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Episode 242: Cheers to Paying Attention This Season

Well hello, my studio teacher friends. Christina Whitlock here, bringing you the warmest of wishes from the Beyond Measure podcast as we enter this: the final stretch of the 2025 Holiday Season.

I’d originally planned to offer up a year-in-review this week, but on second thought, that feels better suited for next week.  Instead, I wanted to give you a thought this week that I hope will keep you company in the ups and downs of your holiday week.

So, without further delay, let’s get right to it: You are listening to episode 242 of the Beyond Measure Podcast!

Have you ever been Christmas caroling in an Alzheimer’s unit?  That is really specific, I know…but some of you have been there.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find an experience that packs the same emotional punch as singing Christmas carols to Alzheimer’s patients. To experience human beings, suffering with unimaginable afflictions that cause them to forget who they are and where they’re living… many of them barely uttering a single word in their day to day lives…

To see their eyes light up with recognition as you sing a Christmas carol from their childhood?  To see their lips begin to move as they faintly sing along?  And to know you’re a conduit for that whole experience?  That the music that comes from you is bringing that comfort and peace to another person?

That’s an experience you can’t forget, friends.  I’m fortunate to have experienced this a lot since I practically grew up in nursing homes and care facilities with my mom, who was a Director of Nursing and worked 90 hours a week.

I’ve been thinking a lot about those caroling memories, as they are such a reminder of the POWER of this thing we do called music. I hope we can all remember this week that music is SO MUCH BIGGER than what we do in our lessons day after day.

…and I guess that’s what I want you to think about this week. Most of us are on a well-deserved break from teaching, and I hope this reprieve will offer you an opportunity to reconnect with the true role of music and what it REALLY means to the human spirit.

From the dawning of the ages, people have incorporated music into the most meaningful of our experiences.

From religious ceremonies to celebrations of every kind, music is a through-line that solidifies memory and brings people together.  We can’t escape it.  If you’re human, you experience music in meaningful ways.

And I guess I just want to take a moment and offer some gratitude for the fact that we have the opportunity to take part in this expressive artform.

For many of us, this time of year carries deep importance for our expressions of faith, and music plays a BIG role in that.

If you happen to be a church musician, there is no shortage of inside jokes about how HARD we work during this time of year (and they’re all true!). Depending on the size of the church congregation you serve, you can be out-of-your-minds busy this time of year.

The same is true for orchestral musicians and members of community bands and choruses.  All of those performances of The Nutcracker and The Messiah… Sleigh Ride and the Skater’s Waltz… Every variation of Carol of the Bells we can think of…. our music skillsets are sometimes on display more in December than they are the rest of the months combined.

But I think we could all benefit from the reminder of how incredible it is that we’ve been equipped to contribute to these – the most meaningful of rituals for the most meaningful of traditions.

To be in a position to lead people in song and celebration for fundamental expressions of their faith… or to be part of a family’s annual tradition of going to the symphony on the third Saturday in December… It’s pretty amazing when you think about it.

And, yes, it’s exhausting… but there’s something about being a contribution, right?  There are many scholars who will tell you that’s the greatest antidote to depression: to find a way to contribute to society in a meaningful way.

Here’s the thing: Even if you’re not performing yourself this season, think about the number of students you’ve equipped this month to go play for their concerts and services and family singalongs.

Maybe you’ve prepared students to go play for grandma this week. Maybe you gave them a holiday performance that will live in their memories forever.  Maybe you introduced them to a beautiful carol they haven’t otherwise encountered.

We can’t escape meaningful music this time of year, and we, as teachers of music, are playing an essential role in continuing these traditions for generations to come.

Regardless of your faith tradition, it’s going to be hard to get through the week of Christmas without hearing music with meaning.

This is all the more reason to check in with ourselves and the experience we’re providing to our students. Learning an instrument is so much more than a series of achievements. It’s not about completing a sequence of books or being able to perform passages at specific metronome markings.

As music teachers, we have the opportunity to be part of one of life’s greatest legacies. It’s bigger than us. It’s bigger than our method series of choice. It’s bigger than studio policies and practice habits and festival ratings and recital attendance… all the things that occupy our brains all-too-easily…

I hope you’ll pay attention to the music around you this week. The music you create, the music you consume, and the music you helped coach. Take it all in: the sacred, the secular, all of it. Reconnect with what really matters about this artform and why we fell in love with it in the first place.

And, I guess that’s the toast I would leave you with today, friends:  May we pay attention to the magic of the music all around us this week. May we repent from making it something other than it’s meant to be. This is me, raising my glass to you, friends. Hear, hear.

From the bottom of my heart, friends, I wish you a holiday season of great comfort and great joy. Take what you need this week. Whether you’re looking for peace, joy, answers, or whatever… I pray it finds you in just the right way this week. Blessings to you and yours as we truly travel onward and upward this week.