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Episode 245: Cheers to Being On the Right Side of Music

Well, hello there teacher friends!  Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast. Christina Whitlock here, your Anytime Piano Teacher Friend. The month of January is off to an unpredictable start here in my world and I’m just glad to be with you today.  If you’re new around here, WELCOME: Beyond Measure is your place for teacher camaraderie each week and I’m grateful you’re part of it. This show is ad-free because of my terrific crew of SuperFriends over on Patreon, so if you are glad you don’t have to listen to me talk about my new favorite fish oil supplement (that I may or may not actually use), you have my SuperFriends to thank for that.  I’d love to have your support, too, so if you’re not already part of that crew,  the link to join is in the shownotes.

And now, let’s get on with the show!  You are listening to episode 245 of the Beyond Measure Podcast, Cheers to Being on the Right Side of Music.

There’s a lot of talk these days about being on the right side of history. One hundred years from now, historians are going to study the decisions we’re making today. They’re going to analyze how we treated one another, what we prioritized, and what we sacrificed for the sake of those priorities.

I – like you – want to be found on the right side of history. I want to contribute to the betterment of society, rather than its destruction.

Before you think I’m going to launch onto a political soapbox here, I’m actually going to stick to the script and offer the reminder that our work IS a way of contributing to society for the better. The way we sit with humans of all ages, establishing an environment where they are free to explore, to discover, to fail, and to try again… that is NOT a small role in society today. It’s increasingly rare and noble and valuable to our communities.

Every one of you listening to this podcast believes in the power of music. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.

We believe music makes societies a better place. We believe it builds character traits the world needs. The arts make life worth living. They’re not superfluous efforts that come after all the serious work of the world is done; they’re very much the fuel that motivates everything else.

I’ve said it a million times: I think music teachers have been quietly supporting the success of societies for generations. Our work fuels human growth in ways that should not be underestimated.

I believe this to be true. You know I do. But I’m going to take a break from being all warm and fuzzy for a moment and tell you this: not everyone teaches in a way that supports this growth.

In other words, we are not all on the right side of music.

One hundred years from now, as pedagogy students are studying the trends in teaching, what are they going to say about our time?  If they zeroed in on what’s going on in your studio, would they find you on the side of music that is contributing to its growth? Would they find you building up musicians who are better-equipped to contribute to their communities in meaningful ways? Musical and otherwise?

Or will they find teachers who perpetuated anxiety and perfectionism? Who taught students to play repertoire but didn’t understand how to make music at their instrument?  Teachers who taught students how to follow directions but without incorporating higher levels of thinking and creating?

I don’t know about you, but I want to come out on the right side of music. I know my work CAN matter in big ways. But I also know that, just because it CAN, doesn’t mean it WILL.

I have not always been on the right side of music.

There were seasons in my teaching where I cared more about how students performed than what they were learning. I have obsessed over progress and potential when my real job was to simply make music with students each week. To introduce them to the compelling art of making music.

I’ve put too much stock in festival ratings and competition placements, thinking those things were the proof I needed to know I was doing my job correctly.

I’ve chased approval from colleagues and parents and… the internet?

I’ve pretended to know things I didn’t know, because I believed I was responsible for knowing EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING.

I’ve produced students who were good sightreaders but had no clue how to jump in and play primary chords with their worship team at church.

There are SO many ways I have been on the wrong side of music. Perpetuating outdated goals and failing to see the human across from me as anything besides a piano student.

Fortunately, I’ve come a long way. Of course, there’s still PLENTY of room for improvement on my part, but here in my 30^th year of piano teaching, I have started to figure a few things out. 😊

If something is stirring inside of you as I speak… if you are wondering if YOU are on the right side of music, I want to be clear about something:

Identifying room for improvement is not a bad thing. In fact, the teachers I worry about are those who CAN’T find anything they’d like to do better in their work. To me, THAT is concerning.

