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Episode 251: Cheers to Lessons Learned Only Through Experience

Well hello, my studio teacher friends!  Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast. My name is Christina Whitlock, and I hang out here in your podcast app of choice, ready to offer a bit of teacher solidarity any time you need it.  That’s why I call myself your Anytime Piano Teacher Friend!  I don’t know about you – but I need all the Teacher Friends I can get. I think it’s because I did this teaching thing alone and on my own for SO LONG and now I make it a point to collect ALL the teacher friends I can get.

Speaking of collecting friends – if you plan on attending the MTNA National Conference in Chicago, PLEASE make sure you stop me and say hello. I promise I want to meet you. I’ll be presenting a session on Pedagogy Saturday alongside Sara Cambell and Marie Lee. We’re talking about recruitment and retention strategies BEYOND word-of-mouth. I hope to see you there.

If you’re not attending MTNA this year and you’re jealous about missing out on opportunities to learn alongside other teachers, make sure you’re on my Piano Teacher Confessions email list because I’ll be sharing a special discount on my recorded sessions later this week to help all of you with MTNA FOMO.

Okay. That’s all the business I have for you today; let’s get on with the show!  You are listening to episode 251 of the Beyond Measure Podcast.

I feel the need to clear the air today… because there seems to be a recurring theme in a lot of the work I do with teachers these days. I want to talk today about the advantages that come with experience.

Sometimes, it’s easy for younger or less-experienced teachers to listen to people like me and expect to see the same results and studio relationships.

It’s kind of like when young adults are shopping for their first homes. Oftentimes, they want all the things their parents have. They want upgraded appliances and beautiful kitchens and lots of space. But they forget their parents didn’t start off with those homes.

I believe there’s something to be said for having to make the most of a humble starter home. Trying to make a simple or dated space look beautiful? You learn a lot in that process. I think you really learn to clean in an older home. You also appreciate each new piece of furniture that isn’t a hand-me-down. You learn your own sense of style.  It’s like paying your dues in the home ownership department.

Today, I want to be very clear, friends: I have paid my dues in the Piano Teacher Department.  I’ve been teaching for over 30 years now. That’s, like, 70% of my life.

I’ve made all the mistakes.  I went from having zero studio policy to one that was WAY too long.

I’ve had to do the hard work of phasing out bad policies several times over and dealing with families who took advantage of me. I’ve had disrespectful students and disrespectful studio parents.

I’ve sworn by teaching methods that now make me CRINGE.

I’ve tried pretending like I knew it all. I’ve tried to position myself above or against other local teachers.

I’ve been too lenient, and I’ve been too strict.

I’ve taken students’ lack of practice time personally. I’ve shaken my fist at team sports and European vacations and birthday parties all because I thought they messed with my students’ dedication to piano lessons.

I’ve assigned music that was too hard. Many times over.

I’ve communicated poorly. I’ve laid awake in bed at night worried about whether students or parents liked me.

I’ve been in seasons where every single penny counted. One student dropping lessons felt like an insurmountable financial hit, and I *never* felt like I could afford to take time off.

I’ve felt like I had to bend over backwards to keep everyone happy.

I’ve undervalued what I bring to the table. I’ve questioned every ability I have.

I’ve been too nice. Too afraid to offer corrections my students really needed.

I’ve been afraid to make mistakes in front of my students. I’ve also been afraid to explore things that felt unfamiliar to me.

I’ve made decisions out of fear, rather than hope.

I’ve overestimated AND underestimated the role of money in what I do.

I’ve felt like everyone was analyzing my every word and every move, when they really weren’t paying attention to me at all.

I could go on all day, friends, but suffice to say: I’ve dealt with A LOT of stuff to get to the point where I am today.

Today, I have a studio that is highly in-demand. My students almost never choose to leave me before graduating high school. I recently had a parent offer to homeschool her kids if it meant getting them a spot in the studio.  I can’t make this stuff up.

I have studied the piano repertoire – both historical and modern pedagogical – to a point where I can confidently match students with just the right literature to study, without assigning the same materials week in and week out.  I am confident enough with my approach to teaching reading that I’ve been leading 50 teachers through my process for the last 9 weeks and the feedback has been AMAZING.

(Shoutout to those of you in the Building Better Music Readers course!)

I’m confident that I’m nurturing players who can encounter a piano in the wild and DO SOMETHING with it. Whether they have their music books with them or not.

I have no doubt I am making my community a better place by helping my students become better thinkers and more sensitive listeners.

I guess I just want to remind those of you who are newer to studio teaching: it really does take TIME.  Believe me; you have a BIG advantage over me because I was teaching for many years before I got any real mentoring on the subject. I love the wealth of opportunities we can learn from experienced teachers now.

…I just want to remind you today that – much like learning our instruments – this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Of course, we’ll always be learning. Our studios will always be fluctuating in one way or another. We are all one phone call away from a totally different reality. We never know what life has in store for us next.

I said this all the way back in episode no. 3 of this show, but I wish I could go back to the recitals I hosted when my studio felt small. I wish I could enjoy the newness of it all. Instead, I worried that I didn’t look professional enough because my students were all beginners. In my mind, recital day was all about me…when it wasn’t actually about me AT ALL.

So, friends… whether you are newer on this Teaching Journey, or if you’ve been in it with me for a long time, I hope you can take a moment today and appreciate how you’ve grown thus far… and how you’ll continue to grow from here.

On that note, let’s grab the nearest glass and toast our way out of here!

Studio music teacher friends from all around the world – I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow, I guess I became a voice of experience. I started off as a 14-year old piano teacher who knew absolutely nothing, but I got curious about the human condition real quick, kept at it, got a good education, put in a lot of work, a lot of trial and error, and here I am. That’s my story – but you have one of your own. And THAT’S what I’m toasting today. Cheers to YOU for YOUR story. Whether you’ve reached a point of contentment in your studio teacher life or if you’re still working towards those goals, I’m here with you, cheering you on. Hear hear, my friend!

Well, thanks for letting me get that one off my chest, friends. I hope you can take a deep breath today and remember – some things just take TIME, and building a successful studio with policies you love, with an instructional approach you love, with confidence that you are making the best possible decisions for the current season? That stuff only gets better. Experience is a gift. But we all have to earn it. There are no shortcuts through life’s hardest lessons.

Until next week, friends!  Onward and upward we go, gaining little bits of experience every day.