No More Saturdays...

Merci de Nathan!   (Nathan speaks French!)

Au Revoir!
Today was my last "teaching" Saturday...ever...well for at least a year or two!   

I predominantly teach classes at my studio and over the past few years, my private teaching schedule has grown...and grown...and grown...and taken over my evenings and much of Saturday and any little pockets of time in between classes.   

I decided that next year I wanted to carve out a little more family time in my schedule so I would let go of my evening and weekend teaching schedule and most of my private students.

 

Nathan playing and singing his good-bye song for me. 

 

Nathan's good-bye was one of the sweetest good-byes, especially considering he didn't even like music before he started his lessons with me in January.

Mom wanders in to Musicalia...
I met his mom just before Christmas when she wandered into my studio looking for donations for her youngest daughter's preschool fund raising auction.  I donated private lesson time.

She told me that both her husband and herself had taken lessons as children and didn't want that experience for their children.  After speaking with me and my philosophy about music for children she decided to bid on my gift of lessons.  She won the bid and after Christmas we started lessons with her 7 year old son, Nathan.

Nathan's love of music has a chance to sprout...
It's been pretty spectacular to watch this little boy's lights literally turn on as he sits at the piano.  He has realized how easy it is to make music and have fun doing it.  

He told his mom to tell me that he never liked music at school before he met Susan, but now that I've been his teacher, he is even is beginning to like music at school. 

He figured it out on his own!
What is so amazing to me is we only had time to experiment with writing chords for the left hand. (I call them "bridges" and "buddy notes".)  His lessons were only 15 minutes long so we really had little time to write much!

He did learn to read some treble clef, but we didn't have time to try writing melodies at all. 

His mom drew a 5-line staff for him and he figured out how to write this little tune and play it all on his own.  Honestly, I hope a traditional music teacher doesn't get hold of him!    He has so much creativity and natural talent that traditional methods might curb his enthusiasm. 

Thank YOU, Nathan!  It's been a blessing to be your music teacher:)