My Daughter's Music Teacher is Leaving!

My Daughter's Music Teacher is Leaving!

We are losing my daughter Emery’s teacher this month to a performance schedule with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.  Her teacher has been with us for over 3 years, but more recently started teaching my daughter piano and voice.

I am NOT going to lie, I am still in mourning about this.  I felt like lessons were magical and Emery absolutely loved coming to lessons (she calls it her “Yessons”)  She says,

“Take me to my Yesson daddy”  and “there’s my teacher... I like.”  

They sing songs from the Frozen soundtrack and I hear “let it go, let it go” for another few days after her lesson.  I am surprised I can continue to keep hearing that song every day but it reminds me how much joy she is having sharing music with her teacher. 

I thought to myself, what could I do…..bribe, beg, (I am not too proud to beg...ha), guilt trip (seriously just a thought).

No really these thoughts all crossed my mind, and full disclosure after 15 years of teaching music, I have probably tried them all.  

My realization:  my daughter loves music and the fact is, when her teacher leaves, the love of music will not leave with her.  In fact there are over 50+ instructors that will have memories and magical aha moments that will make me proud of her and grateful for her new instructor or instructors.

I have seen this with my son Greyson. He's had multiple music teachers and after asking him which one he likes the most, he said “he likes all of them differently.”

50+ Instructors I have hired personally

We have a 5 step interview process, background check and reference check.  We double check the following:

Do they love children?

Do they enjoy serving and helping people?

If I poke them and pull their hair, do they get mad?(Jk)  

What do their references say, specifically people they worked for?

Are they wired for teaching?  

How do they take correction?  (Big one, it points out ability to be teachable themselves and can they grow themselves)

Do I enjoy talking to them, if I do then others will feel the same.  

Do they fit with our community, birds of a feather ya know.

We have teachers here with 13 years on Team Soul

Some of our teachers have been here for 13 years, and many for 2 to 5 years.  Watching all these wonderful teachers over the years really devote themselves to helping these students gives confidence that everyone here can help my kids learn music.

In fact the old African proverb that says, “it takes a village,”  is in regard to multiple mentors, teachers and wisdom helping children along in life and of course music lessons as well.

There is real value in having the perspective of different teachers with different strengths, I know it for myself and all the many teachers I had that helped me learn piano.  

Experts actually suggest having multiple Teachers 

In a study conducted by The University of British Colombia they asked 924 students across different faculties their opinion on having multiple teachers for the same module. The findings from this study were that students felt that ‘multiple instructors working together can be especially effective at meeting high level learning goals’ (Jones and Harris, 2012) proving that different teachers are beneficial for the students.

ANY EXPERT in a field would note they achieved success through many advisors and coaches. There’s a true benefit to multiple teachers in the long run of their music pursuits. Because we choose instructors who are touring musicians, or working on high level music degrees or playing in local orchestras, scheduling can sometimes be difficult but

Secret Lesson Creative Soul is really teaching….shhhh

Overcoming challenges is really what we want our students to learn.  If they can learn to overcome changes, challenges and fears of the unknown then they have the ability to overcome anything, any obstacle and achieve any goal.  This is a growth mindset, and this is what I want for my kids as well as myself.

The growth mindset is the secret lesson we are really wanting to teach here at Creative Soul.  But shhhh... don't tell anyone.  Its a secret.

• Jones, F. & Harris, S (2012) ‘Benefits and drawbacks of using multiple instructors to teach single courses’, 60, pp. 132-139.