plan?  Excellent. Let’s get on with the show.

Here’s something you may or may not know: Every week for the past two years I have been sending a thoughtful email to teachers on my email list. It started out kind of freeform, then it morphed into something I called One Thought Thursdays, and I recently just re-branded the e-letter to what I’m calling Piano Teacher Confessions.

These e-letters are often a little more personal than I get here on the podcast. They are separate from the content I publish here in audio form, and I’m really proud of that collection of thoughts.  I’m working to get the archives moved over into a more formal blog on my website – you can check out THAT work in progress at ChristinaWhitlock.com/blog.

All that to say – If you like the Beyond Measure Podcast, I can’t imagine you NOT liking the Piano Teacher Confessions email. And today, I wanted to give you a little glimpse into the kind of content I send.  I’m going to read to you what I published in the first-ever installment of the One Thought Thursdays series, originally published in the spring of 2023.

It was called Who’s In Your Life Right Now? and I just can’t shake the idea that some of you need to hear this message today. I do have some additional thoughts on this topic, which I will share after I finish reading you the original e-letter.

In short, I think it’s really important to remember the people in our Teacher Lives will not always be here.  One of the loveliest things about Piano Teacher Life is getting to watch students grow up year after year.  But the very nature of our work DOES include a lot of goodbyes.  Some are welcome, others are not… but as the craziness of spring is ramping up, I’d love to offer a moment for you to simply appreciate the students who are part of your life right now.

So, without further delay, I give you the first-ever installment of One Thought Thursdays:

As you look around your studio this final stretch of the school year, take a moment to appreciate who is there.

Let’s face it: a LOT of teachers shift into coasting-mode this time of year. My best-efforts in May are very different than my best-efforts in September.

…but I want to point something out to you today…

Those seniors who are graduating? They won’t be part of your weekly existence for much longer.

That middle-schooler who is on the fence about continuing next fall? You may not be seeing him much longer.

And – call me crazy – but I feel it palpably when my circle shifts. When someone exits, I lose more than a student.

I lose frequent communication with their family via text, email, or both. I say goodbye to people who have supported me with their kind words. I lose out on entertaining conversations with siblings on their way out the door. With any student exit, there is a lot to say goodbye to.

(of course, sometimes, these are welcome farewells. THREE CHEERS FOR THOSE!)

Earlier this year, as part of Amy Chaplin’s Digital Organization Coaching, I was weeding through some very old emails. I was fascinated by this glimpse into my past digital life.

Memories came flooding back as I read through seemingly-mundane emails about events, collaborations, lessons, and the like. Some of those communications were a decade old (ahem), and it dawned on me how different my circle is today than it was in 2013.

(It also reminded me how far I’ve come in my business. Sending custom invoices individually?! Make-up lessons coming out my ears?! YIKES. Change is good, friends. Change is good.)

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​Take a moment today and think through your current studio roster. Maybe you’re hoping to add students in the new year. Maybe you’re looking to downsize. Perhaps some students are leaving and you are heartbroken over it…

…regardless, your studio circle will likely look different next year than it does today.

I took a moment this morning to read through my student roster and give thanks for each student and family I’ve worked with this year. Perhaps you’d like to do the same?

The original e-letter ends there, with some links to recommended music and other resources I think you would enjoy. I include those in every week’s letter as well.

But isn’t this whole thing a bit of a kicker, friends?  This is the time of year we’re all feeling a little scattered.  Maybe we have performance events on the horizon and a heap of responsibilities that fall outside of teaching time?  Maybe the weather is warming up and EVERYONE would rather be outside than sitting at the piano?

It’s easy to flip the switch into survival mode this time of year.  It’s easy to get frustrated with families and students.  It’s easy to think your Teacher life is going to look like this forever.

But the truth is quite the opposite. Our teacher lives are in a constant state of evolution.

Some of us are fortunate to have a few families who have been part of our studios for 10 or more years.  It feels like they’ll always be there.  But they won’t. Not every week, anyway.

I had an elderly adult student for 16 years.  For 16 years she held down a lesson spot on Thursdays at 9am.  She swore she would take lessons until she died, and she did precisely that… leaving us on Thanksgiving Day 2023. There’s someone who I lived a lot of life with.  She met me as a newly-wed.  Through our time together, I became a mom (twice), I lost my dad, she lost her mom, then her husband. I moved… she moved. Her family felt like my family, and vice versa. It felt like she would be my student forever. Of course, that’s not the reality of Teacher Life.

Thankfully, it’s not typically death that parts us from our students – though it certainly happens.

I think learning to deal with saying goodbye to students – those who want to play more volleyball, those who move away, those whose financial priorities change…  learning to make peace with saying goodbye to students is a really important aspect of a Healthy Teacher Existence.

I have an old episode on Making Peace with Student Exits; it’s episode 039 and I’ll link it in today’s shownotes.

But the thing that makes saying goodbye easier is to remind ourselves that – when it comes to our student rosters – nothing is forever. Reminding ourselves that, for better and for worse!, our students today will not be our students for always. At least, not in the way they are today.

I know I’ve been a little bit of a downer here, but there’s a nice shiny silver lining here, friends:  Those students who drive you crazy?  Or, more likely, the families who drive you crazy? They won’t always be there, either.

That one parent who texts you 72 times a week? They won’t be blowing up your phone forever.

(though, maybe you should address that now, because there’s no reason to suffer through that)

I hope you’ll take the prompt I offered in my original letter today and set aside 10 minutes or so to think through your studio roster and offer gratitude and reflection on each name there.

And – while you think about WHEN you’re going to do that today – I’ll offer us up a toast, followed by our Teacher Friend of the Week!

Raise those glasses, my friends!

Studio Teacher Friends from all around the world:  Today we give thanks for the students in our lives TODAY.  Here and now. We recommit to giving them the best experience we have to offer, and we acknowledge the fact that students don’t remain students forever.  May we all continue to prioritize student relationships, even when we know the pain of saying goodbye always looms ahead. They say it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, right?  The same goes for student connections. I’d rather go all-in on students and eventually lose them than to live a shallow existence under the guise of protecting my heart.  Sigh. Deep thoughts today, I know… Cheers to US, my teacher friends!  Sometimes this stuff is hard.  Here, here.

OKAY: Here’s something fun – it’s time for Teacher Friend of the Week!  As we speak, LOTS of our colleagues are gathered together at the MTNA National Conference in Minneapolis. I am not one of them, and I’m a little mopey about it.  But I want to give a shoutout to Teacher Friend and Patreon Supporter, Sarah Boyd.  Sarah Boyd is a force of nature in all the best ways, and SHE is currently at MTNA living her best life and helping spread her love for Music Learning Theory and all things Music Moves for Piano by Marilyn Lowe.  I’m enjoying living vicariously through her social media posts. Sarah is a terrific part of the SuperFriends Community and I’m thrilled to honor her as Teacher Friend of the Week today!

If you would like to support the work I do for just a few dollars a month AND gain new teacher connections and inspiration in the process, head to ChristinaWhitlock.com/support and get yourself signed up for the SuperFriends Community!

I’ll be back in your ears next week with more solidarity, my friends.  Onward and upward as we enjoy the students on our rosters TODAY.