Here’s something that might help:

I’m more aware than ever that we can’t help but approach situations through the lens of our own experience.  That sounds obvious – I know. But it’s really true. In SO MANY CASES – teaching, parenting, you name it – the only framework we have to work from is our experience.  If we’re not careful, we end up projecting our own assumptions and experiences onto our students.

The best thing about our job is also the worst thing about our job: no one tells us how to do it. Music lessons are entirely unregulated. We’ve all had different kinds of teachers at different stages of life. We’ve been in different environments with different skillsets and achievements. We all have unique mental and emotional baggage when it comes to music.

When it comes to how we teach, most of us began teaching in a way that was similar to how we remember being taught. Maybe we used similar resources and lesson plans. I know I started out running the same incentive program my childhood piano teacher did because – to me – that’s what a piano lesson WAS. It took awhile for me to realize there could be any other way.

And, for every TERRIFIC thing we’ve learned from our teachers, sometimes we are also limited by our own experiences. This is not our fault; it’s just how life works. But it helps to take a step back sometimes and really consider what we’re doing here.

We live in a time where SO MANY systems exist for us. Specific to teaching, we have this conventional model of a once-a-week piano lesson. We have books that sequence concepts for us.  We’ve all had lessons that we model our experience after.

These systems can be great. We are living in a time when we can benefit from the value of those who were in this profession before us. At the same time, I can’t help but imagine teaching, as a profession, was RICHER when teachers had to create their own systems. Was learning more student-led before John Thompson’s piano method hit the scene? 😊 When teachers had no choice but to innovate each lesson?

In reality, it’s always been a mixed bag, and it always will be.

There is truly no need to re-invent the wheel with each student. Some systems are incredibly beneficial. There are some, though, that have the ability to skew the lesson experience. Sometimes relying on systems leads us to believe things about our students’ abilities that aren’t true, or sometimes they allow us to venture unknowingly onto the wrong side of music.

I’ll use my own experience as a music student as an example (because, again, that’s all I know, right?)

As a STUDENT, I can tell you, there were times I was on the right side of music… and times I wasn’t.  It was a pretty predictable trajectory, really… when I was young I felt creative and amazed at the variety of ideas that could be produced with these combinations of keys.

When I was in 2^nd grade, I wrote my first composition for piano.  Even though it was far from profound, I can still feel the sense of accomplishment and thrill I had putting those harmonies together. I felt creative. But the more I “accomplished” in piano, the more I traded creative exploration for bigger repertoire. I set my sights on proving myself through building an impressive Repertoire List and left those creative pursuits in the dust.

As I hit my teenage years, and certainly through university study, music became my vehicle to prove myself as a capable and worthy human being. Many of you have been in the same boat: making music was your way to prove you could conquer difficult things.

My self-worth got wrapped up in my assessment of every lesson, every performance. My disposition for each week would ride on how my private lesson went that week. My final solo recital for my Masters degree was such a disappointment to me, I spent YEARS feeling like I didn’t actually earn that degree. I convinced myself the faculty panel just liked me too much to fail me and I didn’t deserve those new letters after my name. It sounds so silly – faculty members don’t grant degrees out of pity – and yet, even as I say those words, part of me still believes them.

And, see, friends… it’s THAT mindset that I’ve been guilty of bringing to my own teaching. There is NO performance or level of preparation that is more valuable than the time I spend making music with my students in their lesson. There is NO honor that comes from holding yourself to superhuman standards. I needed to learn that, and now I’m on a quest to make sure my students know that.

It’s not that I don’t expect my students to work hard; I do. But I also realize the students who approach their practice time with freedom and exploratory mindsets accomplish FAR MORE than those who sit on the bench feeling an underlying sense of inadequacy, failure, or shame.

When it comes to being on the right side of music, I want to be the teacher that is fostering creativity and exploration.  Because – honestly speaking – my teenaged self was sold a bill of goods. My sense of self was built around being a creative person. And I was; I did lots of theater, writing, poetry, all that stuff. I was told music was a creative outlet, and I believed it.

But the way *I* approached music?  Creativity had almost nothing to do with it.

When I think back on my ensemble experiences in school, I have similar feelings. I loved being a band and a choir kid. But my takeaways were largely all about working hard so we could perform well at the next concert or the next evaluative event.

And while none of those things were BAD experiences, I don’t think I consider them being on the right side of music.

I have core memories from my teenage years where musician friends would try to get me to improvise with them or tap into more creative elements of music, and I pretty much shut down every time. That idea of experimenting at the piano became so foreign to me it was too uncomfortable to bear.

I say all this because – if we’re not careful – we pass this mindset onto our students by emphasizing achievement over all else.

…when it comes down to it, friends, of the many, MANY reasons to play music, achievement is pretty low on the list. The BENEFITS we all love to cite about studying music are not rooted in achievement. Instead, they are rooted in exploration. In critical thinking and analysis. Trial and Error. Consistency. Vulnerability. And – maybe most of all in today’s society – connection with teachers and studio mates. Those are things that keep us on the right side of music study, friends. It’s not achievement.

As I publish this episode, many teachers are planning and preparing for spring performances. Many of us have recitals and festivals and competitions on the horizon – but I really hope we can keep our priorities set on MAKING MUSIC each week and let the burdens of achievement fall where they will.

To be clear, I find merit in evaluative events and performances. Both are elements of my studio. But I will fight to the end to make sure my students see their value as a musician is MORE than those performances. That making music is MORE than opening yourself up for critique.

That’s the lesson my younger self needed to learn. I am working hard to re-capture that creative buzz my 2^nd grade self in writing that first composition. It’s hard, but I’m trying to get back there.

It’s interesting: The timing of this episode feels a little serendipitous because the piano teacher community lost a GIANT last week. Marvin Blickenstaff is a name synonymous with warmth and wisdom and artistry. If you ever had the pleasure of hearing Marvin speak or play, you know he prioritized the beauty of making music over all things. He is quoted as saying, “If you can’t go beyond just merely playing the notes, then there’s no justification for playing.”

The legacy of Marvin Blickenstaff here in the U.S. is comparable only to the great Frances Clark (my queen).

If you want to talk about someone who was on the right side of music? That was Marvin. He was proof that you can achieve high-levels of playing while still prioritizing the well-being of the student in front of you. He radiated joy and love for this profession in a way few others do. So – while I already had the bulk of this episode written before I learned of his death – it seems so cosmically fitting to tackle this today.

Marvin was known for telling teachers, at the end of each lesson, ask yourself: Did we make music today? The answer should ALWAYS be yes.

Sure, our lessons will also feature moments of correction and determining what work is “passed” and what is not… but don’t let that distract you from the REAL work at hand: making music with your students.

So, friends… as you ponder how YOU are going to find yourselves on the right side of music this year, I will offer up a toast for all of us.

Studio Music Teacher Friends from all around the world:  I realize I’m preaching to the proverbial choir on this one. You wouldn’t be listening to this show if you didn’t want to prioritize the humans that sit on the bench across from you. May we all take these words as an invitation to examine the systems and expectations we work under. May we exercise discernment and creative thinking to make sure these systems are serving our students in the ways we want them to. I’m raising my glass for all of us, building better community members one lesson at a time.  Hear, hear, my friends!

Ah… it’s so good to be back.  If you’re listening in real time, you may have noticed I’ve been absent the last few weeks. Sometimes real life gets in the way of my fun and things like the podcast have to take a back seat.  January is typically the month where I see the most podcast downloads, so it hurt my pride a little to miss those weeks, but I trust this podcast will find the ears that need to hear it.

If you found today’s episode helpful in any way, please consider sharing it with a friend or teacher group.  YOUR recommendations are exponentially more effective than any promo I can do. Thanks in advance for helping more people find the show. And if you’re looking for more, head to ChristinaWhitlock.com and you’ll find all kinds of things I’ve put together for teachers.

Thanks again for being here! I hope your week is looking bright.  Onward and upward as we ALL find ourselves on the right side of music.